Changes

:"Atheists reject the magical world. No God. No angels and demons. No miracles. And so on. The general position of what is often referred to as the New Atheist movement is that atheists approach life through logic and empirical evidence (science) whereas religious people rely on faith and feelings. Many atheists would argue that they do not believe in something unless there is a good reason for doing so. But is this true?

:"Atheists reject the magical world. No God. No angels and demons. No miracles. And so on. The general position of what is often referred to as the New Atheist movement is that atheists approach life through logic and empirical evidence (science) whereas religious people rely on faith and feelings. Many atheists would argue that they do not believe in something unless there is a good reason for doing so. But is this true?

:I recently started a program of research to answer this and related questions concerning the magical lives of atheists... Atheists may not believe in God, but they seem particularly susceptible to believing that intelligent alien life has visited our planet despite there being no compelling evidence to hold such a belief....

:I recently started a program of research to answer this and related questions concerning the magical lives of atheists... Atheists may not believe in God, but they seem particularly susceptible to believing that intelligent alien life has visited our planet despite there being no compelling evidence to hold such a belief...

:In the UK, polls suggest that more people believe in UFOs than in God. For example, one recent poll found that about 42% of UK residents believe in UFOs but only 25% believe in God.  In general, belief in alien visitors and other fringe magical beliefs such as belief in ghosts seem to be increasing....

:In the UK, polls suggest that more people believe in UFOs than in God. For example, one recent poll found that about 42% of UK residents believe in UFOs but only 25% believe in God.  In general, belief in alien visitors and other fringe magical beliefs such as belief in ghosts seem to be increasing...

:I reliably find an association between religious and alien beliefs in my own research: low religiosity = high belief in intelligent alien life visiting Earth. And when I have focused specifically on atheists, I find that many of them endorse the ideas that aliens are among us and the government is covering this up. For example, in a recent study I found that only about 7% of atheists completely rejected the idea that UFOs are real and well over half of the sample reported some confidence that they are real.

:I reliably find an association between religious and alien beliefs in my own research: low religiosity = high belief in intelligent alien life visiting Earth. And when I have focused specifically on atheists, I find that many of them endorse the ideas that aliens are among us and the government is covering this up. For example, in a recent study I found that only about 7% of atheists completely rejected the idea that UFOs are real and well over half of the sample reported some confidence that they are real...

 

:Based on these and many other findings that I will discuss in future posts, I propose that magical thinking is not an all or nothing concept.<ref>[https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/more-mortal/201504/atheists-love-aliens Atheists Love Aliens] by Clay Routledge Ph.D., Psychology Today</ref>

:Based on these and many other findings that I will discuss in future posts, I propose that magical thinking is not an all or nothing concept.<ref>[https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/more-mortal/201504/atheists-love-aliens Atheists Love Aliens] by Clay Routledge Ph.D., Psychology Today</ref>