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Losing Your Religion

Discussion in 'General Baptist Discussions' started by Deacon, May 16, 2012.

  1. Deacon

    Deacon Well-Known Member
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    Losing Your Religion [LINK]
    by Marina Krakovsky | Scientific American April 26, 2012

     
  2. kyredneck

    kyredneck Well-Known Member
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    Intuition cannot explain away the marvelous proofs God has provided for us in His Word, or the Spirit that causes us to feel our need for Him.
     
  3. freeatlast

    freeatlast New Member

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    I get a couple things out of this. One is it agrees with the bible.
    Mat. 18:2-4
    And Jesus called a little child unto him, and set him in the midst of them,
    And said, Verily I say unto you, Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven.
    Whosoever therefore shall humble himself as this little child, the same is greatest in the kingdom of heaven.

    A child simply believe what they are told without doing any analytical reasoning.

    The second thing I get from it they could have saved a whole lot of money by simply believing the bible instead of doing that study. I think we see a lot of analytical beliefs even here on the BB. Instead of believing what scripture says a lot is added to it, and removed from it which renders it void, at least in the mind of the one doing it. No doubt this comes into play when discussing Cal. and non Cal beliefs as well as many other beliefs.
    The answer is to just believe what is written and don’t analytically explain it away.
     
    #3 freeatlast, May 16, 2012
    Last edited by a moderator: May 16, 2012
  4. Scarlett O.

    Scarlett O. Moderator
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    So being intuitive and being analytical are mutually exclusive? So having the participants - of which we don’t know how many there were nor their religious beliefs – were given math puzzles and the “researchers” declared that the people who got the math puzzles wrong were not analytical thinkers and were thereby more proned to be “religious” BECAUSE they missed the math puzzles?

    What puzzles me is why anyone puts any stock in this study?

    And then they were shown pictures of “The Thinker” and another statue and their preferences are supposed to be indicators of one’s religious beliefs?

    How are preferences for statues a measure of being religious?

    Who declared analysis and intuitiveness to be enemies of each other in the first place?

    Who claims that Christians cannot be analytical?

    Are they saying that critical thinking and evaluation and synthesis and analysis are NOT part of faith? There are a HOST of Christians who are very analytical. For pity’s sake, many people were saved BECAUSE of their analysis of God’s Word and declaring it in their hearts to be the Truth.
    I find the whole study to be baseless.

    I’m very analytical. When I don’t understand something – beit from the Bible, from daily life, or from my job – I study it. I analyze the context, the corresponding Bible passages or commentaries or secular authors or quality research or devout Christ people more mature than myself and I ANALYZE information.

    It’s called “studying to show thyself approved” when pertaining to God’s Word. And it’s called learning and growing as an individual and professional in the secular world.

    The study and its assertions that intuition and analysis separate the Christian from the Atheist is ridiculous.
     
  5. Deacon

    Deacon Well-Known Member
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    I thought so too.

    I thought the "tests" the article used to determine their assertions were comical.

    1) "They then showed them photos of either Rodin's The Thinker or...of the ancient Greek sculpture Discobolus.... After seeing the images, participants took a test measuring their belief in God on a scale of 0 to 100."

    2) "Another experiment ... exploited the tendency...of people to override their intuition when faced with the demands of reading a text in a hard-to-read typeface."


    It's interesting to see how this article is used on the web... some sites use it to say thinking people are not people of faith.

    It is far from the truth!
    I know some Christians who are afraid to challage their faith, they hold it so precious that they fear loosing it.

    But I know others who are not afraid to challage their beliefs and they come out with a stronger and more robust faith. Those that are challanged to reason out their faith are the strongest Christians there are.

    Rob
     
  6. DiamondLady

    DiamondLady New Member

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    The closest I come to losing my religion is this board at times
     
  7. John of Japan

    John of Japan Well-Known Member
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    Something that disproves the article and their "research" is that in virtually every case, education comes from Christians. Even now, all over the world illiterate tribes are being taught literacy and given a written language by missionaries.

    In Japan, the modern education system was founded by missionaries. It was then developed by a Christian, Inazo Nitobe. The Japanese consider Nitobe's contributions in the field of education to be so important that until lately it was his picture that was on the 5000 yen bill (one of only three bills in use, the others being the 10,000 and 1,000). This in a country where only 1% claims Christianity in any form!
     
    #7 John of Japan, May 17, 2012
    Last edited by a moderator: May 17, 2012
  8. HAMel

    HAMel Well-Known Member
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    I won't respond to the scientific findings as I don't have a clue.

    What I will respond to is that the definition of "Religion" has changed over the years. Every group now-a-days refers to themselves as "Christians". Even the Mormon crowd.

    Paul was "Religious" while on the road to Damascus and was on a mission for God! After his close encounter with Jesus, he found himself a "Christian". Ain't that neat?

    ...the scientific community. :BangHead: Sometimes they can't seem to get out of their own way.
     
  9. HeirofSalvation

    HeirofSalvation Well-Known Member
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    I put little stock in things like this....This is a mere laborious and heavily over-stated re-wording of the simple and very stupid canard that "Christians are stupid, and 'smart' people are atheists". These "studies" are the lifelong passion of people whose sole purpose is to further the cause of their father, the Devil, and they do so by advancing the notion that people of faith aren't "smart"...They are the very definition of fools:

    Rom 1:22 Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools,

    Rom 1:28 And even as they did not like to retain God in [their] knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient;
     
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