http://www.uiowa.edu/~grpproc/crisp/crisp15_3.pdf
They told individuals in different groups that:
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Condition 1: Participants read that 25% of the American public believes in ESP and that the scientific community rejects the possibility of ESP.
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Condition 2: Participants read that over 90% of the American public believes in ESP and that the scientific community rejects the possibility of ESP.
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Condition 3: Participants read that 25% of the American public believes in ESP and that the scientific community is becoming more open to the possibility of ESP.
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Condition 4: Participants read that 90% of the American public believes in ESP and that the scientific community becoming more open to the possibility of ESP.
People were much more likely to accept ESP based on it's supposed popularity. And when they were told that science rejects it vs. accepts it, they were more likely to accept ESP when told that science rejects it. So they went against the scientific consensus of ESP.
So I feel that this applies to religion as well, because most of the people on this forum probably think that they and others arrived at their position as a result of rational arguments, when in reality people's beliefs are much more arbitrary. They are largely based on societal and social pressures.
Now, there are many ways in which society and it's conformists pressure people to be religious. To list a few: if you don't believe you roast alive for eternity in hell, if you don't believe you won't get anything for christmas (yes this is used), if you don't believe you can't be a good person, if you don't believe your parents will be disappointed in you, etc. There are many of these.
However, there are virtually no social pressures to become an atheist. Atheism/atheists don't threaten those who are theistic with eternal torture, it doesn't tell you that you are a bad person if you are a theist, it doesn't tell anyone that their parents will be disappointed in them if they grow up to not be atheists. Etc.
The differences in social pressures between theism and atheism are vast, and given the results of this study, could be one of the major reasons that theism is more popular throughout the world. This is also to suggest, that religions with less/absent of social pressures are much, much less likely to survive than religions that
apply social pressure.
This is supported by the fact that two religions with the most pressures involved (sociably accepted amounts of pressure to join the religion, threats in holy books if you
aren't of the religion, etc.) are Islam and Christianity - the most popular religions in the world.
If the social pressures were subtracted from religion there would not be much left. It's my opinion that the majority of the world could be characterized as non-religious, if this were the case. It seems in general, people are destined from birth to form and conform their beliefs in such a way that getting the least amount of flak is the absolute highest priority...with scientific evidence and rational thought being much less important.
This is very disheartening to me.
Last edited by rizeagainst; 05-31-2010 at 04:13 AM.