Do Atheists Secretly Believe in God
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Transcript of Do Atheists Secretly Believe in God
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Do atheists secretly
believe in God?http://www.salon.com/2013/04/27/doatheistssecretlybelievein!odpartner/A Finnish study suggests that non-believers become emotionally
aroused when daring God to harm their loved ones
BY TOM JACOBS
The heads and hearts of atheists may not be on precisely the same
page. That’s the implication of recently published research from
Finland, which finds avowed non-believers become emotionally
aroused when daring God to do terrible things.
“The results imply that atheists’ attitudes toward God are
ambivalent, in that their explicit beliefs conflict with their affective
response,” concludes a research team led by University of Helsinki
psychologist Marjaana Lindeman. Its study is published in
the International Journal for the Psychology of Religion.
Lindeman and her colleagues describe two small-scale
experiments. The first featured 17 Finns, recruited online, who
expressed high levels of belief, or disbelief, in God. They read out
loud a series of statements while skin conductance data was
collected via electrodes placed on two of their fingers.
Some of the statements were direct dares to a deity (“I dare God to make my
parents drown”). Others were similarly disturbing, but did not reference God (“It’s
OK to kick a puppy in the face”). Still others were bland and neutral (“I hope it’s
not raining today”).
The arousal levels of the believers and non-believers followed
precisely the same pattern: Higher for both the God dares and
otherwise unpleasant statements, and lower for the neutral ones.
http://www.salon.com/2013/04/27/do_atheists_secretly_believe_in_god_partner/http://www.salon.com/2013/04/27/do_atheists_secretly_believe_in_god_partner/http://www.salon.com/writer/tom_jacobs/http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/10508619.2013.771991http://www.psyko.helsinki.fi/psyko/Psykolog.nsf/Personnel/LindemanMarjaana?OpenDocumenthttp://www.salon.com/writer/tom_jacobs/http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/10508619.2013.771991http://www.psyko.helsinki.fi/psyko/Psykolog.nsf/Personnel/LindemanMarjaana?OpenDocumenthttp://www.salon.com/2013/04/27/do_atheists_secretly_believe_in_god_partner/http://www.salon.com/2013/04/27/do_atheists_secretly_believe_in_god_partner/
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Compared to the atheists, the believers reported feeling more
uncomfortable reciting the God dares. But skin conductance data
revealed the underlying emotional reactions of the two groups
were essentially the same. This suggests that taunting God made
the atheists more upset than they were letting on (even to
themselves).
Of course, perhaps it wasn’t the presence of God, but rather the
subject matter of the statements (such as the death of their parents)
that caused the atheists’ emotional arousal. The second experiment
was designed to test that hypothesis. It featured 19 Finnish atheists,
who participated in an expanded version of the first experiment. It
included 10 additional statements—variations on the God dareswhich excluded any mention of supernatural forces. For example,
in addition to “I dare God to turn all my friends against me,” they
read out loud the statement: “I wish all of my friends would turn
against me.”
The results: The atheists showed greater emotional arousal when
reading the God-related statements than while reading the
otherwise nearly identical sentences that omitted the almighty. Tothe researchers, this indicates that “even atheists have difficulty
daring God to harm themselves and their loved ones.”
“There are at least four potential explanations for these findings,”
Lindeman and her colleagues write. The simplest and most
provocative is that “atheists’ explicit beliefs may differ from the
implicit reactions that exist outside of conscious awareness.”
But other possibilities are equally plausible. Atheists “may have
found using the word God stressful because others, possibly their
friends and family, do take God seriously,” they note.
Alternatively, they may have found the idea of God “absurd or
aversive,” leading to the heightened emotional response.
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Finally, the researchers note, “although atheists did not currently
believe in God, they may have been influenced by their own
previous beliefs.” They point to research from 2006 that found
three-quarters of American atheists were once believers.
Perhaps the emotional response measured in this study is an echo
of that previous belief. If so, it suggests that even for committed
non-believers, it’s difficult to totally erase the idea of God from
one’s psyche.
http://www.amazon.com/Atheists-Groundbreaking-Study-Americas-Nonbelievers/dp/1591024137http://www.psmag.com/culture-society/do-atheists-have-deathbed-conversions-43291/http://www.psmag.com/culture-society/do-atheists-have-deathbed-conversions-43291/http://www.amazon.com/Atheists-Groundbreaking-Study-Americas-Nonbelievers/dp/1591024137http://www.psmag.com/culture-society/do-atheists-have-deathbed-conversions-43291/http://www.psmag.com/culture-society/do-atheists-have-deathbed-conversions-43291/