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."

In September of 2008, the Wall Street Journal reported:

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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.

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Irreligion, evolutionary belief UFOlogy and other pseudoscience

See also: Evolution, Liberalism, Atheism, and Irrationality

File:Another atheist pothead.JPG

Carl Sagan

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

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

Irreligious/atheistic France and the Soviet Union and UFOlogy

Astronomer Dr. Hugh Ross states 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. According to Dr. Ross very few astronomers have seen residual UFOs.

Astronomer Dr. Hugh Ross states 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. According to Dr. Ross very few astronomers have seen residual UFOs.

The following newspaper excerpt summarizes Dr. Ross's findings:

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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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Christians who reject naturalistic explanations of life such as the theory of evolution have presented arguments in the field of Christian apologetics regarding UFO's being spiritual in nature and not amenable to naturalistic explanation.

Non-extraterrestial life explanations for reports of UF0s

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:

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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.

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Prominent UFO researcher John Keel concurred. After surveying the literature on demonology Keel stated,

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The manifestations and occurrences described in this imposing literature are similar if not entirely identical to the UFO phenomenon itself.

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Evolutionists, atheists, irrational thinking and health practices

See also: Atheism and obesity and Atheism and Mental and Physical Health and Evolutionists who have had problems with being overweight and/or obese

Obesity is positively associated with impulsiveness, lower self-discipline and neuroticism. In addition, many people overeat in response to negative emotions such as depression, anger, anxiety and boredom. No doubt pseudoscientific and superstitious thinking in many cases is partly due to lack of self-discipline as rigorous scientific thinking and logic require disciplined thought.

A 2009 picture of a significantly overweight PZ Myers can be found HERE. A 2010 picture taken in Australia shows PZ Myers drinking ale/beer and he had excess weight in his abdominal area. In 2010, PZ Myers had health problems related to his heart. In addition, medical science research indicates that excess weight impairs brain function. Given PZ Myers' biological training and the wide dissemination of the harmful health effects of being overweight in terms of cardiovascular health and brain function, it is unfortunate that preventative medicine was not used in greater measure in terms of his health. PZ Myers' inattention to diligently implementing the recommendations of medical science is not entirely surprising given his vehement advocacy of evolutionary pseudoscience.

In August 2009, PZ Myers led a group of over 300 atheist and agnostic students on a tour of the Creation Museum. During the visit, Myers had noticeably greater difficulty than others climbing on and off a dinosaur model due to the fact that he was overweight and out of shape.VIDEO

There have been a number of notable evolutionists who have been overweight. In addition, as noted earlier, since World War II a majority of the most prominent and vocal defenders of the evolutionary position which employs methodological naturalism have been atheists. For a list of overweight and/or obese notable atheists please see: Atheism and obesity

Physical and mental health related problems associated with obesity

Some of the medical conditions associated with obesity include: type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure, high cholesterol and triglycerides, coronary artery disease (CAD), stroke, arthritis, cancer, sleep apnea, reproductive problems in women and varicose veins. In addition, medical science research indicates that excess weight impairs brain function.

Medical science research indicates that excess weight impairs brain function.

According to the Mayo Clinic some of the symptoms associated with obesity can include:

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Difficulty sleeping Snoring Sleep apnea Pain in your back or joints Excessive sweating Always feeling hot Rashes or infection in folds of your skin Feeling out of breath with minor exertion Daytime sleepiness or fatigue Depression

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Concerning the issue of depression, atheists do have higher rates of suicide than the general population.

See also

• Atheism
• Agnosticism
• Superstition
• Evolution
• Abiogenesis