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.
Moral compass
"People may use religious agents as a moral compass, forming impressions and making decisions based on what they presume God as the ultimate moral authority would believe or want," the team write. "The central feature of a compass, however, is that it points north no matter what direction a person is facing. This research suggests that, unlike an actual compass, inferences about God's beliefs may instead point people further in whatever direction they are already facing."
"The experiments in which we manipulate people's own beliefs are the most compelling evidence we have to show that people's own beliefs influence what they think God believes more substantially than it influences what they think other people believe," says Epley.
Finally, the team used fMRI to scan the brains of volunteers while they contemplated the beliefs of themselves, God or "average Americans". In all the experiments the volunteers professed beliefs in an Abrahamic God. The majority were Christian.
In the first two cases, similar parts of the brain were active. When asked to contemplate other Americans' beliefs, however, an area of the brain used for inferring other people's mental states was active. This implies that people map God's beliefs onto their own.
Imagination link
Other researchers say the findings reinforce earlier studies suggesting that thinking about God is intimately linked to the imagination.
These experiments "support previous findings that representations of God seem intimately related to the self, also in terms of brain function", says Uffe Schjødt of Aarhus University in Denmark, whose research published earlier this year showed that praying uses similar brain regions as talking to a friend.
"These findings help explain why supernatural religious agents are often attributed a physical form and issue edicts that resemble the social practices of the culture from which they emerge," says Jordan Grafman of the US National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke in Bethesda, Maryland, whose team earlier this year linked emergence of religion with the development of "theory of mind", the capacity to recognise that other living things have independent thought and intentions.
Journal reference: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, DOI: 10.1073/pnas.0908374106 (in press)
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Have your say
Wow ... this confirms what Christians and Jews have known for ... say ... ABOUT 3000 years!!! LOL.
Idolatry is humanly constructing gods to serve your own purposes. Christians worship a crucified God, something which defies idolatry and this study.
Believing in a man-god is as much idolatry as anything else.
Thinking god has any form or characteristic at all is idolatry.
Since thinking about god implies that we see god as having a characteristic (at least the characteristic of existence), we are all idolaters - not just non-Jews.
Get your thinking cap on...
Actually makes sense... or at least its consistent.
If god made the universe and everything, then there was God before that thing, so god cannot be that thing.
If god made everything, god has to have made everything out of god because there was nothing else. So the underlying substance of everything must be god. So if we somehow deconstruct the form of anything, we must find god underneath - but this could be a reach...
Salamander,
Maybe that's how god goes about controlling everything in the universe - because everything is formed over the substance of god, and without the substance, there is no form - like if you take away the clay, where's the statue?
Maybe this also explains omnipresence, omnipotence, omniscience?
Wow . . . Idolatry Exists . . . Never Knew
Mon Nov 30 21:04:17 GMT 2009 by Anome
http://sciefeck.wordpress.com/
But surely, a large number of Christians do this, too? Given the large number of differing opinions God is supposed to have. The likes of Fred Phelps, whose beliefs seem to go against most civilised people's, for example.
This article discusses one extreme. Some religious people 'fill in the gaps' where no information is given, and pick-and-choose where conflicts appear. This is different from simply making God in one's own image.
What this article and most posters fail to realize, is that many people struggle with their faith and are challenged to change their behavior to match their religion. Not all people change God to their own image, some people actively change themselves to more closely match the image of God.
Agreed. I never think that I can know the mind of god. That is Hubris. I know the commandant that all others flow forth from according to acts, and it is the one I follow, The commandmant is love. Any judging , greed, or condemnation is not love, If any of that is appropriate it is left to god
That change to the image of God is through the renewing of the mind to the Word of God... most Christians don't read or study the Bible so they are left up to other's interpetation of God which has no life to it.
"That ye put off concerning the former conversation the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts; And be renewed in the spirit of your mind; And that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness. "
Wow . . . Idolatry Exists . . . Never Knew
Wed Dec 02 06:33:23 GMT 2009 by HughYoung
http://www.cafepress.com.au/wero/1440313
"many people struggle with their faith and are challenged to change their behavior to match their religion. Not all people change God to their own image" - but they still think God thinks people ought to do the same as what they think people ought to do - even if they don't do it.
A classic case is the "ex"-gays who think God hates homosexuality so they must hate it too (but in fact their hatred of it came first) - and the woods are full of them.
If God created man in his own image, does that mean God believes in fairy tales too?
On face value the statement that we are created "in God's image", is puzzling, we share our skeletons and organs with all mammals and we are restricted to living on portions of the surface of one planet, surely a God would not be so restricted?
"God is a spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth." (John 4:23-24)
As a spiritual being God created humans as both spiritual and physical beings. Those things we have in common with all other mammals are solely of the physical realm. God's spiritual image is a reflection the eternal God himself, and we have the ability to fellowship with and to know Him, unlike other mammals. We also have the freedom to choose between right and wrong, and the power of free will to manifest good or evil in the world.
The statement that we are created in God's image should be less puzzling given a clear understanding of the nature and attributes of God.
I think you are right, i believe that god created us in his own image, but i also believe that god is monkey (or at least some guy from the hominidae family).
The statement that Adam and Eve were "created in the image of God" refers to attributes such as self-knowledge, will and the possession of soul and spirit rather than a collection of physical characteristics.
Is that fact now or something you personally just happen to believe?
ch said ....."created in the image of God" refers to attributes such as self-knowledge...... How do you know? Did god tell you? Did you get that from the bible (in which case give us the reference) or did you make it up on the hoof?
If god created us in its own image, we have more than reciprocated.
lol
"Idolatry is humanly constructing gods to serve your own purposes. Christians worship a crucified God, something which defies idolatry and this study."
Actually, Christians worship the figure of Mary as well as Jesus on the cross. You can see these statues in all churches. It is idolatry too you know...
"Actually, Christians worship the figure of Mary as well as Jesus on the cross. You can see these statues in all churches. It is idolatry too you know"
Only the catholics. The rest gave up those beliefs in the reformation.
Sounds like you have never been in a protestent church.
Thank you for the clarification. And yeah, never went into a protestant church, as I gave up believing in religions a while ago.
Wow . . . Idolatry Exists . . . Never Knew
Tue Dec 01 03:12:28 GMT 2009 by Bean
http://New Scientist
Well Mandy, you should probably stay in the Protestant Church because you obviously don't know anything about the Catholic Church.
Sounds like you have been in the proper Christian churches, just it was never fully explained to you. You are of course not alone, the Protestants fell victims of it back then, too. The images (painted or sculpted) were used by Christians from the _very_ beginning (vide: Catacombs, Dura Europos, etc.). Those images were never objects of idolatry, and aren't now, simply because all veneration is directed to the prototype, that is a person depicted. So we don't 'pray to the wood'. In essence, the images used in historical Christian Churches (icons Eastern tradition or statues in Western one) are just family albums. After all we Christians believe in the afterlife, right? So the saints can pray for us as we pray for our families and friends. It's Facebook, if you will...
So basically, your argument is "My imaginary friend is better than their imaginary friend, because my imaginary friend is real."
LOL
I really like the part how christians have known this for 3000 years.
This comment breached our terms of use and has been removed.
Wow . . . Idolatry Exists . . . Never Knew
Tue Dec 01 16:30:30 GMT 2009 by Peter B
http://www.ezylab.com.au
LOL...You've got a great imagination yourself as Christianity is only 2000 years old. You must have been dreaming for the first 1000 years. Try educating yourself before playing the fool
Believers are egocentric and anthropomorphic? Gee what a surprise...... Are there any test results indicating the level of "nitwiticus maximus" factor of believers?
What about controls: atheists, agnostics, Buddhists, polytheists? The dogs will bark but the caravan of the industry of ho-hum science goes on.
Am I to infer from this that the denial of some kind of 'God' not necessarily 'Christian' or having stemmed from the family of Abraham....Is to deny one's self?
So when I wake up in the morning and tell god to stop trying to run my life, what I'm really doing is...telling my conscience to stop actively motivating my decisions. I'm effectively ignoring my moral values...hmm...
Or maybe I'm just denying god....GOD DAMN YOU!!!!! *shakes fist*
God is in the self. The seat of the soul is the mind. The self is the soul. The soul is God. I have a soul therefore I am God!
(I'm certain my logic is flawed) All the same, a wonderful article. It's rather interesting to see such an unbiased approach to faith.
If it all gets too complicated you can just believe in "Mother Nature" instead.
"I am God"
Sounds about right. In many ways you pass the test: you listen in to your thoughts; you know you heart's desire, or some version of it; you (might) know your sins and failings; you can command your body; you can turn wine into water (give it a few hours); you can heal yourself (to a degree, but still miraculous); you can create new life (with the help of a partner, and given a bit of luck).
You have God-like power, over yourself.
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