A psychology study published in the journal Religion, Brain & Behavior provides new clues as to why some people believe in God and others don't.
A study involving 316 Americans found that religious "strong manifestations of trust" were positively associated with faith in God and religiosity.
In the course of the study, people answered questions such as: “To what extent did your parent act fairly toward others because their religion taught so?” “What role does religion play in the lives of your loved ones?” the ability to harm others because religion taught them that."
Those participants in whose life there was a religion, as a rule, had a higher confidence in the existence of God. Conversely, those participants in whose lives there are few religious manifestations, as a rule, had a higher confidence in the non-existence of God.
PsyPost asked study author Dr. Jonathan Lanman of Queen's University Belfast about the study's findings:
PsyPost: Why were you interested in this topic?
Lanman: I got interested in the reasons for who becomes a theist and who becomes an atheist in 2007 when I noticed a rather strange neighborhood. On the one hand, the previous decades have shown the rapid development of the cognitive science of religion, the purpose of which was to explain the existence of religion and preserve religious beliefs. On the other hand, the same decade saw a surge in popular publications of atheists and their groups around the world. If all the cognitive mechanisms that govern religious belief are universal, then why are we seeing such an increase in atheism?
What should the average person take away from your research?
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I think this is one of those studies in which a lot of people would say the conclusion is obvious. We have sayings such as "practice what you preach" or "actions speak louder than words." I think most people think that matching your words and your actions will make you more convincing. This study provides more solid evidence that this is indeed the case. What can be new is only how important these actions are compared to words. Actions matter more than words, but this study also shows that it is much more important to convince students of the existence of God and to explain to them why they should believe in God.
Yai Evgeniya