RE: Do you believe in god or math?
October 1, 2011 at 3:16 am
(This post was last modified: October 1, 2011 at 3:17 am by fr0d0.)
As is always the case with surveys, the results are taken as generalizations. A lot of Christians I know are mathemeticians. Lots scientists too. The blurb starts off with "For many people, believing in God comes down to a gut feeling that a benevolent deity is out there" ...so they're talking about nominal Christians: people who have no commitment one way or another but attend church for some reason other than what is being preached from the pulpit. Taking those into account the uk is 70% Christian, and not the 6% who attend a church regularly. (Church statistics are more like 3% believers)
I find that a methematical mind is actually more prone to acceptance of the kind of thinking that would accept something on cognition alone. People that demand the impossible, hard evidence like a slap in the face aren't usually convinced by this.
Of course there are Christians who are quite unthinking and believe on intuition. I don't condemn them for that. There's a lot to be said for a gut feeling and going with it: If it's simple and true to you then the chances are it's good.
So we're covered on both angles: people believe through cognition and through instinct. America is a lot like the uk: There are a lot of people declare themselves as Christian with little idea of what it is they're making a declaration of. And certainly act the opposite of what they would do if they actually held the position.
I find that a methematical mind is actually more prone to acceptance of the kind of thinking that would accept something on cognition alone. People that demand the impossible, hard evidence like a slap in the face aren't usually convinced by this.
Of course there are Christians who are quite unthinking and believe on intuition. I don't condemn them for that. There's a lot to be said for a gut feeling and going with it: If it's simple and true to you then the chances are it's good.
So we're covered on both angles: people believe through cognition and through instinct. America is a lot like the uk: There are a lot of people declare themselves as Christian with little idea of what it is they're making a declaration of. And certainly act the opposite of what they would do if they actually held the position.
