Raising cognitive inhibition seems to make people more irreligious, even with religious parents and indoctrination.
http://www.salon.com/2015/07/05/why_doesnt_everyone_believe_in_god_the_skeptical_brain_may_hold_the_answer/
It's no "magic bullet", but I do think that being able to make believers see the faults in their own faiths ("seeing the forest for the trees" deal) I'm positive the way to go about it is to raise their cognitive inhibition; which is to suppress bias caused by their faith.
Thanks SAL! Very interesting.
QuoteCognitive inhibition is the mind’s ability to stop or override a certain mental process â€" the ability to stop unwanted thoughts, for example, or to weed out irrelevant information.
Yes, interesting, but complicated. When I read the above sentence, I first thought, "Yes, this describes me." I do experience an element of overriding certain mental processes, but it doesn't feel like something inherent in the way my brain works. There is a strong learned component for me that comes from my learning about logical processes. I could easily believe certain things, but I have learned to evaluate evidence and test my first inclinations. That's partly true at least. At a young age, I was constantly testing beliefs, but not quite getting to the point of rejecting them. I would realize that some things just didn't make sense, but my religious upbringing (fear) would keep the belief in tact, albeit with a shitload of doubt.
There may be a predisposition to skepticism on my part, which would explain the doubts I had about God, but it is certainly not all that clear cut when I think about it a little bit. Maybe that's what the writer meant. There's just enough skepticism going on to start the process, but I had to teach myself to embrace skepticism fully. This may just be the result of having a loving grandmother who terrified me with thoughts of Hell and eternally burning in flames. We learn to believe nonsense by well meaning authorities during our formative years (called brainwashing). I wonder what it would have been like for me had that not been such a big part of my life.
Also, like many aspects of genetic predispositions, I'll guess that people are innately provided with them on a scale from one to ten. Some people have more of it than others. I might be a four, five, or a seven, but it's not completely natural. I have to force myself to stop and think.
Sal1981 ... two aspects. Skepticism and not being too gullible. Maybe those are different.
SGOS ... as usual, many people get Hell all wrong. If you are a demon in human flesh, then it is perfectly appropriate for you to end up in Hell, and I suspect a demon would like the heat etc ... and really hate being in Heaven. If we get the full polarity, I think one could say that demons hate Heaven and love Hell, and angels love Heaven and hate Hell. it is part of the Aristotelianism that crops up in both ancient and medieval belief, that the end state of all things is harmony. Traditional Catholic theology understands that if you are an angel in human form, or a demon in human form ... is unknown to all until Last Judgement. It is the heretical Calvinists who think that this can be determined in this life.
The analogy of the separation of sheep vs goats doesn't work with ignorance either. Bedouin usually run sheep and goats together ... they are easier to herd that way. The sheep and goats are separated for sheering the sheep (glad I am a goat then) ... and then the sheep and goats run together again. Also Bedouin use children as shepherds, like in David's time ... so of course children should take the lead in this life by analogy. Applying anachronistic prejudice to Biblical verses, simply doesn't work out right.
On the other hand, religious conflict between parents and children was one of the most common routes from religion to atheism. If resistant children were forced into religious activities, they often rebelled as soon as they had the chance.
So, a child with weak cognitive inhibition and a positive relationship with his married parents of the same faith is likely to carry on in the religious family tradition. A child with strong cognitive inhibition who is forced to go to church against his will is likely to rebel.
I relate to this. My mother was Christian and my father was atheist, although I didn't officially know he was faithless until I was sixteen. My parents divorced when I was twelve and my younger brother and I would go with my father for visitation after attending Sunday school and service with our mother at the Methodist church. Attending church became associated with court mandated visitation and Sundays were a day of forced socialization. Church for me was waking up too early to have uncomfortable, superficial interactions with people with whom I had nothing in common, discussing topics that made no sense and participating in meaningless rituals, followed by an awkward lunch of pizza and "so... how is school?"
Quote from: GSOgymrat on July 13, 2015, 03:40:48 AM
Church for me was waking up too early to have uncomfortable, superficial interactions with people with whom I had nothing in common, discussing topics that made no sense and participating in meaningless rituals, followed by an awkward lunch of pizza and "so... how is school?"
Wow. Does that ring a bell! It's not like I wanted to sleep in on Sunday, either. The fact is I always liked getting up early so I could start doing things I liked right away, especially on weekends. It's just that church wasn't one of those things. It was an activity pretty much devoid of meaning, even though I wished otherwise.
In the same vein, I remember being physically forced to attend when I was at a point in my life that I had a lot of doubts, and it probably was some sort of cognitive inhibition trigger. I rebelled and associated going to sermons on Sundays with something that went against my will.
I *might* still be a believer if my parents were more forthcoming, who knows, or at least it would've delayed my waking up from theistic thinking later than at 17 (starting from age 13 when I first formed my doubts).
Most people discover skepticism and resistance to parents in their teen years. We weren't a church going family, so I simply didn't bother, unless it was a special occasion. But I was really into metaphysical doubt about G-d when I was 19 - 21. Later I changed my mind. Some theists don't bother with church as young adults, they have other things to do ... until they have kids, and then they worry they are cheating their kids by not making them go. Over-managing adults yes? I would think that once a person disbelieves ... unless a spouse encourages them, or they have children, they might never go back. In traditional societies, there is no way you can't conform to the local culture ... or you will be punished. Japanese saying is "nail that sticks up gets hammered down".