Religious belief is human nature, huge new study claims
By Richard Allen Greene, CNN
5/12/2011/12:46 P.M. ET
London (CNN) – Religion comes naturally, even instinctively, to human beings, a massive new study of cultures all around the world suggests.
“We tend to see purpose in the world,” Oxford University professor Roger Trigg said Thursday. “We see agency. We think that something is there even if you can’t see it. … All this tends to build up to a religious way of thinking.”
Trigg is co-director of the three-year Oxford-based project, which incorporated more than 40 different studies by dozens of researchers looking at countries from China to Poland and the United States to Micronesia.
Studies around the world came up with similar findings, including widespread belief in some kind of afterlife and an instinctive tendency to suggest that natural phenomena happen for a purpose.
“Children in particular found it very easy to think in religious ways,” such as believing in God’s omniscience, said Trigg. But adults also jumped first for explanations that implied an unseen agent at work in the world, the study found. …
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It’s natural to believe in God: Oxford study
Press Trust Of India
5/12/2011/03:06 P.M. IST
London: Human beings have natural tendencies to believe in God and life after death, according to a three-year international research project directed by two academics at the University of Oxford.
The 1.9 million pounds project involved 57 researchers who conducted over 40 separate studies in 20 countries representing a diverse range of cultures. The studies (both analytical and empirical) conclude that humans are predisposed to believe in God and an afterlife, and that both theology and atheism are reasoned responses to what is a basic impulse of the human mind, a university release said.
The researchers point out that the project was not setting out to prove the existence of God or otherwise, but sought to find out whether concepts such as Gods and an afterlife appear to be entirely taught or basic expressions of human nature.
‘The Cognition, Religion and Theology Project’ led by Dr Justin Barrett, from the Centre for Anthropology and Mind at Oxford University, drew on research from a range of disciplines, including anthropology, psychology, philosophy, and theology. – More here
Strange that these study findings on human instincts just came out being that I was studying a certain aspect of human instincts yesterday, to prove Mormons wrong moreso about a certain something they claim.
How to Get to Heaven 