ATHEISM, PSYCHOLOGICAL SUICIDE, AND SOME OTHER BAD NEWS

ATHEISM, PSYCHOLOGICAL SUICIDE, AND SOME OTHER BAD NEWS

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Three studies at Boston University found that atheists acknowledge a Creator God before their conscious mind has a chance to kick in:

∑       The findings "suggest that there is a deeply rooted natural tendency to view nature as designed," writes a research team led by Elisa Järnefelt of Newman University. They also provide evidence that, in the researchers' words, "religious non-belief is cognitively effortful." http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/richard-dawkins-take-heed-even-atheists-instinctively-believe-creator-says-study-1505712

How were these studies able to arrive at such surprising findings?

∑       Researchers attempted to plug into the automatic or "default" human brain by showing subjects images of natural landscapes and things made by human beings, then requiring lightning-fast responses to the question on whether "any being purposefully made the thing in the picture," notes Pacific-Standard.

∑       "Religious participants' baseline tendency to endorse nature as purposefully created was higher" than that of atheists, the study found. But non-religious participants "increasingly defaulted to understanding natural phenomena as purposefully made" when "they did not have time to censor their thinking," wrote the researchers.

∑       The results suggest that "the tendency to construe both living and non-living nature as intentionally made derives from automatic cognitive processes, not just practiced explicit beliefs," the report concluded. The results were similar even among subjects from Finland, where atheism is not a controversial issue as it can be in the US.

This means that denying the existence of an intelligent Designer requires effort. However, their denial is not the denial of an enemy but themselves themselves, their own intuitions. This denial also points to the biblical assertion that we all have the truth about God but we suppress it:

∑       For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. (Romans 1:18-20 ESV)

In light of this, the atheist is like someone trying to conceal an inflated ball under the water. However, it eventually pops to the surface and must again be suppressed. This mirrors our internal struggle when we try to suppress our awareness of God, and this has serious consequences. When our mind is fighting itself, there can be little peace or even clarity but an obsessive tug-of-war - a costly auto-immune response. This battle is then projected upon anyone who expresses a belief in God.

Not only is the atheist at war with himself, but these findings also represent a blow to the naturalistic theory of evolution, which holds that our traits evolved because they conferred on us a survival advantage. This would suggest that the belief in God also confers a survival advantage. However, atheists insist that belief in God is irrational and ruins everything. Some even advocate outlawing religion as a form of child abuse or as something even worse.

However, these experiments suggest that, on an intuitive level, they know better, at least on one level - the level they are trying to eradicate. While this is not child abuse, it might qualify as suicide.