Atheism and Inferential Bias

Authors

  • Kelly James Clark Grand Valley State University

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.24204/ejpr.v9i2.1933

Keywords:

Atheism, Inferential Bias, Intuition

Abstract

While the cognitive science of religion is well-trodden ground, atheism has been considerably less scrutinized. Recent psychological studies associate atheism with an intellectual virtue, inferentiality (Shenhav 2011; Norenzayan, Gervais, and Trzesniewski 2012; Norenzayan and Gervais 2013; Pennycook 2012). Theism, on the other hand, is associated with an intellectual “vice”, intuitive thinking. While atheism is allied with the attendant claim that atheism is the result of careful rational assessment of the relevant evidence, theism is considered the result of a lack of reflection on the relevant evidence (or careless disregard of the evidence). Atheism, then, is rational, but theism, then, is irrational. In this essay, we will assess the import of these studies and the attendant claims that these differences in thinking styles entail differences in rationality.

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Published

2017-06-19

How to Cite

Clark, Kelly James. 2017. “Atheism and Inferential Bias”. European Journal for Philosophy of Religion 9 (2):43-56. https://doi.org/10.24204/ejpr.v9i2.1933.