psychology

A collection of 116 posts

cognitive dissonance

Trump and his cult of cognitive dissonance

Trump is in legal hot water. But what will be more interesting for observers is not his reaction but that of his fervent followers.

church attendance

The illusion of choice in what we believe

There is a phenomenon that has been taking place, particularly in the US, with greater regularity over the last few decades—the behavior of "church shopping." The congregant attends a church and listens to the pastor making moral-political statements, and they think to themselves, "This pastor is

Christianity

The stark similarity between Trump support and God belief

The January 6th hearings have been eye-opening and should leave no one in two minds about the hugely questionable moral behavior of Trump. Christian theologians and apologists have one job: to maintain the primacy—the moral perfection—of both God and the Bible. Everything they do is to maintain both

cognitive dissonance

Tom Cruise and Scientology: A lesson in cognitive dissonance

If you didn't know any better, you'd think it was 1986 again. We're at war with Russia by proxy, Kate Bush is top of the charts, and Top Gun is in the movie theaters. Tom Cruise has soared back into our cinemas and into

Caleb Lack

When therapists push religion

Leaving religion can be a very challenging undertaking, particularly in the US, and especially in communities outside of large urban centers, where unbelief is rarely the norm. Given the often daunting psychological challenges that can accompany the task of deconverting, psychiatric help can be very important. But despite what one

Biblical Exegesis

Archetypes and the Story of Joseph - Part 2

This is another guest post from Dana Horton following up a recent first post, "Archetypes and the Story of Joseph - Part 1". Thanks so much to Dana for this, as ever. We’re back! Our last post (more than a month ago) was about archetypes — or more

Dave Armstrong

Putting the Doubting Thomas Episode to Bed, and Opening a Can of Worms

This is a long piece, but we get onto some good stuff, so stay on target. Catholic Dave Armstrong, over at his own Patheos Catholic channel blog, has been attempting to refute my recent pieces both on Doubting Thomas and on picking apart his own responses. Unfortunately, Dave is pretty

free will

Sapolsky and Carroll on Human Behaviour

Whilst we are on the subject of free will and human behaviour, here is a podcast involving two of my favourite thinkers/authors: Robert Sapolsky and Sean Carroll. Sapolsky's Behave [UK] and Carroll's The Big Picture [UK] are well worth getting. https://www.youtube.com/watch?

Biblical Exegesis

Archetypes and the Story of Joseph - Part 1

Thanks again for Dana Horton for another stimulating guest piece, this time on Jungian-style archetypes regarding the Bible: Archetypes and the Story of Joseph -- Part 1 (5-minute read) Over on the blog site Three Bullet Thursday, we (i.e. “I”) ran a series of essays on the story of

channel - politics blue

Epistemology: Trump, Fraud and Believing his Swamp

Trump seems to have fully jettisoned himself off the deep end. The latest example of his growing desperation and idiocy is the unhinged phone call he had with the Republican Georgian Secretary of State for which he has now been reported to the FBI for. I have listened to parts

Philosophy of Religion

My Chichester Humanists Nativity Talk Is Available for You to Watch

Here is a talk I gave to Chichester Humanists earlier this week on the Nativity - it is a romp through the territory of the infancy narratives. The Q&A session at the end was a little like my actual non-virtual talks of old where I would go round

conspiracy theories

Conspiracy Theorists

I like 3lermeope: he (I presume) always brings fine wine to the party, and for that I am hugely grateful. Here, he shares a bottle with C Peterson, and they both like a good pinot:* I don’t care for the conspiracy theorist fools in the thread below spilling their

Biblical Exegesis

How the psychology of grief might have affected the origins of the Resurrection story

Here is an excerpt from a brilliant book by anthropologist of religion, Homuyan Sidky - Religion, Supernaturalism and the Paranormal: An Anthropological Critique - concerning the psychology of grief and how it leads to hallucinations. The book is an academic title that commands quite a price. The Psychology of Grief

conservatism

Does Belief in God Drive One's Politics or Politics Drive One's Belief in God?

Disclaimer: I, like many of you, am an agnostic-atheist and so the answer is neither. Or is it? Because this question can be applied to me, too. Let me elucidate... In general terms, for religious people, what is the direction of causality? A few things to note first here; firstly,

2020 Election

Putting the Trumpian Cognitive Dissonance to Bed

This is my second piece dealing with a comment from someone I know on Facebook. Yesterday, I went to town on the claims that, compared to Trump, Biden is a racist crook. This seemed to be one of the bases of this person's support for Trump against Biden.

Empty tomb

Motivated Reasoning and the Resurrection

Luke Breuer reminded me of the old canard of motivated reasoning today (on Bert's piece on freethought), and it's a thing that is utterly foundational to beliefs and worldviews. At the end of the day, we are thoroughly psychological creatures. As you may know, I am

Jesus

Visions of Jesus

I am just researching visions and hallucinations for my present book project The Resurrection: A Critical Analysis of the Easter Story and I thought I'd share my draft introduction to the section: When I previously came to read about visions (as something seen, whether or not it is

Islam

Persecution: A Tale of Two Muslim Minorities

In talking in my last post about persecution, my call is to try to be nuanced. Sadly, my interlocutor supposedly read the piece and concluded: Nevertheless, we seem very shy about mentioning persecution of Christians in the world here in the West. I don't think Johno ever actually

Coronavirus

Coronavirus Chat with Andrew Hall: Philosophy, Politics & Health

Here is an interview chat I did with fellow Patheos Nonreligious blogger Andrew Hall. We touch on health, pandemics, politics (such as the Democratic primaries), psychology and philosophy in a genial chat. Let me know what you think: Check him out at his fellow Patheos blog: https://onlysky.media/ahall

moral psychology

Religion, Psychology & Morality: Most People Aren't Very Nice

I've come to the conclusion that, after many long years of thinking and experiencing, rather more often than originally suspected, people aren't very nice. Let me see if I can qualify this. Most people are quite nice. They are nice enough to those around them: their

consequentialism

The US Political Landscape Crumbles; Consequentialism Reigns Supreme

Holy cow. Where to start. I know this is "supposed" to be a blog concerned with atheism and religiosity, but how can I not comment on the ongoing sh!tstorm that is US politics? There are so many little areas to talk about that this piece could be

Demographics of Religion

Religion, Atheism, Authoritarianism and the In-Group

Aggressive behavior does not appear to be strongly related to religiosity, although those with higher religiosity self-report as being less aggressive than those with lower religiosity. Similarly, as will be covered in greater detail in the following chapter, the nonreligious have the lowest levels of racial, ethnic, and sexual minority

immigration

Everyone's a Little Bit Racist: Trump, Farage and Modern Politics

The title really should be "Everyone's a Little Bit In-groupy..." but it doesn't flow so well... For various evolutionary reasons, we are very distrustful of people in the outgroup. There would have been benefits for troops of primates who would be more genetically different

guilt

Shame vs Guilt: The Rise of Shaming in Western Cultures

Guilt is often something associated with the Catholic Church. However, according to many, it goes deeper and larger than that. Guilt can be seen as very much a western, cultural characteristic that is used to great effect in more individualistic cultures. Shame, on the other hand, can be seen as

Trump

Psychiatrist: Trump's Pre-Dementia & Cognitive Decline Getting Worse

This is something about which we have laughed and joked to some time. However, this really may be a far more serious threat or issue than we have given it credit for. Donald Trump is the single most powerful man in the world, arguably. With great power comes great responsibility