{"id":349,"date":"2009-10-18T21:49:00","date_gmt":"2009-10-18T20:49:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/epiphenom\/2009\/10\/when-people-stop-believing-in-god-they-go-mental.html"},"modified":"2014-11-13T18:00:46","modified_gmt":"2014-11-13T17:00:46","slug":"when-people-stop-believing-in-god-they","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/epiphenom\/2009\/10\/when-people-stop-believing-in-god-they.html","title":{"rendered":"When people stop believing in God… they go mental?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\"\"<\/a>Probably the most famous thing that GK Chesterton never said was that:<\/p>\n

When people stop believing in God, they don\u2019t believe in nothing \u2013 they believe in anything.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Even if he never did say those words, the quote clearly strikes a chord with a lot of people. The meme has legs.<\/p>\n

But is it true? A lot of people these days are moving away from traditional religions into various kinds of \u2018New Age\u2019 beliefs. Are they really more delusional than the religious \u2013 and how do they compare to atheists, for that matter.<\/p>\n

This new study comes from Queensland, Australia. They\u2019ve been following a bunch of kids since they were born in the early 80s. They were 21 years old at the last assessment \u2013 which is where these data are from.<\/p>\n

Basically, they just asked them two simple questions: \u201cDo you believe in God?\u201d (Yes\/No\/Unsure), and \u201cDo you believe in a higher power?\u201d (Yes\/No\/Unsure). This latter group they designated \u2018New Agers\u201d. They also asked them a standard battery of questions<\/a> about delusional beliefs.<\/p>\n

The good news for atheists is that they scored lower for delusional beliefs than either the religious or the New Agers.<\/p>\n

The graph up top is not particularly easy to understand! So let me talk you through it. What it shows is the relative probability (compared to atheists) of agreeing with a delusional statement for the religious and the New Agers. The probabilities are more interesting than the raw data because they are adjusted for demographic differences between the two groups (including drug use).<\/p>\n

There were 21 statements in the test \u2013 I\u2019ve pulled out all the ones where the religious were significantly worse than the atheists, plus a few more that were interesting.<\/p>\n

Overall, the New Agers were more delusional than the Religious. That was particularly true for belief in witchcraft and telepathy (not shown in the graph). But the New Agers were also more likely to think that people are not what they seem, that they are being persecuted, that electrical devices like computers can control their thoughts, and that their thoughts are \u2018echoed back\u2019.<\/p>\n

But the religious, while scoring lower overall than the New Agers (although still worse than the atheists) have their own delusions. It\u2019s probably not surprising, given the nature of their religious upbringing (an even mix of Catholics and Protestants, with a smattering of other religions), that they\u2019re more likely to believe in an imminent apocalypse and also that they are wretched sinners. Neither of these strike me as particularly healthy beliefs.<\/p>\n

Bizarrely enough, however, they also are more likely to think that things in print and on TV have been written especially for them. And, although they score lower than the New Agers, they\u2019re more likely than atheists to think that their thoughts are echoed back to them.<\/p>\n

What to make of all this? Well, this is yet another cross-sectional study, so causality is hard to pin down. Some of the differences in beliefs (apocalypse, sinning, telepathy, witches) might well be a result of the different teachings.<\/p>\n

In other words, if you drop out of organised religion but are suitably delusional, then then you might well switch to a belief in witches or telepathy.<\/p>\n

But there probably is also some self selection going on. Religion struggles to be mainstream. If you\u2019re too wacky, you may find it hard to fit in \u2013 and so end up as part of the \u2018New Age\u2019. But if you\u2019re not wacky enough, you simply transition to atheism.<\/p>\n

But what about the two delusions shared by the religious and New Agers? \u2018Thought echo\u2019 is a classic form of auditory hallucination in which you can hear your own thoughts being spoken back to you, either instantaneously or a moment or two later.<\/p>\n

Perhaps this is linked to the delusion that make people think the TV announcer is talking specially to them? Perhaps they\u2019re hearing their own thoughts in some way? Is this a pointer to a fundamental motivator for religious beliefs?<\/p>\n

Fans of Julian Jaynes\u2019 The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind<\/span> will be intrigued! (Thanks to David Holmes for reminding recently me of Jaynes\u2019 remarkable book).<\/p>\n

_______________________________________________________________________________________<\/p>\n

\"ResearchBlogging.org\"<\/a><\/span>Aird, R., Scott, J., McGrath, J., Najman, J., & Al Mamun, A. (2009). Is the New Age phenomenon connected to delusion-like experiences? Analysis of survey data from Australia. Mental Health, Religion & Culture<\/span>, 1-17 DOI: 10.1080\/13674670903131843<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

\"Creative<\/a><\/span>This work by Tom Rees<\/a> is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 UK: England & Wales License<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Probably the most famous thing that GK Chesterton never said was that: When people stop believing in God, they don\u2019t believe in nothing \u2013 they believe in anything. Even if he never did say those words, the quote clearly strikes a chord with a lot of people. The meme has legs. But is it true? […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2091,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-349","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nWhen people stop believing in God... they go mental?<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Probably the most famous thing that GK Chesterton never said was that:When people stop believing in God, they don't believe in nothing - they believe in\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/epiphenom\/2009\/10\/when-people-stop-believing-in-god-they.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"When people stop believing in God... they go mental?\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Probably the most famous thing that GK Chesterton never said was that:When people stop believing in God, they don't believe in nothing - 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