eChurch Blog

Cross-post by Tom Rees – Epiphenom:

What’s the evidence that anxiety and insecurity turns people to religion?

That’s a question that cropped up recently on the Non-religious and Secular Research Network discussion forum. After I finished composing my response, I thought to myself “That’s a ready-made blog post!”. So here, with a few additions and added explanations, it is…

The first place to look is studies in the laboratory that try to subliminally increase the subject’s anxiety and insecurity, and then ask them about their beliefs.

So, for example, Ara Norenzayan has shown that subtly reminding people of death makes them say they are more religious. That’s probably related to something called ‘World View Defence’ – when you remind people about death, they tend to grab onto their traditional, cultural values. Similarly, Iranian students who are made to feel more anxious are more likely to support suicide bombers.

The effect can be quite specific. Aaron Kay has shown that making people feel like they are not in control strengthens their belief in a controlling god – in other words, they compensate for lack of control in their own lives by believing in a god that has it all in hand. What’s more, Kurt Gray has shown that people invoke god as a moral agent to explain negative (but acausal) events.

Our thoughts about the world are subject to all kinds of unconscious biases, and it’s widely believed that these contribute to religious beliefs. And some of these biases are strengthened when people are made to feel anxious. For example, Nicholas Epley has shown that making people feel lonely increases their belief in the supernatural – and also makes them more likely to think that household gadgets have personalities!

In another study, Jennifer Whitson and Adam Galinsky have shown that manipulating people so that they feel out of control makes them more inclined to see patterns that aren’t really there. This is a key part of superstition – once you start to believe that a rain dance actually does make rain, it’s a short step to invoking a deity to explain the link.

Delving deeper into the brain, it gets a bit more complicated. On the one hand, Michael Inzlicht has found that religious people have lower ‘error response negativity’. This is the spike in activity in a part of the middle brain that occurs when you make a mistake – it’s the brain warning system. People who have a lower ERN are less anxious about mistakes (anti-anxiety drugs also lower the ERN).

On the other hand, another study has shown that something called the ‘Behavioural Inhibition System’ – a deep seated biological response that’s linked to anxiety – is increased in religious people. This suggests that religious people may be inherently more anxious.

In the real world

All the studies so far have been looking at psychological response. But what about in the real world? Are religious people anxious, or are they less anxious?

Well,  Janie Wilson has shown that encouraging people to pray was effective in reducing anxiety. However, this was no more effective than getting them to read a self-help text.

Back in the 1930s, a pioneering anthropologist named Malinowski learned that those Trobriand islanders, located in the Pacifc Ocean, who fished in deeper waters (and so were more exposed to storms) had more elaborate pre-fishing rituals. This is supersition, rather than religion, but it goes to show how the need to establish order and fend off uncertainty drives irrational behaviour.

Kevin Flannelly has shown that different beliefs in the afterlife can be linked to either an decrease or an increase in psychosis, depending on the nature of the belief. Of course, working out cause and effect is problematic here, but he interprets this as evidence of what he calls an “Evolutionary Threat Avoidance System” – an alert system which is damped down by the appropriate religious beliefs.

And religion – or at least service attendance – seems to be associated with lower anxiety in the ‘real world’. Chris Lewis has shown that people in Northern Ireland who go to church more often are less anxious (regardless of sex or sect). Terence Hill has shown that, in the USA, prayer and belief in the afterlife is associated with less anxiety. There are, however, quite a few wrinkles in this simple interpretation, and whatever else it’s clear that the effect is pretty small.

One thing that’s often forgotten is that  religion means different things to different people. Dan McAdams has found that, while liberals see a life without religion as barren and colourless, conservatives see it as chaotic and out of control.

Religion also affects how people approach financial worries. Andrew Clark found that European Protestants and Catholics are less fearful of unemployment than the non religious. Kenneth Scheve and David Stasavage have shown that religious people are less in favour of government welfare, perhaps because it acts as a psychological buffer.

Matt Bradshaw and Chris Ellison have shown that religion can reduce the stress caused by financial hardship. This last one is a very recent paper that I haven’t blogged about yet. Stay tuned!

The following piece comes from our US brother Polycarp, who takes us on a journey into Exodus and in the process really cuts to the heart of some of the problems that Biblical literalists or letterists regularly encounter.

We Still Remember: Exodus 17.14 and the Amalekites

In some scriptural situations, extreme biblical literalism would leave God either a failure or a liar. If we took every word of the Sacred Text as viable, without study, question or context, right off the paper which it is now printed on, we would have to confront contradictions, blatant disregard for history, and come to understand that biblical literalism leaves us without a Sacred Text.

Amalek and his descendants had erred onto the bad side of Israel’s God. He was the son of Esau (Genesis 36.12), perhaps the first mistake. While Israel was marching in the Wilderness, the Amalekites attacked the 12 Tribes. Defeated, they suffered the promise of a future wrath from God, which would obliterate them from the memory of humanity.

After the victory, the LORD instructed Moses, “Write this down on a scroll as a permanent reminder, and read it aloud to Joshua: I will erase the memory of Amalek from under heaven.” Exodus 17:14 NLTNLT

Twice more, the Amalekites attacked Israel (Numbers 13 and 24) but were defeated by divine acts. The Exodus command was repeated again in Moses’ final discourse with the Children of Israel,

“Remember what Amalek did to you along the way when you came out from Egypt, how he met you along the way and attacked among you all the stragglers at your rear when you were faint and weary; and he did not fear God. Therefore it shall come about when the LORD your God has given you rest from all your surrounding enemies, in the land which the LORD your God gives you as an inheritance to possess, you shall blot out the memory of Amalek from under heaven; you must not forget. (Deu 25:17-19 NAU)

“Never forget what the Amalekites did to you as you came from Egypt. They attacked you when you were exhausted and weary, and they struck down those who were straggling behind. They had no fear of God. Therefore, when the LORD your God has given you rest from all your enemies in the land he is giving you as a special possession, you must destroy the Amalekites and erase their memory from under heaven. Never forget this! (Deu 25:17-19 NLT)

While God was promising that no one would remember the Amalekites, He was commanding them to never forget what they had endured because of the Amalekites, but it was not over for the two families. In Judges 3, the Moabites allied with the Amalekites and defeated Israel forcing the 12 Tribes to be servants to Eglon of Moab. When the time arrived in which Israel had achieved a stable political sovereignty, they were forced to deal with God’s promise against the Amalekites. Readers should know the story well in 1st Samuel 15, in which King Saul was told to utterly destroy the Amalekite nation:

This is what the LORD of Heaven’s Armies has declared: I have decided to settle accounts with the nation of Amalek for opposing Israel when they came from Egypt. Now go and completely destroy the entire Amalekite nation– men, women, children, babies, cattle, sheep, goats, camels, and donkeys.” (1st Samuel 15:2-3 NLT)

We know that King Saul didn’t do it, not utterly. He and his soldiers kept the spoils of war including the women and children, which would have kept the memory of the Amalekites alive. Saul was disposed and David took the charge,

King David dedicated all these gifts to the LORD, as he did with the silver and gold from the other nations he had defeated– from Edom, Moab, Ammon, Philistia, and Amalek– and from Hadadezer son of Rehob, king of Zobah. (2nd Samuel 8:11-12 NLT)

David, however, didn’t complete the task, but escaped Saul’s demise. It wasn’t until King Hezekiah that the Amalekites suffered full extermination by Israel:

But during the reign of King Hezekiah of Judah, these leaders of Simeon invaded the region and completely destroyed the homes of the descendants of Ham and of the Meunites. No trace of them remains today. They killed everyone who lived there and took the land for themselves, because they wanted its good pastureland for their flocks. Five hundred of these invaders from the tribe of Simeon went to Mount Seir, led by Pelatiah, Neariah, Rephaiah, and Uzziel– all sons of Ishi.

They destroyed the few Amalekites who had survived, and they have lived there ever since. (1Ch 4:41-43 NLT)

It is thought that Haman who attempted to exterminate the Jews was an Amalekite (In Esther 3.1, he is referred to as a Agagite, the king of the Amalekites). Even today, when his name is read during the Jewish feast of Purim, Jews makes noises so that Exodus 17.14 rings true.

While the Amalekites may have been wiped out completely, their memory remains, contrary to Exodus 17.14. This presents us with a few options.

• God was being hyperbolic – which would destroy the notion of an always literal approach to the Sacred Text;
• God lied
• God depended upon humanity to do His bidding, which means His commandment failed.
• We don’t understand fully what the passage means

In my opinion, according to the nature of God as revealed in the texts, only options 1 and 2 are valid responses to the question. The question, of course, being that if God said that He would so utterly wipe the Amalekites off the face of the earth – even the memory of them – then why do we remember them in our Sacred Texts? Even today, some Jews still see the Amalekites as those who opposed Israel – from Adolf Hitler to the Palestinians. Those who do so see no problem with the biblical text as they seemingly do not take it as literal as many Christians.

The author who penned the 83rd psalm didn’t see utter destruction for the Amalekites, instead asking God to humble them, among other names, to His Name:

O my God, scatter them like tumbleweed, like chaff before the wind!
As a fire burns a forest and as a flame sets mountains ablaze, chase them with your fierce storm; terrify them with your tempest.
Utterly disgrace them until they submit to your name, O LORD.
Let them be ashamed and terrified forever. Let them die in disgrace.
Then they will learn that you alone are called the LORD, that you alone are the Most High, supreme over all the earth. (Psalm 83:13-18 NLT)

So, what do the biblical literalists do? Do we feign an answer and say that God hasn’t kept His promise yet but will? How could He when he put the history of the Amalekites into the Sacred Text which will never perish? Esther’s author changed the name of the Amalekites and the Psalmist instead sung of the day which they would submit to the Name of the Lord. Where they expecting a complete wipe of memory, especially seeing that they recorded the events? I note that there are no archeological evidences of the Amalekites.

Scripture is essential to my faith, but literalism is not. I believe that there are answers to this question without turning to the negative consequences. What are your thoughts?

Hat-tip Jospeh:

Fabulous news from a singularly brave and courageous guy, namely, the “Vicar of Baghdad”, Canon Andrew White.

Previous posts: Here, here, here, here, here, here and here.

The following is a cross-post by Bataween from the excellent Point of no Return Blog:

Breaking news: Point of No Return exclusive! (With thanks: Sheila)

Canon Andrew White has confirmed that original Hebrew inscriptions and decoration at the Prophet Ezekiel’s shrine remain intact.

Canon White, the vicar of St George’s Anglican Church in Baghdad, made a special journey to inspect the shrine at al-Kifl in central Iraq following recurrent rumours that the Shi’a wakf, in charge of restoration works, was planning to convert the shrine into a mosque.

Before making the three-hour drive from Baghdad, Canon White requested a 30-soldier escort. During his visit to the tomb, he took pictures and spoke to the local mullahs. Al- Kifl is close to the Sh’ia holy city of Najaf, a frequent target of terrorist attacks, and Canon White himself has had several lucky escapes when his church in Baghdad was bombed. About 1,000 Christians have been killed in Iraq since the US invasion of 2003.

Canon White ‘phoned news of the state of Ezekiel’s tomb to Sheila Raviv, a longstanding friend in Jerusalem, as she was sitting in a traffic jam. Sheila was so overwhelmed with emotion that she almost bumped into the car in front.

It was reported some months ago that workmen had done ‘irretrievable damage‘ to the shrine when they ‘covered over’ the inscriptions by accident.The photos taken by Canon White show that the layer of whitewash or plaster covering the lower walls, a feature of the shrine even in Saddam’s time, has been stripped back to reveal the original mosaics, floral ornamentation and Hebrew inscriptions. Below, the ‘before’ photos taken in 2003 show far less of the original character of the shrine than do the ‘after’ photographs taken by Canon White of the shrine today.

It seems that the authorities, possibly reacting to outside pressure, have made a deliberate effort to strip back plaster and whitewash to reveal the original character of the shrine, and that the damage has not been as irretrievable as first feared.

Make sure to pop over to the Point of no Return blog, to view an array of piccies!

The news that police officers who follow Pagan religions have been recognised by the Home Office as a “diversity staff support association” – a status also enjoyed by groups representing female, black, gay, Muslim and disabled officers – is everywhere at the mo.

TimesOnline:

[.....]

Endorsement would mean that chief constables could not refuse a pagan officer’s request to take feast days as part of his or her annual leave. The eight pagan festivals include Imbolc (the feast of lactating sheep), Lammas (the harvest festival) and the Summer Solstice (when mead drinking and naked dancing are the order of the day).

Problematically, the pagan festivals also include Samhain (known to non-pagans as Hallowe’en), a day when police leave is often cancelled because of the high incidence of vandalism, violence and antisocial behaviour.

The new association, which already has three official police chaplains and committee members in the Metropolitan, Hertfordshire and Humberside forces, welcomed its breakthrough. PC Andrew Pardy, its vice-chairman and a beat officer in Hemel Hempstead, Hertfordshire, said: “The Police Service needs to embrace paganism in order to represent communities effectively.”

Mr Pardy, who worships Norse gods, added: “All activities undertaken by the association support and reinforce the vision and values of the Police Service, while upholding the Home Office standards for equality and diversity.”

However, there is unease in policing circles that the widening definition of diversity is creating a morass of organisations based on religion, gender and sexual orientation that appear to emphasise division.

Andy Hayman, the former Metropolitan Police Assistant Commissioner, said: “No one would want to deprive any officer from being able to follow their religious belief — but what is difficult to understand is why representative groups have been springing up at such an alarming rate. Members of these associations are often permitted to meet in duty time — taking them away from their policing duties. The public are right to wonder sometimes whether any police work gets done.”

Mark Wallace, of the Taxpayers’ Alliance, said he was astonished that the Home Office had time to consider the application from the Pagan Police. “Taxpayers don’t want the police obsessing about what divides them, they want them to be a united force protecting the public.

Continue Reading

Some are not too impresssed of course.

These sorts of developments are inevitable as Christianity has been demoted socially and made equal in status to all other religions.

I’m not clear on how this all works in practice and I wonder if Pagan officers will forego their Christian holiday entitlements?

It appears to me that our diverse, pluralistic and yet equal society will become very complicated to manage indeed.

UPDATE: Ruth Gledhill has written an interesting piece on the tolerance and acceptance of Paganism in our society:

Ruth Gledhill TimesOnline: Tolerance of paganism now a symbol of civilised society

Back in February the Financial Times explored the influence Evangelical Christians have in the Tory party. This article charted the last decade’s resurgence of Christian influence within the Tory party, however, this was presented in a rather dark and ominous fashion and was duly picked up on by Cranmer.

Last December the Economist also looked at the influence of religion in politics and drew attention to the ascension of Christianity on Tory thinking. Here’s a snippet:

Iain Duncan Smith, Mr Cameron’s predecessor-but-one and a fervent Catholic, is the party’s main advocate of fighting worklessness and family breakdown through reform of the welfare system. He is likely to feature in a Cameron government. His Centre for Social Justice (CSJ) is now the most influential think-tank on the right. Many of its senior figures are Christians, including its director, Philippa Stroud, a former charity worker and now a Tory parliamentary candidate. On November 26th Mr Cameron spoke at the launch of ResPublica, a think-tank run by Philip Blond, a former theologian whose communitarian conservatism has also grabbed the Tory leader’s attention.

As far back as last October Theos analysed a speech given by David Cameron at the Conservative party conference and noted that he drew on biblical allusions in order to communicate his message:

Commenting on the speech, Paul Woolley, Director of Theos said: “The parallels between the Beatitudes and the poetry of David Cameron’s speech were remarkable.

“Sections of the speech clearly reflected the structure of a number of biblical passages.

“The use of religious allusions might reflect Mr Cameron’s interest in religious groups in our society, but it’s also an effective way of communicating to people at a deeper level. Tony Blair understood that well.

“The levels of biblical literacy in our society are low, but there is still a strong biblical subconscious in people that political leaders like David Cameron can appeal to.”

In April Ekklesia countered these assertions upon the publication of the Tory Manifesto, noting their “God shaped hole”:

David Cameron has been left facing an embarrassing situation today following the launch of the Conservative manifesto, which makes no reference to religion, faith, faith schools or the contribution of church or other religious groups to society.

And today we have Andrew Brown of the Guardian alerting us to the dangers of the rise of an American-style evangelical party emerging within the Conservative party, as a result of David Cameron’s failure to win the election outright.

So the questions that are raised in my mind are:

Is there a rise (or potential rise) of Christian influence within the Conservative party?

If so, is this dangerous or undesirable?

UPDATE: George Pitcher over at the Telegraph has put together a short piece juxtaposing Cameron’s Christianity with Clegg’s atheism:

George Pitcher Telegraph: The Con-Dem coalition: An intriguing union of Dave’s Christianity and Nicky’s atheism

Basically an open thread is the place where you can talk about whatever is of interest to you.

A few of the blogs I visit offer open threads and some are greatly utilised and others not so, so thought I’d give it a go and see if you fine blog readers are interested in something like this.

FOX NEWS:

Young people are defining their own spiritual paths, says Rebecca Phillips, vice president of social networking for Beliefnet.com.

Like countless people of her generation, Alexis Iacono goes online for just about everything: Facebook, fashion … and faith.

“I go to the Internet and when I’m stuck and I’m not sure, and the research is right there, the answers are right there,” the Long Island, N.Y., resident says.

She’s not alone.

Young people are defining their own spiritual paths, says Rebecca Phillips, vice president of social networking for Beliefnet.com. “Young people are not necessarily doing the same thing religion-wise that their parents did, and they’re developing their own unique brands of spirituality,” she says.

It seems to affirm a Lifeway Christian Resources study showing that 72 percent of Millennials, the generation between 18 and 30 years old, say they are more spiritual than religious. Fewer of them attend worship services, pray or read sacred scriptures.

And technology is helping fuel that generational faith gap.

“In some ways it’s breaking down connections with local churches,” says David Kinnaman, president of the research organization The Barna Group. “Their access to peers is increasing, so that influences the way they make moral and ethical decisions.”

“They’re exposed to a variety of faith perspectives,” he says, meaning they can tailor-make their own religion.

But not all agree with Lifeway’s research.

Beliefnet.com found that nearly half the teens it polled felt they were more religious than their parents’ generation.

“Online, what people are doing is seeking out truth,” Phillips says, “and it might not be in the traditional way of a pastor speaking from a pulpit.”

It also might be a matter of semantics.

“I think their generation is really turned off by the term religion,” LifeChurch.TV’s Pastor Bobby Gruenewald says, “They see it as a set of rules or something that represents the past.”

Looking to the future is the challenge. Many religious organizations are realizing that to shepherd the millennial flock, you must meet them where they live … online.

LifeChurch.TV boasts 80,000 congregants through the Web. They log on to hear sermons and chat with other worshippers.

There are countless faith-based phone apps, worship Web pages, online scripture readings, even prayer websites. And tweeting is encouraged.

“It doesn’t necessarily mean the old is going away,” says Gruenewald. “It just means that this is a way to reach people that maybe otherwise wouldn’t be able to be reached.”

But others warn that finding religion online has its drawbacks.

Jesse Rice, author of “The Church of Facebook,” says “Millennials value authenticity so much, but the irony is they’re settling for an inauthentic way to receive it.”

“Spirituality becomes a more compartmentalized thing,” says Rice, because the user is in the driver’s seat. It won’t necessarily change who they are.

But the Internet also levels the playing field between young people and the authority of the church, giving them a sense of control that previous generations never had.

“It does allow people to question, to check out a variety of sources when they have questions about what this religion believes … or what this history is and so forth,” says Dr. Brenda Brasher, author of “Give Me That Online Religion.” “I would imagine that the best religious leaders see this as a sort of provocative challenge of how do they carry the word of truth that they feel and that enlivens them … and that they think guides all of existence. How do they carry that word into this kind of generation?”

Young people are not only creating their own religious identities, they may also be changing the future of worship itself.

The following is taken from the CPA website:

Election Result brings Electoral Reform and Christian Democracy in Britain A Step Closer

With no single party having an overall majority in Parliament following the General Election, prospects of electoral reform are a step closer in Britain. The Conservatives are the biggest party but can’t form a majority government on their own. This is the first time a balanced Parliament has been the outcome of an election in the UK since 1974. Any agreement to govern between Labour, the Liberal Democrats and others could see the introduction of fairer ways of voting, paving the way for the emergence of Christian Democracy as a viable electoral option.

Commenting on the outcome, Leader of the Christian Peoples Alliance, Alan Craig, said:

“The nation has held its collective nose and voted for parties it has learned to dislike. With no clear outcome, what is evident is that an electoral system which puts a single party in power with less than 40 per cent of the vote is finished. This must be the last general election under first past the post. The new Prime Minister should bring forward a bill to introduce proportional representation.

“Across Europe, Christian Democratic parties such as the Christian Peoples Alliance successfully take part in strong and stable coalition governments. Under Labour, we have seen the increasing marginalisation of the voice of the Church, from the illegal war in Iraq to deepening inequality, attacks on the civil liberties of Christians and public insults directed at the Pope. A party of conscience is needed in Parliament to speak up for the social teachings of the churches and work with other parties in government to deliver Christian-inspired policies. ”

Under PR in EU elections last year, the Christian ‘ticket’ won votes from a quarter of a million people in Britain. In this election, the Christian Peoples Alliance ran 17 candidates where there was local goodwill, in order to promote the party as an electoral option to the community. CPA Leader Alan Craig said he was neither surprised nor disappointed by their results and sent a message of congratulations to those who stood. (See below for full results.) In the one seat the CPA focussed its national effort, West Ham, the party candidate, Stan Gain, won 1,327 votes (2.83%) coming 4th and beating the Greens, UKIP and the National Front.

And:

Alan Craig and CPA Councillors Lose Seats in Newham Labour Tsunami

In local Council elections held the same day as the General Election in Britain, candidates standing for the Christian Peoples Alliance have made no gains nationally and lost all the seats they held. Leader of the CPA, Alan Craig, with Denise Stafford and Hamilton Amcharee lost the CPA’s 3 seats in Canning Town South in the London Borough of Newham, in a vote which saw Labour take 60 out of 60 seats on the Council.

In a separate contest for elected Mayor of Newham, Alan Craig won 6553 votes, coming 4th to the main parties and saving his deposit. Speaking to supporters at the election count, Alan Craig said:

“We are sorry not to have the chance to continue working for the community we have loved serving. But we could not resist the Labour tsunami of votes,as people voted all the way down the ballot paper for the party they see as the only defence against Conservative cuts. This has been a bad result for us locally and nationally.”

In neighbouring wards in the borough, the party held its status as second to the sitting Labour councillors, following years of hard-work and service to the community. In their time on the Council, Christians activists had helped over a thousand families get action from their local authority.

In a day which saw turnout shoot up by 17 per cent in Canning Town South, all 3 Labour candidates won over 2000 votes each. For CPA, Hamilton Amachree won 892, Alan Craig won 1399 and Denise Stafford polled 1004 votes, but were squeezed out of the race, with the Conservatives coming 3rd, taking over 700 votes each, despite not having any local presence.

Across London and the south of England, the Christian Peoples Alliance ran over a hundred local authority candidates, many who were active in serving the community well before the election.

Commenting on the results, CPA Federal President, David Campanale said:

“Clearly, to lose our local councillors is a huge disappointment. Our team did all they could over years of faithful service to advance a Christian vision for Newham. But for many voters, jobs and livelihoods were at stake with the rise of David Cameron.

“Around the country, Christians have chosen to vote for parties that have backed laws which take Britain away from its history of religious freedom, conscience and morality.

“Every other European country has seen Christian Democrats emerge in response to the rise of secular intolerance and injustice. In Britain, the CPA is but servants of the community and a voice for church teaching. With PR increasingly likely, it is up to Christian leaders to get smart about our post-Christendom culture and where the CPA will fit into Britain’s political landscape.”

UPDATE: Colin has emailed over a very comprehensive list of Christian candidates and their vote scores which can be found on this link:

Christian Votes – download Document

Christian Votes PDF format

Thanks Colin!

I’m ashamed to admit that I’ve never been a fan of Rev Peter Owen Jones or his documentaries, as for some unknown reason he has always irked me.

Given this I had to be somewhat coerced to watch his new series on living a mendicant lifestyle, loosely based on the teachings of Saint Francis of Assisi.

And I’m glad I did, as I thoroughly enjoyed the first episode, much to my own surprise.

The Telegraph have a write up on the series here.