How We Believe_ Science and the Search for God - Michael Shermer [164]
Click here The difference between the two correlations, r = .46 and r = .63, is significant (z = 4.82, p < .0001).
Click here What follows is a list of the reasons skeptics say they (a) believe in God, (b) do not believe in God, and (c) why they think other people believe in God, in order of the number of responses given in the written portion of the survey. Answers have been grouped under a summary response that represents a paraphrasing of the originals.
WHY SKEPTICS BELIEVE IN GOD
1. Good design/natural/beauty/perfection/complexity of the world or universe (29.2 percent).
2. It is comforting, relieving, consoling, gives meaning and purpose to life (21.3%).
3. Experience of God in everyday life/God is in us (14.4 percent).
4. Just because/faith/need to believe in something (11.4 percent).
5. Without God there would be no morality (6.4 percent).
6. The Bible says so (5.5 percent).
7. The universe is God (4.0 percent).
8. Raised to believe in God (3.0 percent).
9. God has a plan for the world, history, destiny, and us (3.0 percent).
10. To account for good and avenge evil in the world (.10 percent).
Cumulative total: 99.1 percent. Other answers included “God answers prayers.”
WHY SKEPTICS THINK OTHER PEOPLE BELIEVE IN GOD
1. It is comforting, relieving, consoling, gives meaning and purpose to life (21.5 percent).
2. Need to believe in an afterlife/fear of death and the unknown (17.8 percent).
3. Lack of exposure to science/lack of education/ignorance (13.5 percent).
4. Raised to believe in God (11.5 percent).
5. Good design of the world/natural beauty/perfection/ complexity (8.8 percent).
6. Culture is religious (7.2 percent).
7. Social/need for community (5 percent).
8. Brainwashed (4.5 percent).
9. Genetics/evolution (4.1 percent).
10. Just because/faith/need to believe in something (2.1 percent).
Cumulative total: 96.0 percent. Other answers included “I don’t know,” “religion is a meme virus,” “to account for good and avenge evil in the world,” and “schizophrenic/mad/nuts.”
WHY SKEPTICS DO NOT BELIEVE IN GOD
1. There is no proof for God’s existence (37.9 percent).
2. There is no need to believe in God (13.2 percent).
3. It is absurd to believe in God (12.1 percent).
4. God is unknowable (8.3 percent).
5. Science provides all the answers we need (8.3 percent).
6. The Problem of Evil: pain, suffering, children dying, wars, holocausts, genocides, etc. (7.0 percent).
7. God is a product of the mind and culture (4.0 percent).
8. God is just another explanation for uncertainties and the unknown (3.1 percent).
9. God and religion are just a means of social control (2.4 percent).
10. Religion is bad for society, history, religious wars, religious crimes, etc. (2.1 percent).
Cumulative total: 99.4 percent. Other answers included “God is a product of primitive beliefs transferred to us,” and “the burden of proof is on believers to prove God, not on us to disprove God.”
Click here The correlation between religiosity and being raised religiously is r = .17 (N = 2084, t = 6.06, p < .0001 ).
Click here The correlation between religiosity and gender is r = .17 (N = 2084, t = 8.55, p < .0001).
Click here The correlation between religiosity and parents’ religiosity is r = .12 (N = 2084, t = 4.03, p < .0001).
Click here The negative correlation between religiosity and education (as one goes up the other goes down) is r = -.17 (N = 2084, t =–8.05, p < .0001).
Click here The negative correlation between religiosity and age (as one goes up the other goes down) is r =–.08 (N = 2084, t =–3.68, p < .0001).
Click here The negative correlation between religiosity and parental conflict is r =–.10 (N = 2084, t =–4.86, p < .0001).
Click here For the interaction between parental religiosity and parental conflict, as they relate to religious doubt, the partial correlation is r = .08 (N = 926, t = 2.36, p < .01); controlled for the two main effects.
Click here For the interaction between attending church when growing up and parental