Irreligion and superstition

The Wall Street Journal reported: "A comprehensive new study released by Baylor University yesterday, shows ...that the irreligious and the members of more liberal Protestant denominations, far from being resistant to superstition, tend to be much more likely to believe in the paranormal and in pseudoscience than evangelical Christians."[1]

In September 2008, the Wall Street Journal reported:

“  |  The reality is that the New Atheist campaign, by discouraging religion, won't create a new group of intelligent, skeptical, enlightened beings. Far from it: It might actually encourage new levels of mass superstition. And that's not a conclusion to take on faith -- it's what the empirical data tell us.

"What Americans Really Believe," a comprehensive new study released by Baylor University yesterday, shows that traditional Christian religion greatly decreases belief in everything from the efficacy of palm readers to the usefulness of astrology. It also shows that the irreligious and the members of more liberal Protestant denominations, far from being resistant to superstition, tend to be much more likely to believe in the paranormal and in pseudoscience than evangelical Christians....

This is not a new finding. In his 1983 book "The Whys of a Philosophical Scrivener," skeptic and science writer Martin Gardner cited the decline of traditional religious belief among the better educated as one of the causes for an increase in pseudoscience, cults and superstition. He referenced a 1980 study published in the magazine Skeptical Inquirer that showed irreligious college students to be by far the most likely to embrace paranormal beliefs, while born-again Christian college students were the least likely.[2]

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In 2015, Rodney Stark wrote in his book The Triumph of Faith: Why the World is More Religious Than Ever about secular European countries: "35 percent of the French believe in astrology, 35 percent of the Swiss agree that 'some fortune tellers really can foretell the future'..."[3]

See also:

* Atheism and science

* Atheism and irrationality

* Atheism and logic

## Contents

* 1 Atheists with a sociopathic personality structure and the occult
* 2 East Asia, atheism, superstition and irrationality
* 3 Irreligion, evolutionary belief, other pseudoscience, UFOlogy and the occult
* 3.1 Irreligious/atheistic France and the Soviet Union and UFOlogy
* 3.2 Christian and Library of Congress researcher's explanations for reports of UFOs
* 4 Ben Stein Interview with the evolutionist Richard Dawkins
* 5 See also
* 6 External links
* 7 Notes

## Atheists with a sociopathic personality structure and the occult[edit]

See also: Atheism and sociopathy and Atheism and satanic deception and Atheism and the supernatural and Atheism and life after death

A very prevalent view of the occult is that it is Satanic (see also: Atheism and satanic deception).

The journal article Atheism and the occult published in the Journal of Social Sciences indicated:

“  |  Atheists with a sociopathic personality structure have a greater degree of predisposition to express different forms of occult practice. The results of canonical discriminant analysis have shown that occultist syndrome in atheists is a component of a kind of sociopathic aggression whose latent structure is defined by materialistic-hedonistic orientation, impulsive aggression and asocial aggression in the positive direction, and altruism in the negative direction. Atheists with a sociopathic personality structure have a greater degree of predisposition to express different forms of occult practice.

(Google translated version of the journal article).[4]

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For more information, please see: Atheism and sociopathy

## East Asia, atheism, superstition and irrationality[edit]

See also: Asian atheism

Illustration of Confucius

The current atheist population mostly resides in East Asia (particularly China) and in secular Europe/Australia among whites.[5] See: Asian atheism and Secular Europe and Western atheism and race

Razib Khanm wrote at Discover Magazine:

“  |  ...the most secular nations in the world are those of East Asia, in particular what are often termed “Confucian societies.” It is likely therefore that the majority of the world’s atheists are actually East Asian...

This is not to say that East Asia is necessarily a haven for a critical rationalist perspective, what with the prominence of Chinese medicine, geomancy, Korean shamanism...[6]

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See also: Atheism and medicine

## Irreligion, evolutionary belief, other pseudoscience, UFOlogy and the occult[edit]

See also: Atheism and the occult and Atheism and aliens and Atheism and the occult and Evolution, Liberalism, Atheism, and Irrationality

Carl Sagan

The notions of extraterrestrial life and UFOlogy are fast growing pseudoscientific religions which are perpetuated and/or substantially aided by the ideologies of evolutionists, atheists, liberals and other promoters of quackery.[1][7] However, the ideologies of extraterrestrial life, UFOlogy, exobiology, evolution and abiogenesis are anti-biblical ideas which are not supported by sound science.[8][9]

The agnostic and liberal Carl Sagan, an avid smoker of marijuana who claimed that marijuana gave him scientific insights, was a prominent peddler of extraterrestrial life, evolution and other pseudoscientific nonsense.[10]

### Irreligious/atheistic France and the Soviet Union and UFOlogy[edit]

Astronomer Dr. Hugh Ross indicates that ninety-nine percent of what people have told him were UFOs, experienced astronomers can identify as a star, cluster, or other object in the night sky. The 1 percent of sightings, which he calls residual UFOs, have attracted his attention.[11] According to Dr. Ross very few astronomers have seen "residual UFOs".[11]

The following Toledo Blade newspaper excerpt[11] summarizes Dr. Ross's findings:

“  |  In 1969, however, Dr. Ross met two astronomers who were having regular UFO encounters. Both also happened to be involved in occult activity.

Upon investigation, Dr. Ross consistently found a connection between occult involvement and residual UFO encounters. For example, he said, countries with a high degree of occult activity such as Russia during the Soviet era, France, and certain parts of Brazil also had high percentages of UFO encounters. During Russia's Soviet period when every expression of religion except occult activity had been outlawed, he said, “Russians were seeing UFOs at five to eight times the rate Americans were.

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### Christian and Library of Congress researcher's explanations for reports of UFOs[edit]

See also: Christianity and UFOs and Atheism and satanic deception

The fall of Lucifer by Gustave Doré.

Christian apologists who reject naturalistic explanations of life such as the theory of evolution argue that difficult to explain UFOs are spiritual in nature and not amenable to naturalistic explanation.[12] Gary Bates of Creation Ministries International wrote a book entitled Alien Intrusion which gives a biblical Christian perspective on the unscientific notions of extraterrestrial life and UFUlogy.[13]

Lynn Cato, senior bibliographer for the library of Congress, created a 1600 entry on UFO bibliography for the United States Air Force Office of Scientific Research. After a two-year investigation, in which she reviewed thousands of documents, Catoe stated:

“  |  A large part of the available UFO literature...deals with subjects like mental telepathy, automatic writing and invisible entities...poltergeist manifestations and 'possession'....Many of the UFO reports now being published in the popular press recount alleged incidents that are strikingly similar to demonic possession and psychic phenomenon which have long been known to theologians and parapsychologists.[14][15] |  ”

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Prominent UFO researcher John Keel concurred. After surveying the literature on demonology Keel declared: "The manifestations and occurrences described in this imposing literature are similar if not entirely identical to the UFO phenomenon itself."[15]

## Ben Stein Interview with the evolutionist Richard Dawkins[edit]

Richard Dawkins

See also: Ben Stein Interview with Richard Dawkins and Richard Dawkins and pseudoscience

In the movie Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed, Ben Stein demonstrated the folly of evolutionism in his interview with Richard Dawkins (A clip of the interview has been uploaded to YouTube ).

The Discovery Institute provides an transcript of part of the interview along with some commentary:

“  |  BEN STEIN: "What do you think is the possibility that Intelligent Design might turn out to be the answer to some issues in genetics or in evolution?"

DAWKINS: "Well, it could come about in the following way. It could be that at some earlier time, somewhere in the universe, a civilization evolved, probably by some kind of Darwinian means, probably to a very high level of technology, and designed a form of life that they seeded onto perhaps this planet. Now, um, now that is a possibility, and an intriguing possibility. And I suppose it's possible that you might find evidence for that if you look at the details of biochemistry, molecular biology, you might find a signature of some sort of designer."

Ho,ho! That is precisely what the Raelians say:

Years ago, everybody knew that the earth was flat. Everybody knew that the sun revolved around the earth. Today, everybody knows that life on earth is either the result of random evolution or the work of a supernatural God. Or is it? In "Message from the Designers", Rael presents us with a third option: that all life on earth was created by advanced scientists from another world.

Richard Dawkins and Rael; "clear thinking" kindred spirits! [16]

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## See also[edit]

* Atheism and gullibility
* Atheism and the supernatural
* Atheism and astrology
* Atheist cults
* List of atheist and agnostic pseudosciences
* Atheism and epistemology
* Atheism and cryonics
* Evolution, Liberalism, Atheism, and Irrationality
* Evolution and Cases of Fraud, Hoaxes and Speculation
* Atheism and irrationality
* Social effects of the theory of evolution
* Abiogenesis

## External links[edit]

* Atheists: you're not as rational as you think – video, The Guardian

## Notes[edit]

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122178219865054585.html
2. ↑ Look Who's Irrational Now by Mollie Ziegler Hemingway, Wall Street Journal, September 19, 2008
3. ↑ The Triumph of Faith: Why the World is More Religious Than Ever by Rodney Stark, Introduction section of the book
4. ↑ Atheism and the occult, Journal of Social Sciences, 32 (2008), 2; 357-366]
5. ↑ A surprising map of where the world’s atheists live, By Max Fisher and Caitlin Dewey, Washington Post, May 23, 2013
6. ↑ Most atheists are not white & other non-fairy tales By Razib Khanm, Discover Magazine
7. ↑ https://creation.com/ufology-scientific-religion
8. ↑ https://creation.com/did-god-create-life-on-other-planets
9. ↑ https://creation.com/origin-of-life-questions-and-answers
10. ↑ http://cosmologytalk.tribe.net/thread/7e25b81c-2529-44c6-b388-f926c2475e6a
11. ↑ 11.0 11.1 11.2 Tarjanyi, Judy. "Astronomer links UFOs to Occultism." The Toledo Blade, January 4, 2003. Retrieved November 3, 2007.
12. ↑
* UFOs and Alien Beings
* A UFO 2nd coming
* Are We Alone in the Universe?
* Alien Life/UFO Questions and Answers UFO Questions and Answers
* Alien Life/UFO Questions and Answers UFO Questions and Answers
13. ↑ http://www.alienintrusion.com/main.html
14. ↑ Authors unknown. "A UFO 2nd Coming." Let Us Reason Ministries, 2007. Retrieved November 3, 2007.
15. ↑ 15.0 15.1 Gleghorn, Michael. "UFO's and Alien Beings." Probe Ministries. Retrieved November 3, 2007.
16. ↑ http://www.discovery.org/a/4589