"Dear God, please confirm what I already believe"?

Question

http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn18…

"God may have created man in his image, but it seems we return the favour. Believers subconsciously endow God with their own beliefs on controversial issues.

"Intuiting God's beliefs on important issues may not produce an independent guide, but may instead serve as an echo chamber to validate and justify one's own beliefs," writes a team led by Nicholas Epley of the University of Chicago in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

The researchers started by asking volunteers who said they believe in God to give their own views on controversial topics, such as abortion and the death penalty. They also asked what the volunteers thought were the views of God, average Americans and public figures such as Bill Gates. Volunteers' own beliefs corresponded most strongly with those they attributed to God.

Next, the team asked another group of volunteers to undertake tasks designed to soften their existing views, such as preparing speeches on the death penalty in which they had to take the opposite view to their own. They found that this led to shifts in the beliefs attributed to God, but not in those attributed to other people.

Finally, the team used functional MRI scans of subjects' brains to show that contemplating God's beliefs activates the same brain areas as thinking about one's own views, while thoughts about other Americans' views activate a brain area used for inferring other people's mental status."


Opinions?

Mainline · Accepted Answer

People turn there image of God into a justification of there own lives,as this keeps them from changing it for the better.

? · Answer

While you are right, most Christians will tie their own beliefs to their religion.

I happen to agree with Everything god has done, and I want his will to happen, not mine.

If I had my way, This world would rot away, while everyone who is spiritual, and open to him started over on a different planet.

Notice I said Spiritual, not Religious. 

I would of course think with the part of my brain that thinks about my views, cause I agree with Gods views. They may not be the same, but I agree with them.

While this isn't Valid, you hold a very good point. Many Religious-nuts will use Religion to scream at others the "word of god" (meaning their word) and say its in the name of Jesus.

I am a Christian, but I see where your coming from.

Karl · Answer

Science says a human clone will not survive. This is because it has no soul. So science is proving there is a God, and God puts souls in us. For this abomination will not live.
So science is not disproving, but proving God exists.
Then tell us how God did it, we know God did it. Science explains how in some cases. We want to know the creator, not the creation.
bless you.

good tree · Answer

I was like that once, I knew how I wanted the world to be, and I decided that God was like me. Then I met Him, and found that I was wrong and that His ways are far more moral than mine. I understand that most of us think God's standards are too high for us, and we are right. Thankfully Jesus came and died so that we can be forgiven anyway.

Anonymous · Answer

To put simply like we all know, Religious people interpret "the word of god" the way that fits well for themselves.

Psyengine · Answer

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cognitive_dissonance

When God is not there to contradict me, I can believe any thing I want about his beliefs, but real people are there to oppose me when my perceptions do not agree with theirs; operant condition, real people are positive or negative stimulus to my perception reactions, but God in my mind is always affirmative.

alan h · Answer

Coming into faith as a young adult changed many of my beliefs:
in some cases quite radically

Joyce U · Answer

thats good to know

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"Dear God, please confirm what I already believe"?

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