SCIENCE: Death Anxiety Likely Cause of Belief in Intelligent Design

[Kenny]

Why do people have such a hard time understanding something so completely simple?

My point exactly!!!

I was wondering where you were. Hope all is well with you,

 

[Hockeycowboy]

.....because reason says if there are natural laws, "there must be a law giver" (Rabbi Hirsch)

That's good reasoning.

Reminds me of Job 38:33....
"Do you know the laws of the heavens?
Can you set up God’s dominion over the earth?"

 

[Subduction Zone]

For all the reasons that have been previously noted. Inability to refine all nuances.

Sorry, not an answer. Try again.

At best you demonstrated a lack of understanding either IR or the theory of evolution.

 

[Thief]

"Research conducted at the University of British Columbia and Union College found that people's death anxiety was associated with support of intelligent design and rejection of evolutionary theory.

Death anxiety also influenced those in the study to report an increased liking for Michael Behe, a prominent proponent of intelligent design, and an increased disliking for Richard Dawkins, a well-known evolutionary biologist.

The findings suggest that people are motivated to believe in intelligent design and doubt evolutionary theory because of unconscious psychological motives.

The study was lead by UBC Psychology Assistant Professor Jessica Tracy and and UBC psychology PhD student Jason Martens. It was published in the March 30 issue of the open access journal PLoS ONE.

"Our results suggest that when confronted with existential concerns, people respond by searching for a sense of meaning and purpose in life," Tracy said. "For many, it appears that evolutionary theory doesn't offer enough of a compelling answer to deal with these big questions."
source and more

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Considering the common motivation behind religious faith, it certainly makes sense to me.

.

nah.....I reject the whole of the op

I would split the line between people who believe in the hope of an afterlife
and the people who have no hope at all

then notice who is anxious about dying and who isn't

besides......all of humanity is a complete mystery without a Creator AS the designer
a mystery without a Cause , or purpose......or resolve

 

[Kenny]

Sorry, not an answer. Try again.

At best you demonstrated a lack of understanding either IR or the theory of evolution.

Another goal post move

 

[MonkeyFire]

Evolution and creation are bunked together by singular eternity.

 

[Skwim]

besides......all of humanity is a complete mystery without a Creator AS the designer
a mystery without a Cause , or purpose......or resolve

So you're saying that to do away with this mystery it's perfectly logical to posit a designer, supporting evidence or not?

.

 

[osgart]

Everyones got their end all be all logic that they consider authority. Refuted, next fallacy! And on they go. But nothing has to necessarily follow on either side. Reality defies all reasoning.

I think its kind of funny how people so arrogantly claim infallibility or authority on all matters of logic.

Bunch of slam dunk wannabes.

 

[Thief]

So you're saying that to do away with this mystery it's perfectly logical to posit a designer, supporting evidence or not?

.

Cause and effect.....

the effect is all around you
and your portion allows you to realize.....you are part of this creation
(you are not your own handiwork)

 

[Axe Elf]

Tell me how do you tell whether your version of God is moral or not?

By definition. I define God as being omnibenevolent.

 

[Axe Elf]

Then again, the morality of the "god" I've read about in the Bible suggests that he thought it a pretty good idea to kill women and children, but save virgin girls for yourself -- for whatever purpose you might care to imagine. I do believe I have seen propositions that I would consider to be at least slightly more moral than that.

That's probably because you've made human life and human dignity the standard for your morality.

 

[oldbadger]

The findings suggest that people are motivated to believe in intelligent design and doubt evolutionary theory because of unconscious psychological motives.................................

"Our results suggest that when confronted with existential concerns, people respond by searching for a sense of meaning and purpose in life," Tracy said.........................................
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Considering the common motivation behind religious faith, it certainly makes sense to me..

Not a very strong case for these researchers, I'm afraid. I would love to learn more about the researchers' religiosity.

Featured by a left-wing journal, this report clearly seeks to weld Thanataphobia to a need for religion, whereas other tests show that these bunnies have placed the cart before the horse!

''Other studies have found a strong sense of religion in a person’s life can be related to a lower sense of anxiety towards death. Although there has been no association discovered between religiosity and death anxiety, it has also been shown that death anxiety tends to be lower in individuals who regularly attend religious meetings or gatherings.''
Death anxiety (psychology) - Wikipedia

And so, far from phobics rushing to religion for relief from such fears, it's more to do with Religious people simply not being quite so worried about Death, which of course makes absolutely logical common sense.

 

[Axe Elf]

I know a better way to decide right from wrong..

I'm sure you have faith that you do, but it's really kind of silly to hear the created telling the creator that he's found a better way.

I don't know which god you call God, but if it's the god of the Christian Bible, then it is judged morally wanting.

Like I said originally, it's more likely that your "better" way is what will be judged to lack moral validity--but hey, enjoy banging your little gavel at God while you still can.

Yes, that blasphemy and an outrage to some believers, but nevertheless, if you drown most oof the world because you mmade a mistake, or build a torture chamber and staff it with demons just to keep people alive after death to suffer, or toy with the life of a man to entertain a demon, of fail to explicitly condemn rape and slavery, then you are not moral by my reckoning.

Yeah, well, again, your reckoning doesn't carry much weight in the court of the King. You're an ant condemning a man for stepping on your wife--before the other shoe falls, anyway.

But hey, if it helps you feel better, the torture chamber staffed by demons--and people kept alive after death to suffer--is not Biblical.

Is that a good moral theory?

Good? It's the best. It's perfect.

 

[Mindmaster]

Then apparently you don't understand one of them, or perhaps both.

.

I do, I just don't think a combination of design/creationism/evolution cannot be both right to some degree. But, hey, just my opinion I'm not saying that talking point for talking point I agree with either notion completely. For example, ridiculous arguments like the dinosaurs never existed and God just put the bones in the ground, etc. Or, the other one I've heard about man and dinosaurs living at the same time.

 

[Subduction Zone]

By definition. I define God as being omnibenevolent.

So what? That does not mean that God is omnibenevolent. You just added a deeper burden of proof upon your claims. God could be an evil being, an indifferent being, or even your benevolent one. The God of the Bible is clearly not omnibenevolent, you are merely making up your own version of God.

 

[Mindmaster]

As far as being born with death since birth, what is natural is to want to live.
We all have ' eternity ' in our hearts. For each day we can think of we can think of the next.
For each number we can count we can add another, counting both forwards or backwards.

I find it amusing to some extent on this point that even the die-hard of atheists seem to buy into the delusion of eternity in this regard. We live our lives never really worrying about our deaths until some event prompts us to worry about these things. But, one has to question why we intrinsically feel this way until we have an opportunity to cavil about it. I tend to believe that we know the truth of it in our hearts rather than believing we all delude ourselves on the issue. If this wasn't the case to some extent we'd probably behave very differently and never do anything dangerous to our bodies. We're born without any notion or fear of our deaths or even the idea that we're going to have that happen. Perhaps, that is a more interesting discussion...

Whatever we call ourselves, or whatever ideas we embrace in this realm we are happy to pretend that death isn't coming until we have an experience where it might have.

 

[sayak83]

You can believe in theistic evolution. I'm not sure why this is so ignored. It's not some either or thing.

I believe that would be included in the evolution group.

 

[sayak83]

I disagree, now some religion is clearly evil. The "Islam" (scare quotes since clearly all Muslims do not practice this version of their beliefs) that leads to suicide bombing is evil. The "Hinduism" (again not all Hindus) that lead to Sati or widow burning is evil. The Christianity the causes them to try to teach the creationist and other myths of the Old Testament is an evil.

And though there are many bright people in those groups their beliefs in particular areas keeps them from being bright in those areas.

You are right now guilty of the sin that you accuse others of.

And "atheism" that leads to gulags is evil. And "evolution" that leads to racist theories and eugenics is evil.

Is there any objective evidence that atheist worldviews are less vulnerable to be corrupted to evil ends than religious ones?

 

[Mindmaster]

That's the doing of the religious. Science makes no comment on religion and is not at war with it, but many of the religious felt threatened by science and began opposing it beginning with Darwin. Now we read about how the scientists are trying to exclude the creationists by conspiring to keep their research out of respected scientific journals and starve them for research dollars. There's the battle.

I just think fundamentally both ideas could be completely true. We can study the manifestations and learn about them, but we still can have a 'creator' though stating it exists as a father-type personage is simply projecting anthropomorphic context on something that likely could never be known in that fashion. However, we should never fear research even in a religious context - the more we know about our existence the more we get to understand the creative force.

 

[Subduction Zone]

And "atheism" that leads to gulags is evil. And "evolution" that leads to racist theories and eugenics is evil.

Is there any objective evidence that atheist worldviews are less vulnerable to be corrupted to evil ends than religious ones?

Yep, any idea can be abused. The point was the Dawkins was not attacking all religion.

Right now it can be shown that in Europe at least the more atheistic a country is the more "ideal" it's living conditions are. In the U.S. by almost any reasonable measure of morality (believing or not believing in a god is morally neutral for example) the average atheist out performs the average Christian. Far less atheists in prison, lower divorce rates, lower out of wedlock child birth rates, etc..