Religion

Question 1

4 relevant components according to one definition of religion according to Norenzayan and Atran

Answer 1

1. Counterintuition- all religions include belief in supernatural agents- violate our intuition about folk physics and biology- gods always there, spirit-like. folk psychology- we can’t know everything but in some religions gods are omniscient
2. Committment- behave on their beliefs which is not natural- specific to the religion. Dissonance theory- more you act, the more you believe. Can impede on physical well-being.
3. Compassion- relationships with gods
4. Communion- belong to a group

Question 2

Typical vs. Non-typical religions

Answer 2

• Typical (anthropologically): god is not very powerful and not much privileged access to info, not morally concerned, locally constrained. Start small and die off quickly.
• Non-typical: gods very powerful, omniscient, omnipotent, care a lot about people, more morally concerned, omnipresent. Christianity, Islam, Buddhism- minority- the big ones- only started to show up around 1200 years ago when the agriculture revolution started- staying in same place instead of nomads

Question 3

Evolutionary explanation for religion and morality

Answer 3

Generosity: Game theory Game- when god concept activated- more than half participants shared equally with stranger
Trust- atheists more disliked than gay men because they are distrusted more than gay men- distrust >disgust
Large corporations emerged due to religion- we help our kin because helping one of us- settlement made cooperation important- need trust for them to run

Question 4

Empirical evidence for the role of religion in prosocial and antisocial behaviours

Answer 4

Game theory Game- when god concept activated through scrambled sentences: ‘the desert was divine’ (subliminal) with fillers vs. only fillers- more than half participants shared equally with stranger. Huge effect size. Less than $2 in control condition
Which God?
Mean god- less cheating on maths game (spacebar answer)
Trait compassion affect prosocial behaviour by non-religious more than religious

Question 5

Atheism Prejudice

Answer 5

Trust- atheists more disliked than gay men because they are distrusted more than gay men- distrust >disgust
Atheists- conjunction fallacy- Richard as rapist and teacher just as likely as atheist and teacher
Not just North America- every country but Finland show conjunction fallacy with non-believers but interacts with percentage of non-believers in each country

Question 6

2 advantages of being religious in a

religious society

Answer 6

Social self-esteem and psychological adjustment
Religiosity positively correlated depending on how religious the society is. All correlate somewhat but more pronounced in more religious societies

Question 7

2 disadvantages of high religious

infusion

Answer 7

More prejudice and more interpersonal discrimination in societies with high religious infusion