Blow that theory out of the water
From
Psychology Today:
Religion and Reason
Your answer to the following riddle can predict whether you are a believer in religion or a disbeliever:Q: If a baseball and bat cost $110, and the bat costs $100 more than the ball, how much does the ball cost?
A: If you answered $10 you are inclined to believe in religion. If you answered $5 you are inclined to disbelieve.
Why? Because, according to new research reported in tomorrow's issue of the journal Science, the $10 answer indicates that you are an intuitive thinker, and the $5 answer indicates that you solve problems analytically, rather than following your gut instinct.
Psychologists William Gervais and Ara Norenzayan, of the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, predicted that people who were more analytic in thinking would tend not to believe in religion, whereas people who approach problems more intuitively would tend to be believers. Their study confirmed the hypothesis and the findings illuminate the mysterious cognitive process by which we reach decisions about our beliefs.
Bzzzzzzzt!!! Wrong.
I got the answer right and I am also deeply religious (but not a Church-goer -- do not get me going on the current state of the Episcopal Church).
Maybe if I was mooning over chakras or advocating "tolerance for everything" I might also suffer an impairment of cognitive function but keeping a moral backbone and worshiping God and Jesus is not a sign of a deficient brain.
Some people's brains are not wired to do arithmetic quickly -- this has no bearing on their spirituality.
A bit more:
Cognitive theory of decision making supports the hypothesis that there are two independent processes involved in decision making. The first process is based on gut instinct, and this process is shared by other animals. The second cognitive process is an evolutionarily recent development, exclusive to humans, which utilizes logical reasoning to make decisions. Their study of 179 Canadian undergraduate students showed that people who tend to solve problems more analytically also tended to be religious disbelievers.
That is a pitifully small sample size and limiting yourself to one age group and one population is piss-poor statistics. When you ask 1K people ages 12 through 80 through a large city then and only then will you get decent results.
Oh yeah:
Q: If a baseball and bat cost $110, and the bat costs $100 more than the ball, how much does the ball cost?
Total cost is $110
Bat is $100 more than Ball.
If Ball is $5, Bat will be $5+$100 = $110
If Ball is $10, Bat will be $10+$100 = $120
Pop Psychology at its worst...
Posted by DaveH at April 26, 2012 10:31 PM