Non-religious people believe in weird stuff also

This isn't a big shocker, really. But it was still surprising to read that people who don't believe in God actually are more likely to hold other unfounded beliefs, like aliens visiting Earth.

So says psychologist Clay Routledge in a New York Times piece, "Don't Believe in God? Maybe You'll Try U.F.O.s."

People who do not frequently attend church are twice as likely to believe in ghosts as those who are regular churchgoers. The less religious people are, the more likely they are to endorse empirically unsupported ideas about U.F.O.s, intelligent aliens monitoring the lives of humans and related conspiracies about a government cover-up of these phenomena.

An emerging body of research supports the thesis that these interests in nontraditional supernatural and paranormal phenomena are driven by the same cognitive processes and motives that inspire religion. For instance, my colleagues and I recently published a series of studies in the journal Motivation and Emotion demonstrating that the link between low religiosity and belief in advanced alien visitors is at least partly explained by the pursuit of meaning. The less religious participants were, we found, the less they perceived their lives as meaningful. This lack of meaning was associated with a desire to find meaning, which in turn was associated with belief in U.F.O.s and alien visitors.

When people are searching for meaning, their minds seem to gravitate toward thoughts of things like aliens that do not fall within our current scientific inventory of the world. Why? I suspect part of the answer is that such ideas imply that humans are not alone in the universe, that we might be part of a larger cosmic drama. As with traditional religious beliefs, many of these paranormal beliefs involve powerful beings watching over humans and the hope that they will rescue us from death and extinction.

Well, I know quite a few atheists who don't believe in U.F.O.s or ghosts. This includes me and my wife. We get along just fine without either religion, or irrational fact-free substitutes for religion. 

I'm not saying that everything we believe is true. Far from it. We simply do our best to put our faith in what is known to exist within the natural world, rather than embrace supernatural entities or far-fetched physical phenomena such as alien visitations.

I agree that we humans have a strong drive to find meaning in our lives. However, there are plenty of ways to do this other than those mentioned in in Routledge's essay. 

Family. Friends. Volunteer work. Art. Civic activism. Politics. Nature. Gardening. One's profession. Writing. Meditation. To name just a few.

Routledge says we have a quest for significance. Agreed. I just disagree that believing in a religion or U.F.O's is a good way to feel that our lives have meaning. How about working to make this world a better place? Isn't that a significant thing to do?

Comments

[vinny]

Yogic system of breath control and do's don'ts is perhaps the only path which is not based on belief system. Perhaps the only path which compares our celebrated existence of wakefulness / dreams & deep sleep to death on daily basis. Perhaps the only path which celebrates eternal life advocated by Jesus in the process of samadhi . Perhaps the only path which gives scientific explanation of eternal life by citing etheric realm of energy powering whole universe from electrons to human beings.

[Jen]

You and your wife... "do our best to put our faith in what is known to exist within the natural world, rather than embrace supernatural entities or far-fetched physical phenomena such as alien visitations."

Sounds so very boring and also condescending. Many people cling to the so called 'reality' of this life on earth. I think because of fear that they might be judged by others to not be as intelligent and all knowing that they think they are.

I have a vivid imagination, am creative and love painting abstracts, probably because I have always had questions about the so called 'reality' of this world. Our brains are pattern recognition machines.

About beliefs - I think that because I have an open and questioning mind, I have had some interesting experiences - seen a UFO (with a friend) so must have both been hallucinating? Had a telepathic conversation with beings and told some interesting off world information. I do acknowledge that this was probably my own consciousness doing this. But why? Because I find the normal lifestyle of most people very boring? I don't drink alcohol or take mind altering drugs, so it probably is my quest for finding meaning to life.

I do hope there are more intelligent species observing us as we seem to be intent on destroying our world. No big deal, wondering whats out there, just makes life more interesting in my view.

[Daniel]

Sorry, but in April 1977, near the border of Montana and South Dakota, my brother and I saw a UFO (and at least 2 other people who were not with my brother and I). I was still a believer in a god at the time, but I have been an atheist now for about the last 15 years. The craft (a sphere, with 3 "antenna" protrusions that retracted just before leaving Earth) started with hovering to an "instant" acceleration and "warp seed," and flew horizontally into outer space (it was at night so I could see the light trail). I believe the long light trail was probably like the residual light in the eyes after the light source is already gone.

I know it was almost surely an ET craft, unless somebody on earth was much more advanced than humans are now. I can't explain where it came from when distances in space are so far or if anything was in in it, but it was so close I could see the mixture of colors on the sphere and "antennas" of the same colors.

Although atheists are right to be skeptical (I'm still skeptical of individual UFO sightings, but I don't claim that they are all from "delusion" and I know I'm not delusional unless I'm so delusional I don't know it, LOL), I get extremely irritated with atheists who claim they believe UFOs don't exist as if it is a foregone conclusion, and that atheists who have seen UFOs are delusional and the like. I have as much confidence that the UFO I saw was ET craft (a "probe"?) as I am sure that there is no god, which I estimate is about 99.999% likely that there is no god.

I don't believe UFOs are inconsistent with reality, but I do believe ghosts are inconsistent with reality, but I won't call someone delusional who thinks they actually saw a ghost. After all, before I saw the UFO in 1977, I thought all UFO sightings were likely not ET craft.

[vinny]

Validating yogic and vedantic way of life , Sun gazers are taking energy directly from Sun without eating food . NASA has approved the validity of Sun gazers. Every scientific discovery is corroborating Yogic / Vedantic way of life.

[Spencer Tepper]

Brian.

I get that you don't believe in God.

But no Aliens?

Really, must you insult the entire creation?

I wouldn't visit here either with such a poor attitude!