Human beings are naturally predisposed to believe in religion and
life after death, according to a major three-year international study.
The €2.1M 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.
But people living in cities in highly developed countries were less
likely to hold religious beliefs than those living a more rural way of
life, the researchers found.
The project involved 57 academics in 20 countries around the world,
and spanned disciplines including anthropology, psychology, and
philosophy.
One of the studies, from Oxford, concluded that children
below the age of five found it easier to believe in some “superhuman”
properties than to understand human limitations.
Children were asked whether their mother would know the contents of a
closed box.
Three-year-olds believed that their mother and God would
always know the contents, but by the age of four, children start to
understand that their mothers were not omniscient.
However, children may continue to believe in all-seeing, all-knowing
supernatural agents, such as a God or Gods into adult life.
Experiments involving adults, conducted by Jing Zhu from Tsinghua
University (China), and Natalie Emmons and Jesse Bering from The Queen's
University, Belfast, suggest that people across many different cultures
instinctively believe that some part of their mind, soul or spirit
lives on after-death.
Professor Roger Trigg, from the University of Oxford's Ian Ramsey
Centre, said, "This project suggests that religion is not just something
for a peculiar few to do on Sundays instead of playing golf. We have
gathered a body of evidence that suggests that religion is a common fact
of human nature across different societies.”
"This suggests that attempts to suppress religion are likely to be
short-lived as human thought seems to be rooted to religious concepts,
such as the existence of supernatural agents or Gods, and the
possibility of an afterlife or pre-life."
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.
They directed an
international body of researchers conducting studies in 20 different
countries that represented both traditionally religious and atheist
societies.
The findings are due to be published in two separate books by psychologist Dr Barrett in Cognitive Science, Religion and Theology and Born Believers: The Science of Childhood Religion.
The studies demonstrate that people are natural 'dualists' finding it
easy to conceive of the separation of the mind and the body.
Project Director Dr Justin Barrett, from the University of Oxford's
Centre for Anthropology and Mind, said, "This project does not set out
to prove God or Gods exist. Just because we find it easier to think in a
particular way does not mean that it is true in fact. If we look at
why religious beliefs and practices persist in societies across the
world, we conclude that individuals bound by religious ties might be
more likely to cooperate as societies.”
"Interestingly, we found that religion is less likely to thrive in
populations living in cities in developed nations where there is already
a strong social support network."