Study: Religious beliefs linked to poor understanding of physical world

I suppose you can file this under “things we already knew but now we have actual data that supports it.” A study published in Applied Cognitive Psychology found a link between religious beliefs and a poor understanding of the physical world around us.

This is consistent with what we would expect to see. In the past, when a phenomenon that couldn’t explained using known science at the time was observed, it was called a “miracle” or an “act of god.” As our knowledge of natural phenomenon grew, fewer and fewer things were attributed to the acts of a god, as we now had explanations for things that previously seemed to be supernatural.

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As Neil deGrasse Tyson eloquently explained back in 2011:


And this study is right in line with that mindset. As the authors explained:


So, in other news: Water is wet. The sky is blue. The Earth is an oblate spheroid. The pope helps priests rape children. And the less you understand about the natural world, the more likely you are to believe in a god.

h/t Progressive Secular Humanist Examiner

Written by Dan Broadbent

Science Enthusiast. Atheist. Lover of cats.

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