Posts Tagged ‘Belief in God’

Intuition and God

Thursday, September 22nd, 2011 by JEL

Whether or not you believe in God might depend upon how you think. Are you one of those people who “goes with your gut” and relies on intuition? If so, you probably believe in God. If you ruminate and reflect on your answers, then you probably don’t believe.

A new study confirms this. Take this simple test: “A bat and a ball cost $1.10 in total. The bat costs $1 more than the ball. How much does the ball cost?”

Did you say 10 cents? You probably believe in God.

The intuitive answer to that question is 10 cents, since most people’s first impulse is to knock $1 off the total. But people who use “reflective” reasoning to question their first impulse are more likely to get the correct answer: 5 cents.

Sure enough, people who went with their intuition on the math test were found to be one-and-a-half times more likely to believe in God than those who got all the answers right. The results held even when taking factors such as education and income into account.