Thomas J Coleman
Datos Biográficos
| ID | 286719 |
|---|---|
| NOMBRE | Thomas J Coleman |
| NOMBRES | Thomas J |
| APELLIDO | Coleman |
| FIRMA | COLEMAN T J |
| AFILIACIONES | Coventry University |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-3003-5090 |
| VERIFICADO | Sí |
| TOTAL DE OBRAS | 17 |
| TOTAL DE CITAS | 30 |
| TOTAL COMO AUTOR | 17 |
| TOTAL COMO EDITOR | 0 |
| PRIMER AÑO DE PUBLICACIÓN | 2014 |
| AÑO MÁS RECIENTE DE PUBLICACIÓN | 2025 |
| ÍNDICE H | 2 |
Spirituality of Science
Scientists often refer to spiritual experiences with science. This research addresses this unique component of science attitudes— spirituality of science: feelings of meaning, awe, and connection derived through scientific ideas. Three studies ( N = 1,197) examined individual differences in Spirituality of Science (SoS) and its benefits for well-being, meaning, and learning. Spirituality of Science was related to belief in science, but unlike oth…
What do nonreligious nonbelievers believe in? Secular worldviews around the world
The global increase in nonreligious individuals begs for a better understanding of what nonreligious beliefs and worldviews actually entail. Rather than assuming an absence of belief or imposing a predetermined set of beliefs, this research uses an open-ended approach to investigate which secular beliefs and worldviews nonreligious nontheistic individuals in 10 countries around the world might endorse. Approximately, one thousand participants wer…
In Doubt and Disbelief
Serpent Handling
The ritual handling of serpents remains an unnoticed cultural form for the explanatory aims and theoretical insights desired by cognitive scientists of religion. In the current article, we introduce the Hood and Williams archives at The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga that contains data culled from Hood’s 40-plus year career of studying serpent handlers. The archives contain hundreds of hours of interviews and recordings of speaking in ton…
Absorption, Mentalizing, and Mysticism
Research suggests trait absorption, individual differences in Theoryof Mind (ToM), and orthopraxical training are importantfor explaining a variety of extraordinary experiences typicallyassociated with religion. However, no studies exist quantifyingToM ability or testing its relationship with trait absorption inthe prediction of what is arguably the most ubiquitous type ofextraordinary experience-the mystical experience. To addressthis, two explo…
Predicting age of atheism
The cultural learning concept of Credibility Enhancing Displays (CREDs) concerns the extent to which behavioral models consistently live out their professed ideals. While researchers have suggested that past CRED exposure is an important variable for predicting who does and does not become a religious believer, it is unclear how CREDs relate to when a person rejects the religious beliefs modeled to them during their upbringing. Using a large samp…
An Atheist Perspective on Self-Esteem and Meaning Making while under Death Awareness
In accordance with Terror Management Theory research, secular beliefs can serve an important role for mitigating existential concerns by providing atheists with a method to attain personal meaning and bolster self-esteem. Although much research has suggested that religious beliefs are powerful defense mechanisms, these effects are limited or reveal more nuanced effects when attempting to explain atheists’ (non)belief structures. The possibility o…
Keeping the Secular Deck Intact
Response to: Podcast with Donovan Schaefer, 28 November 2016Interviewed by Christopher R. CotterTranscribed by Catrin J. SawfordAudio and transcript available at: https://religiousstudiesproject.com/podcast/is-secularism-a-world-religion
Researcher Degrees of Freedom in the Psychology of Religion
There is a push in psychology toward more transparent practices, stemming partially as a response to the replication crisis. We argue that the psychology of religion should help lead the way toward these new, more transparent practices to ensure a robust and dynamic subfield. One of the major issues that proponents of Open Science practices hope to address is researcher degrees of freedom (RDF). We pre-registered and conducted a systematic review…
History as a Canceled Problem? Hilbert Lists, du Bois-Reymond’s Enigmas, and the Scientific Study of Religion
The present article reviews the identification of “Hilbert Problems” in the scientific study of religion as presented in a call for papers and a subsequent special issue of Religion, Brain & Behavior (2015; 2017). Specific attention is herein devoted to some overlooked epistemological and methodological issues, that is, mathematical Platonism and presentism. Most importantly, notwithstanding the advances produced by the recent experimental turn i…
Atheists on the Santiago Way
In the past 30 years, the camino to Santiago de Compostela has been recreated as an eclectic pilgrimage, open to both religious and atheist travelers. Following previous work on motivational orientations and religion, we conducted a study examining atheist versus religious pilgrims' motivations to walk the Santiago way. We assessed pilgrims (N = 360) at various parts of the northern Spanish camino using a questionnaire that measured motivations t…
An introduction to atheism, agnosticism, and nonreligious worldviews
Death, quest, and self-esteem
Terror management theory suggests that when mortality concerns are salient, religion can serve as a defence in order to boost self-esteem and shield against the potential for anxiety. The current study examined whether individual differences in religious orientation (i.e., quest) interacted with reminders of death to influence well-being. To the extent that religiosity buffers against mortality awareness on defensiveness, the present results demo…
Non-Belief
Psychology of religion research is typically conducted with Protestant populations living in the West. Only recently has non-belief in God become a central topic in the field. And while it remains an open question whether or not the research assumptions and theoretical frameworks designed for Western populations of Protestants can be applied to non-believers, exploring non-belief in the Islamic context may pose additional problems. For example, d…
What Do You Mean, "What Does It All Mean?" Atheism, Nonreligion, and Life Meaning
Nonreligion is often thought to be commensurate with nihilism or fatalism, resulting in the perception that the nonreligious have no source of meaning in life. While views to this effect have been advanced in various arenas, no empirical evaluation of such a view has been conducted. Using data from the 2008 American General Social Survey ( N = ~1,200), we investigated whether atheists, the religiously unaffiliated, and persons raised religiously …
Portrait
As the first invitee to this portrait section trained as a scholar of religion and situated in a department of religious studies, I was interested to see how previous scholars trained in anthropology and sociology positioned themselves in relation to ‘religion’ as an object of study. It seems we all do so gingerly. Although my graduate work was in the history of Christianity with a focus on American religious history, since the early 1990s I have…
The six types of nonbelief
Extensive research has been conducted in exploration of the American religious landscape; however, only recently has social science research started to explore nonbelief in any detail. Research on nonbelief has been limited as most research focuses on the popularity of the religious “nones” or the complexities of alternative faith expressions such as spirituality. Through two studies, one qualitative and one quantitative, this research explored h…
Atheists on the Santiago Way
In the past 30 years, the camino to Santiago de Compostela has been recreated as an eclectic pilgrimage, open to both religious and atheist travelers. Following previous work on motivational orientations and religion, we conducted a study examining atheist versus religious pilgrims' motivations to walk the Santiago way. We assessed pilgrims (N = 360) at various parts of the northern Spanish camino using a questionnaire that measured motivations t…
What Do You Mean, "What Does It All Mean?" Atheism, Nonreligion, and Life Meaning
Nonreligion is often thought to be commensurate with nihilism or fatalism, resulting in the perception that the nonreligious have no source of meaning in life. While views to this effect have been advanced in various arenas, no empirical evaluation of such a view has been conducted. Using data from the 2008 American General Social Survey ( N = ~1,200), we investigated whether atheists, the religiously unaffiliated, and persons raised religiously …
The six types of nonbelief
Extensive research has been conducted in exploration of the American religious landscape; however, only recently has social science research started to explore nonbelief in any detail. Research on nonbelief has been limited as most research focuses on the popularity of the religious “nones” or the complexities of alternative faith expressions such as spirituality. Through two studies, one qualitative and one quantitative, this research explored h…
Portrait
As the first invitee to this portrait section trained as a scholar of religion and situated in a department of religious studies, I was interested to see how previous scholars trained in anthropology and sociology positioned themselves in relation to ‘religion’ as an object of study. It seems we all do so gingerly. Although my graduate work was in the history of Christianity with a focus on American religious history, since the early 1990s I have…
An introduction to atheism, agnosticism, and nonreligious worldviews
Death, quest, and self-esteem
Terror management theory suggests that when mortality concerns are salient, religion can serve as a defence in order to boost self-esteem and shield against the potential for anxiety. The current study examined whether individual differences in religious orientation (i.e., quest) interacted with reminders of death to influence well-being. To the extent that religiosity buffers against mortality awareness on defensiveness, the present results demo…
Non-Belief
Psychology of religion research is typically conducted with Protestant populations living in the West. Only recently has non-belief in God become a central topic in the field. And while it remains an open question whether or not the research assumptions and theoretical frameworks designed for Western populations of Protestants can be applied to non-believers, exploring non-belief in the Islamic context may pose additional problems. For example, d…
What Do You Mean, "What Does It All Mean?" Atheism, Nonreligion, and Life Meaning
Nonreligion is often thought to be commensurate with nihilism or fatalism, resulting in the perception that the nonreligious have no source of meaning in life. While views to this effect have been advanced in various arenas, no empirical evaluation of such a view has been conducted. Using data from the 2008 American General Social Survey ( N = ~1,200), we investigated whether atheists, the religiously unaffiliated, and persons raised religiously …
An Atheist Perspective on Self-Esteem and Meaning Making while under Death Awareness
In accordance with Terror Management Theory research, secular beliefs can serve an important role for mitigating existential concerns by providing atheists with a method to attain personal meaning and bolster self-esteem. Although much research has suggested that religious beliefs are powerful defense mechanisms, these effects are limited or reveal more nuanced effects when attempting to explain atheists’ (non)belief structures. The possibility o…
Keeping the Secular Deck Intact
Response to: Podcast with Donovan Schaefer, 28 November 2016Interviewed by Christopher R. CotterTranscribed by Catrin J. SawfordAudio and transcript available at: https://religiousstudiesproject.com/podcast/is-secularism-a-world-religion
Researcher Degrees of Freedom in the Psychology of Religion
There is a push in psychology toward more transparent practices, stemming partially as a response to the replication crisis. We argue that the psychology of religion should help lead the way toward these new, more transparent practices to ensure a robust and dynamic subfield. One of the major issues that proponents of Open Science practices hope to address is researcher degrees of freedom (RDF). We pre-registered and conducted a systematic review…
History as a Canceled Problem? Hilbert Lists, du Bois-Reymond’s Enigmas, and the Scientific Study of Religion
The present article reviews the identification of “Hilbert Problems” in the scientific study of religion as presented in a call for papers and a subsequent special issue of Religion, Brain & Behavior (2015; 2017). Specific attention is herein devoted to some overlooked epistemological and methodological issues, that is, mathematical Platonism and presentism. Most importantly, notwithstanding the advances produced by the recent experimental turn i…
Atheists on the Santiago Way
In the past 30 years, the camino to Santiago de Compostela has been recreated as an eclectic pilgrimage, open to both religious and atheist travelers. Following previous work on motivational orientations and religion, we conducted a study examining atheist versus religious pilgrims' motivations to walk the Santiago way. We assessed pilgrims (N = 360) at various parts of the northern Spanish camino using a questionnaire that measured motivations t…
Absorption, Mentalizing, and Mysticism
Research suggests trait absorption, individual differences in Theoryof Mind (ToM), and orthopraxical training are importantfor explaining a variety of extraordinary experiences typicallyassociated with religion. However, no studies exist quantifyingToM ability or testing its relationship with trait absorption inthe prediction of what is arguably the most ubiquitous type ofextraordinary experience-the mystical experience. To addressthis, two explo…
Predicting age of atheism
The cultural learning concept of Credibility Enhancing Displays (CREDs) concerns the extent to which behavioral models consistently live out their professed ideals. While researchers have suggested that past CRED exposure is an important variable for predicting who does and does not become a religious believer, it is unclear how CREDs relate to when a person rejects the religious beliefs modeled to them during their upbringing. Using a large samp…
Serpent Handling
The ritual handling of serpents remains an unnoticed cultural form for the explanatory aims and theoretical insights desired by cognitive scientists of religion. In the current article, we introduce the Hood and Williams archives at The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga that contains data culled from Hood’s 40-plus year career of studying serpent handlers. The archives contain hundreds of hours of interviews and recordings of speaking in ton…
In Doubt and Disbelief
What do nonreligious nonbelievers believe in? Secular worldviews around the world
The global increase in nonreligious individuals begs for a better understanding of what nonreligious beliefs and worldviews actually entail. Rather than assuming an absence of belief or imposing a predetermined set of beliefs, this research uses an open-ended approach to investigate which secular beliefs and worldviews nonreligious nontheistic individuals in 10 countries around the world might endorse. Approximately, one thousand participants wer…
Spirituality of Science
Scientists often refer to spiritual experiences with science. This research addresses this unique component of science attitudes— spirituality of science: feelings of meaning, awe, and connection derived through scientific ideas. Three studies ( N = 1,197) examined individual differences in Spirituality of Science (SoS) and its benefits for well-being, meaning, and learning. Spirituality of Science was related to belief in science, but unlike oth…
Psychology (15 obras) · Religion, Spirituality, and Psychology (12 obras) · Social Psychology (12 obras) · Epistemology (11 obras) · Philosophy (11 obras) · Sociology (10 obras) · Religion and Society Interactions (9 obras) · Law (6 obras) · Political science (6 obras) · Death Anxiety and Social Exclusion (5 obras)