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Posted by on Feb 24, 2013 in Psychology, Religion | 8 comments

Psychology of Belief (the videos)

I was interviewed this past week by Seth “The Thinking Atheist” Andrews, who was interested in talking about what psychology has to say about belief. Specifically, we talked about intelligence and religion, biases, babies, and the scientific method. Check out the videos below.

This leads into my next major series of posts, which will be examining the relationship between religiosity and intelligence, based in part on work some of my students and I have done.

(EDIT – Added link to first post in series on “Intelligence & Religion”)

  • http://debunkingchristianity.blogspot.com/ John W. Loftus

    This is wonderful stuff! Thanks so much for your insights.

    • http://www.caleblack.com/ Caleb W. Lack

      I appreciate the compliment, John!

  • http://www.www.skepticink.com/tippling/ Jonathan MS Pearce

    Just tweeted this!

    • http://www.caleblack.com/ Caleb W. Lack

      Thanks for sharing, Jon!

  • http://www.skepticink.com/dangeroustalk Dangerous Talk

    Awesome videos!

  • Pingback: Intelligence & Religion (part 1) – An Introduction | Great Plains Skeptic

  • Pingback: Intelligence & Religion (part 2) – Religious Beliefs & Education | Great Plains Skeptic

  • http://twitter.com/IAmARobot0101 Louis Marti

    Excellent videos. I’m a senior undergraduate Psychology student and I’m actually conducting a correlational study comparing religiosity and cognitive style for class. While doing some background research for it I came upon this Wikipedia article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Religiosity_and_intelligence

    There is a section on studies comparing religious belief and IQ. I would be curious as to your thoughts on studies that have found differences. Do you believe they have methodological flaws?

  • Pingback: Intelligence & Religion (part 3) – Religious Beliefs among Scientists | Great Plains Skeptic

  • http://www.facebook.com/dov.henis Dov Henis

    More On Religion, Science and
    Intelligence

    _________________________________

    It takes a change
    of culture, of the mode of reactions to circumstances, to effect a change of
    habit. Genetics is the progeny of culture, not vice versa. This applies in ALL
    fields of human activities, including economics, to ALL personal and
    social behavioral aspects.

    Since the early
    1900’s ALL “science” has been taken over by the Technology Culture of the
    religious Americans, represented by the trade-union-church AAAS. Plain and
    simple. There has not been any science in the world since then except “religious-American-science”.

    On the blissful
    religious science ignorance…:

    USA-World
    Science Hegemony Is Science Blind

    Since the early
    2000s I have been posting many articles on science items surveyed and analyzed
    by me, without religious background-concepts. I have been doing this because I
    was deeply disturbed by the religiosity of the 1848-founded AAAS trade-union
    and by the consequent religious background-tint of its extensive
    “scientific” publications and activities.

    On my next birthday
    I’ll be 88-yrs old. I know that I’m deeply engaged in a Don Quixotic
    mission-war to extricate-free the USA and world Science from the clutches
    and consequences of the religious-trade-union-church AAAS, adopted strangely by
    the majority of scientifically ignorant religious god-trusting Americans and by
    their most other humanity following flocks…

    But I am sincerely
    confident that only thus it is feasible and possible to embark on a new,
    rational, Human culture (Scientism) and on new more beneficial and effective
    technology courses for humanity…

    Dov Henis (comments
    from 22nd century)

    Energy-Mass Poles
    Of The Universe

    http://universe-life.com/2012/11/14/701/

    ============================

    Decide Humanity: Scientism Or Natural Selection

    http://www.sciencemag.org/site/special/conflict/index.xhtml http://news.sciencemag.org/sciencenow/2012/05/roots-of-racism.html?ref=em

    Scientism:

    A doctrine and method characteristic of
    scientists, and the proposition that scientific doctrine and methods of
    studying natural sciences should be used in all areas of investigation and in
    conduct of politics-social-cultural-civil affairs in pursuit of an efficient
    practical, as fair as possible, civics framework.

    Natural Selection:

    All mass formats, inanimate and animate, follow
    natural selection, i.e. intake of energy or their energy taken in by other mass
    formats.

    All politics and economics, local, national and
    international, are about evolutionary biology, about Darwinian evolution, about
    survival, about obtaining and maintaining and distributing energy.

    Religion:

    is a virtual factor-component in human’s natural selection.
    Its target-function is to preserve-proliferate specific cultural phenotypes.

    Natural selection-religion are compatible with
    technology-capitalism but are obviously incompatible with science-scientism,
    that targets preservation-proliferation of the genotype.

    Science-scientism is an obvious threat to the
    survival of a cultural phenotype.

    Dov Henis (comments from 22nd century)

    Universe-Energy-Mass-Life Compilation

    http://universe-life.com/2012/02/03/universe-energy-mass-life-compilation/

    For A Scientism Culture

    http://universe-life.com/2011/06/11/for-a-scientism-culture/

    ==================================

    On
    religion-accommodating AAAS science: How can science be more theosophized
    than by regarding life-brain-mind-spirituality as being mysteriously
    apart-different from other mass formats?

    Life
    is just another mass format. Self-replicating.

    Most phenomena
    attributed (erroneously) to life only are ubiquitous, including culture,
    natural selection and (apparent) intelligence…

    Why RNA genes are
    the heart of medicine…

    Life underneath the
    academEnglish verbiage…

    Intelliget
    Life

    Life:

    self-replicating
    mass format of evolving naturally selected RNA nucleotide(s), which is life’s
    primal organism.

    Natural
    selection:

    ubiquitous
    phenomenon of material, a mass format, that augments its energy constraint.

    Mass-Energy:

    inert-moving
    graviton(s), the fundamental particle of the universe, inert extremely briefly
    at the pre-big-bang singularity .

    Intelligence:

    learning from
    experience.

    Intelligent
    Life

    Life is an evolving
    system continuously undergoing natural selection i.e. continuously selecting,
    intelligently, opportunities to augment its energy constraint in order to
    survive i.e. in order to avoid its own mass format being re-converted to
    energy.

    Dov Henis

    (comments from 22nd
    century)

    http://universe-life.com/

    PS:

    Genome is a base organism
    evolved, and continuously modified, by the genes of its higher organism as its
    functional template.

    DH

  • Pingback: Intelligence & Religion (part 4) – Religious Beliefs & Level of Intelligence | Great Plains Skeptic

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