Research showing an inborn predisposition toward religious belief sparks much discussion
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03/29/12
A newly released book by Fuller’s Justin L. Barrett,
Born Believers: The Science of Children’s Religious Belief, has garnered significant attention, including a March 28 article in
The Daily Beast that focuses on the book and Barrett’s work.
In the article, “
People Are Born with Religious Belief, Argues New Book,” author Jesse Singal states that Dr. Barrett, who is director of the Thrive Center for Human Development at Fuller, “argues forcefully and convincingly” in his book that humans are strongly, cognitively predisposed from birth to believe in an all-powerful God.
“Drawing from a wide array of studies and experiments, including his own,” writes Singal, “Barrett shows that kids don’t need to be indoctrinated into religion, because their hardwiring all but guarantees that they will be believers, of a sort, whether or not their parents want them to be.”
Singal points out the controversy in this, describing the ways Barrett’s research challenges the views of “new atheists” such as Richard Dawkins.
The book by Barrett, who also serves as Thrive Professor of Development Science at Fuller, has been highlighted in several other media outlets as well, such as
this article in the
Cleveland Plain Dealer.
Barrett will speak about the book and his research at an
upcoming event at the California Institute of Technology on April 15 at 2:00 p.m., sponsored by the Skeptics Society.
Read the
Daily Beast article and
more about the Born Believers book.