Development, Culture, And Consequences Of Atheism

for some individuals, it appears to be coherency of worldview along with intensity of belief and certainty in this worldview (whatever it may be), which appears to contribute positively to well-being. Thus, not only can strong belief in God provide psychological benefits, but also can strong nonbelief in God (Galen, 2015). Uzdavines’s found that individuals who were more “closed” to the existence of gods (i.e., sure there are not any) reported less struggles than those who were more “open.”

Is there any better way to prepare for a delicious Turkish meal served up with their famous Mediterranean hospitality than by attending an invited symposium on atheism? I would certainly doubt it. Prior to this an unbelievable lunch (is there any better way to prepare for a delicious Turkish meal served up with famous Mediterranean hospitality than by attending an invited symposium on atheism? I would certainly doubt it), Paul Harris and Jonathan Lanman took part in just such a symposium, titled “Religious Disbelief: Development, Culture, Motivation, and Consequences.” Harris discussed his research, which suggests culturally available religious narratives may diminish young children’s distinction ability to distinguish between reality and fiction. Lanman discussed his research with colleague Michael Buhrmester on the utility of the “CRED’s” scale (Credibility Enhancing Displays), which has proved to be a robust predictor of religious belief and disbelief (e.g., Willard, 2015). Clearly these presentations have implications for some hypothesis’s hypotheses in the cognitive science of religion that argue for children being “prepared” to believe in supernatural entities. This was evidenced by several questions and hallway discussions at the conference, which brought these theories under scrutiny using Harris and Lanman’s presentations. Hugh Turpin presenting at the S&N journal session The final day of the conference, August 20th, began with the “Atheism: Psychological perspectives – Secularism & Nonreligion Journal Symposium” session. Here, Hugh Turpin discussed the preliminary results of his work on priming “CRUD’s” (credibility undermining displays), and the role they may play in explaining the decline of religious belief in the context of the Republic of Ireland. Alex Uzdavines gave an overview of how the Religious and Spiritual Struggles (RSS) scale remains invariant across samples of believers and nonbelievers in God, provided the “Demonic subscale” is removed. Thus, perhaps unsurprisingly, but critically important no less, both believers and nonbelievers may share in general moments of struggles in life. Nick Stauner discussed additional research with the RSS, as he presented an overview of how different groupings of religiosity and nonreligiosity vary in relation to one another on the subscales of the RSS. In closing, Sarah Demmrich discussed her research on religious rituals in the highly secular context of Germany. Bringing the research on atheism presented at the 2015 IAPR conference to a close was a session titled “Atheist in the Mmind: Multi-Method Perspectives on Attitudes Towards Atheists and Their Mystical Experiences.” Here, Jordan LaBouff presented research conducted with his colleague Carissa Sharp, where they are working towards reducing the well-documented distrust …show more content…
Through a paradigm where the researchers manipulate positive imaginings involving interactions with atheists amongst participants high in religious fundamentalism, they have been able to reduce distrust and increase the potential for positive interactions with this group. Currently, they are working to extend this model to a longitudinal