Era

Belief Bias: the tendency for one’s preexisting beliefs to distort logical reasoning, sometimes by making invalid conclusions seem valid, or valid conclusions seem invalid.

The Belief Perseverance Phenomenon: our tendency to cling to our beliefs in the face of contradictory evidence.

Illusory correlation: when we believe there is a relationship between two things and we are likely to notice and recall instances that confirm our belief, but forget the misses.

In any case, are irreligious ‘beliefs’ applicable to The Belief Perseverance Phenomenon too?

Regards,

Era

truthie

I like the Belief Perseverance Phenomenon, but whether it can be applied to atheism I do not know.

Illusory correlation, that one is quite common, especially regarding things like the paranormal...miracles, magic and so on.

Belief Bias seems to me like something that could create some form of religious insanity.

BTW, this post seems to belong to Science and Skepticism?

T.

Biff the unclean

Do you mean that there being no hide nor hair of God (or anything supernatural for that matter) might re-enforce the idea that there isn't any God (or supernatural for that matter)? That for some strange reason people with no reason to believe don't start believing when they aren't give a reason?
That's not much of a phenomenon. :huh:

Soralis

He might have been talking about beliefs about other things and not about religions that follow the same pheonomenon. For example, Something that comes to mind is carrying a rabbit's foot around, or repeating a series of actions before an event, because one time you did that and the outcome of the event was good, so you repeat them, even if they're unrelated to the event and the event turns out bad occasionally. Superstitions in general often fall into this category.

reprise

The "Belief Persistence Phenomenon" could only be applied to disbelief if that disbelief persisted in the face of contrary evidence. There are many threads on this messageboard in which non-theists have stated exactly what evidence it would take to convince them of the existence of a deity.

The AntiChris

Of course.

The fact that strong atheists are 'right' doesn't exclude the possibility that some of us might be right for the wrong reasons.

Chris

Era

My opinion regarding this query.

Basically, there is evidence for the validity of the idea of the supernatural, which could be classified as contrary evidence.
However, if the evidence is poor, then irreligious disbeliefs such as non-supernaturalism are not applicable to the phenomenon.

Regards,

Era

whichphilosophy

This can apply to anyone. I think we all are a bit like that, because we have fixed opinions etc. However I would say those are the qualifications for a newspaper editor, a politician and if fully applied a fanatic of any persuasion.

Regards,

truthie

True, but in this case I think Era's OP is focusing on religion...and how this phenomena can be applied to religion too.

I have seen that these phenomena take place a lot among theists and non-theists alike.
But mostly on theists when it comes to the illusory correlation and belief bias.

T.