cultural-identity, logic, deconversion, memeticsThis is intentionally designed to build a list (CW), and have the “memes” voted up/down to determine what ideas constitute the biggest obstacles to a religious person abandoning a belief.
For purposes of definition, “religious thinking” is a mindset resistant to evidence, filled with circular logic, and favoring preservation of dogmatic tenets over discovery of “truth” about how the world works.
Please only include one “meme” per answer. If you feel the idea needs explanation, do so. I’ll start with two answers below to seed the activity.
KEY: Keep focused on what the IDEA is behind the believer’s claims. What is the thinking planted that allows them to make the claim, and which is always defaulted to in times of stress.
If you have an example of scripture or any other religious teaching that supports a given meme, please add it to the comments for that meme.
Meme: Human reason is insufficient to understand God.
“The Lord works in Mysterious Ways.”
“Everything Happens for a reason, even if you can’t see it, God can.”
“We can never know the mind of God…”
All three are variations on: human reason is insufficient, and that is a defect in YOU, not in God.
Meme: Faith is a Virtue, trumping everything else.
“I need no proof. I have faith.”
Meme: false causality
“I prayed to God to heal my [insert ailment here], and I was healed.” (or someone else’s ailment, same thing)
Meme: Prayer works. Wishing will make it so.
Judging from personal memories, the biggest meme is the idea that we can affect the outcome of future events just by wishing them to be a certain way.
This meme is demonstrated in the constant requests to pray for those in harms way, or who have been injured, are sick, etc. The simple, constant exhortation to pray reinforces the belief that it must be a worthwhile activity.
The second place this meme is strengthend is in the mis-interpretation of results, applying false or unverified causality to an event, claiming it was the prayer that worked. The tendency to over-assign “causality” or “agency” is identified by Daniel Dennett as one possible evolutionary source of religion. There was, at one time, some survival value in being the person who occasionally attributed false agency to some rustling in the bushes, over the person who ignored it and was eaten by the lion. (paraphrasing Dennett)
It seems like this idea is absolutely natural to the brain, unlike rational thought, which requires a more conscious application to work. “Agency detection” and “false causality” attribution certainly evolved long before logic and/or scientific, naturalistic observation and verification with “checks” built in to avoid personal bias or error.
Meme: Personal experience trumps statistics/evidence/argument.
“I saw the living, breathing Jesus! He talked to me!”
or, “Atheists are all arrogant!” (yeah, the atheists you know…)
or, “Prayer works, I tried it!” (and the serious clinical studies of it are irrelevant)
or, “It doesn’t matter what you say, I know God exists because I feel His presence.”
Meme: Fear of the end of life being an actual end.
This is distinct from a fear of eternal punishment. That is sort of dated.
Meme: The Bible is an absolute, inviolable, unalterable, divinely inspired ROOT of my being, and the only resource I can consult to resolve disputes.
Circular, Self-referential authority. Typically resorted to after a believer has been shown a vast array of information on a topic. He/she then says, "Well, you make a good point, but the Bible says...."
Meme: Atheists are a faceless mass of negative people. Even if you know a nice atheist, she probably is an exception to the rule.
MEME COMPLEX: Demonization of “other”. Tribalism.
Atheists lack a coherent identity and present on a case to case basis varying by individuals’ personalities. This strongly allows for a lack of sympathy for the position to develop into mis-characterization of atheism as well as atheists.
As a result of the lack of a consistent identity, which religious groups do have, people who are somehow religious but may have doubts are less likely to identify with a vague, shadowy group than they are a group identity they are comfortable with.
The inability of “in-group” members to rationally subject their own group to criticism, using objective criteria leads to members viewing ANY criticism as an attack, regardless of the content. For example, Public figures like Richard Dawkins who criticize religion allow religious groups to leverage this powerful, pernicious meme to draw a straw man view of the atheist and her beliefs generally.
Meme: To think differently would make YOU less than you are.
“The Fool in his heart hath said there is no God” Psalm 14: 1-3
As a brief reminder, this is what Psalm 14:1-3 says: The fool says in his heart, “There is no God.” They are corrupt, they do abominable deeds, there is none that does good. The LORD looks down from heaven upon the children of men, to see if there are any that act wisely, that seek after God. They have all gone astray, they are all alike corrupt; there is none that does good, no, not one.
If a book you have been taught is “divinely dictated” tells you that you’re a fool to feel otherwise, it’s a bit of a mental impediment.
This meme prevents de-conversion because no one likes to self-identify as a fool, or negatively in general. It’s like the highway sign saying “Slower traffic keep right”. I can hear the guy blocking the (U.S.) left lane thinking, “That’s not me, I’m not “slower traffic”. The better commandment is “Keep right, except to pass.”
We need an equivalent to inoculate or undermine this meme.
Meme: Appeal to unverifiable authority
“I talked to God, and I felt him answer in my heart. I just know I have been touched by the divine. I experienced a sense of immanence and peace and what could only have been God’s love and forgiveness.”
I never know how to respond to that kind of statement. (Sully’s comments are at the end.) Saying “No, you didn’t!” somehow doesn’t cut it.
Meme: I identify myself as X (Christian, Muslim, etc…). To give that up would be to deny my own self.
I believe that much resistance to evidence stems from a form of self-defense: we have much invested in our own self-image, and anything which is seen to threaten it is likely to trigger significant psychological resistance. We are often willing to deny reality if it means protecting our identity.
Meme: There HAS to be a first cause…
I think their biggest obstacle, including moderate and liberal theists, is something in the lines of: “How can there be existence? How can there be something?”
(although same can be said about their God, they truly believe that God is eternal and didn’t need a creation, and they fail to reason the same about the universe/multiverse/existence.)
Meme: You’re acting on faith, just like me, so why should I change?
Exemplified by statements like “Judge not lest ye be judged.” and “Let he who is without sin throw the first stone.”
In biblical use, these are portrayed as pleas for empathy… yet they are deployed against the atheist debater as a conversation stopper, almost desperately seeking relief with an, “Oh yeah, well you’re just as BAD as I am, so leave me to wallow in my faith and I’ll leave you to wallow in yours.”
There is an equivocation about the use of the word “faith” here, one that potentially could be resolved by admitting that we ALL do act on faith (i.e. potential, belief something is possible, belief our action will have positive results that we desire).
The difference is that some of us re-assess, re-evaluate or CHANGE what motivated our actions after we see the results (or lack thereof).
Meme: “Yer either fer us or agin us.” or “Whose side are you on?”
Tribalism, demonization of “the other”… usually followed up by something like the Catholic notion of an “informed conscience” which says you can’t go find out about “the other” except by consulting approved Catholic sources that will tell you the right answer about the other. :-)
Meme: belief in God makes you happier and healthier.
For a growing yet largely unnoticed body of scientific work, amassed over the past 30 years, shows religious belief is medically, socially and psychologically beneficial.
In 2006, the American Society of Hypertension established that church-goers have lower blood pressure than the non-faithful.
Likewise, in 2004, scholars at the University of California, Los Angeles, suggested that college students involved in religious activities are more likely to have better mental and emotional health than those who do not.
Meanwhile, in 2006, population researchers at the University of Texas discovered that the more often you go to church, the longer you live.
As they put it: ‘Religious attendance is associated with adult mortality in a graded fashion: there is a seven-year difference in life expectancy between those who never attend church and those who attend weekly.’
Exactly the same outcome was recently reported in the American Journal of Public Health, which studied nearly 2,000 older Californians for five years. Those who attended religious services were 36 per cent less likely to die during this half-decade than those who didn’t.
Even those who attended a place of worship irregularly — implying a less than ardent faith — did better than those who never attended. Source
Meme: Pascal’s Wager - Or better safe than sorry
This is ridiculously common, the notion that it costs you nothing to believe “just in case” you’re actually running the risk of being burned to death for all eternity by an invisible torturer god.
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