Supernatural Belief in ‘Scientific’ Worldviews
Investigating Science-oriented Finns’ Explanations for Origins, Death and Suffering
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 12822781 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Roosa Haimila (0000-0002-3909-2163, University of Helsinki, corresponding author), Hanne Metsähinen (0000-0001-8548-1373, University of Turku), Mark Sevalnev |
| Year | 2024 |
| Volume | 24 |
| Issue | 1-2 |
| Pages | 1-34 |
| Publication date | 2024-04-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Journal of Cognition and Culture (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1567-7095 • E-ISSN: 1568-5373 |
| Publisher | Brill (PUBLISHER • NL) |
| DOI | 10.1163/15685373-12340181 |
| OpenAlex | W4393858424 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 49 |
A ‘scientific worldview’ is commonly seen as contradictory to belief in supernatural forces, and there is little research on the supernatural beliefs of individuals who identify with science. In this article, we investigate the supernatural explanations of science-oriented individuals in domains of fundamental concern (suffering, death, and origins), and how supernatural causality is reconciled with belief in science. The open-ended responses of 387 Finns were analysed. The results show that science-oriented Finns endorsed both religion-related and more secular supernatural beliefs (such as belief in evolution as a purposeful process). Following the coexistence model, science-oriented Finns applied synthetic and target-dependent reasoning. In addition, many who invoked supernatural explanations integrated supernatural causality with science. Two forms of integrated reasoning were found: 1) supernatural agency as the ultimate cause and scientific theory as the proximate cause, and 2) a similarity-based heuristic, as seen in afterlife beliefs appealing to the law of conservation of energy
Afterlife · Agency (philosophy · Causality (physics · Epistemology · Metaphysics · Philosophy of mind · Philosophy of science · Similarity (geometry · Computer Science · Death Anxiety and Social Exclusion · Philosophy · Psychology · Psychology of Moral and Emotional Judgment · Religion, Spirituality, and Psychology · Social Psychology
Analytic cognitive style predicts religious and paranormal belief
Bewitchment, Biology, or Both
The folk psychology of souls
Core knowledge
The Oxford Handbook of Atheism
Does a Science-Oriented Worldview Entail Unbelief
Text analysis shows conceptual overlap as well as domain-specific differences in Christian and secular worldviews
Embracing Death
A Similarity Heuristic in Children’s Possibility Judgments
What do nonreligious nonbelievers believe in? Secular worldviews around the world
The Influence of Religious Orientation on Belief in Science, Religion, and the Paranormal
Between Religion and Science
Handbook of Religion and the Authority of Science
Exploring the atheist personality
MCI theory
Meant to be”
Reasoning about nature’s agency and design in the cultural context of China
Guidelines for Establishing Reliability When Coding Narrative Data
A Sense of Continuity in Mortality? Exploring Science-Oriented Finns’ Views on Afterdeath
The Development of the Concept of Death among Chinese and U.S. Children 3–17 Years of Age
Secular Eschatology
Religious Belief, Scientific Expertise, and Folk Ecology
Children's Acceptance of Conflicting Testimony
The Counterintuitiveness of Supernatural Dreams and Religiosity
Hidd’n Hadd in Intelligent Design
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Reaching for a new sense of connection
The Science--Religion Relation
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Superstitious, magical, and paranormal beliefs
Basic and Applied Social Psychology
Scientific faith
Instructional manipulation checks
Understanding Mortality and the Life of the Ancestors in Rural Madagascar
The Coexistence of Natural and Supernatural Explanations Across Cultures and Development
The Implications of the Cognitive Sciences for the Relation Between Religion and Science Education
Piaget on causality
How Lay Cognition Constrains Scientific Cognition
Counterintuitiveness as the hallmark of religiosity
Negotiations of Science and Religion in Nordic Institutions
Discussing the Supernatural in Contemporary Finland
What Makes Anthropomorphism Natural
Religion among Scientists in International Context
Reliability in Coding Open-Ended Data
Coding In-depth Semistructured Interviews
Religion and Paranormal Belief
| Citation velocity | historical |
|---|---|
| Highly cited | No |