Error recognition impaired in religous people

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It is 8 pages long.

http://www.michaelinzlicht.com/research ... 0press.pdf

It would appear that belief in a god has a trend of negatively affecting peoples abilities to think critically. This is not a religious attack by me of any sort but just found this information interesting. It affects people in many ways actually.

What the abstract actually says is:


ie. Apparently people who believe in god are less likely to see that they have made a mistake, or that an argument is flawed, but there is no suggestion, or at least no evidence, that religious belief has this "effect".

It is simply a correlation/association, and one which may reflect how most people "come to" religious belief, through institutions, traditions, etc which they are exposed to in childhood, which most people continue to belong to out of habit etc unless other social/cultural/environmental factors ( the sort of life-experiences which may well be correlated/associated with an increased/ing sensitivity to "error" ), come into play which motivate them to question/challenge the dogma which most religious leaders/institutions use to impose conformity in belief.

I think that this study is flawed in that ( as far as I can see from the abstract and the first section of the report ) it does not compare the group of people with "strong", "great", and "zealous" religious beliefs with a group of people with equally "strong", "great" and "zealous" beliefs in Homeopathy or the American Dream or the healing power of crystals or the Republican Party or imminent Transhumanism or any other talisman/security blanket of a conceptual framework ... to see what those people's reactions to error are like.
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You put it across quite well mate. The study is essentially flawed in that respect.

This shows the same thing as you described about how a religious person may deal with potential anxiety differently.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/20 ... 160400.htm

It's an interesting study all the same because of how it explores, however crudely, the way in which beliefs, however zealously or passively held, correlate with "blindness" of some sort, to greater or lesser extent.

Their "blindfold" nature only becomes obvious when social constructs change, when the majority of people and/or society "see/perceive" the world through a shiny new and different set of beliefs, a shiny new and different framework, and even then people tend to simply think that the "old" belief was "wrong", because the new framework's equally "blindfolding" properties are not yet evident. Maintaining belief in an "out of favour"/unfashionable framework, or one that is under attack/controversial, might well correlate with extra partisanship, with all the blindness that implies. One such framework currently under attack/being exposed is "free-will".

Most people still swear by it, comfort themselves with it, would feel naked, powerless/helpless and hopeless without it, but in the same way as science managed to make it look as if belief in god must be foolish because there was no space in the physical measurable world for god, so is science now showing that there is no physical space for contra-causal free-will, ( even quantum physics would only permit random choices, out of our "I"'s control, not directed/willed ones ) and the only remaining argument for belief in free-will is that belief in it might be good for us, necessary for mental health or social structures, ( which some dispute in the same way as some people dispute that belief in god is bad for us, or a sign of weakness/bad faith! :lol ).
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I despise the idea what some "being" is influencing the world, making all kinds of bad stuff happen and doing nothing about it. So much for a loving god.

I understand what you mean about people being "blindfolded" regardless of religion. The majority of people do not think for themselves, me too a lot of the time admittedly and can fall into the trap of assumption or "blindness" sometimes. The issue starts from when we are young and being brought up in a world full of conformity. The repetitious thinking of so many culturally accepted ideas shape who we are. I believe this is totally related to Memetics.

This is a matter of opinion, but I am one of a handfull who believes we need a massive system change from the monetary system to a Resource Based Economy, similar to or perhaps the same as the ideas promoted by the Venus Project. I am also really concerned and opposed by how blind people are by the reliance on money, manipulation of consumers by corporations and how most people do not care for their own health.

I think I can quite safely say that the repetitious promotion of ideas such as those throughout peoples entire life can make it difficult (to varying degrees) to realise the insanity of it all. Recognition of error must be affected for people to think that they need to consume to be happy, they need junk food to be happy, the world needs money etc.