by Duncan Williams, Christian Today
A new study led by Dr Will Gervais, Reader in Psychology at Brunel University London, suggests that even committed atheists in some of the world’s most secular societies may intuitively favour religion over atheism.
The findings, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, challenge assumptions about the relationship between rationality and disbelief, as well as the notion that the modern world is steadily progressing into an “atheist age”.
The research tested the idea of what philosopher Daniel Dennett has called “belief in belief” – the impression that religious belief is a good thing for society, even if one does not hold such beliefs personally.
Dr Gervais and his colleagues examined this concept among around 3,800 participants from eight countries with low levels of religiosity: Canada, China, the Czech Republic, Japan, the Netherlands, Sweden, the United Kingdom and Vietnam.
Participants were asked to evaluate scenarios based on a phenomenon known as the “Knobe effect”, which has been used by experimental philosophers to assess moral judgement and perceived intentionality.