[Paleopsych] CHE: Religious Belief Is Found to Be Less Lacking Among Soci...

[Thrst4knw at aol.com]

I think the prevailing scientific view of religion is that it is primarily a 
social psychological phenomenon, an adaptation of sorts to group life, so it 
certainly makes sense that social scientists would tend to be interested in it 
in general, gender notwithstanding.   It sounds like the researchers are 
looking for something more exotic, but I wonder if they are making the right 
distinctions to tease it out.  

It would be interesting to have this type of study distinguish between 
different kinds of faith underlying the profession of being "religious."  Two people 
who claim a affiliation with a religious community or an affinity for 
religion and can do so with very different attitudes toward it, and research often 
ignores this important fact.  My suspicion is that it is not a homogeneous 
phenomenon, but our research tradition often appears to treat it essentially as 
such.  Two people with "religious belief" can sometimes believe in very different 
things and I suspect also in in very different *ways* cognitively.    You can 
easily find Bible thumping evangelicals with clear religious beliefs and 
equally easily find "liberal" philosopher-theologians with distinct religious 
beliefs but they certainly seem to approach the same topics in entirely different 
ways, and their beliefs take on different roles in their behavior.

kind regards,

Todd
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