• Question: Is it possible to trick people's minds into believing in religion?

    Asked by scienceman to Ben, James, Jen, Michael, Susanna on 14 Mar 2013.
    • Photo: Ben Brilot

      Ben Brilot answered on 14 Mar 2013:

      “Trick” is probably the wrong word, but there is certainly a lot of variability in people’s willingness to believe in some kind of religion, or more generally the existence of supernatural beings and other supernatural phenomenon. There have been studies showing that your likelihood of being religious is influenced by both how you’re brought up and your genes (although actually that’s true for a lot if not most facets of personality). So that does mean that certain people are more susceptible to being taught that a particular type of God or Gods exists.

      On an anecdotal level, there are an awful lot of religious cults in the world, from completely harmless ones to ones where the followers can be convinced to behave in terrible ways (the Waco Siege and the Manson family are both tragic examples of how badly these things can end). Also, all religions have to start somewhere. Obviously religious people claim they start with the word of God being handed down to a particular person, but in reality it’s likely a combination of folk myths and a very persuasive person or group of people being able to persuade others that this myth isn’t just a story but actually a reality. The founding of the Mormon church is a recentish example (19th Century) of a church being founded by one guy claiming to have received the word of God. It’s now a major religion but read the wikipedia entry on it: it’s all a bit odd.

    • Photo: Jen Todd Jones

      Jen Todd Jones answered on 15 Mar 2013:

      Hi scienceman

      Thanks for asking a question here, I couldn’t type fast enough in the chat! Ben has got a great answer here, and it’s important to note that this is a good question to ask – but it doesn’t necessarily mean you don’t believe in a religion, or that religion is false.

      My understanding of religion is that it may be a very normal, natural and automatic way of thinking for human beings. A long time ago when we were still cavemen with little understanding of the natural world strange experiences would have frightened and confused us. How do you explain lightning without understanding electricity? Or rainbows without understanding the water cycle and the diffusion of light? It’s my belief that early cavemen couldn’t understand the reasons behind these events, so they created a reason in order for it to make sense. Humans are very good at finding patterns and meaning and symbols in things, it’s possible that this is the reason for needing an explanation, or getting an explanation developed these things for us. Either way, I think it’s a good argument for the existence of a ‘higher power’ or religious
      belief.
      When you think about it this way, there are still many things that happen in the world without a good explanation, we know now why tornadoes happen or wars start, but they still seem like needless destruction and loss of life. When people need a reason for these things to happen they can turn to religion, and in this case I think it’s possible to trick people minds into believing in religion. If something bad happens and you search for an answer, and someone offers you the idea that it has happened but it for a reason that only someone else knows, perhaps you might accept that.

      Having said all of this I don’t discount religion completely, there are still many question science can’t answer, and then one that really puzzles us all – where is our spirit or soul, and what happens to it after we die – is still not answered by science, so bear that in mind!

      So how about you, do you think it’s possible to trick people into religion?

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