Closing the Gap between Psychology and God

[Mind Over Matter]

..........Across two studies – one of which measured changes in worry and religious cognitions over a two-week intervention period – the researchers also found that the effects of trust and mistrust in God on worry took place via the mechanism of tolerance of uncertainty. Mistrust in God led to less tolerance of uncertainty (e.g., feeling upset when stuck with ambiguous information), which in turn led to increased levels of worry. Increasing trust in God, however, led to more tolerance of uncertainty, decreasing levels of worry..............

Source: http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=closing-gap-between-psychology-and-god#comments

Comment?

 

[Rav]

Specifically, they found that mistrust in God (measured by agreement with statements like “God is unkind to me for no reason”) was associated with nearly clinical levels of worry, while trust in God (measured by agreement with statements like “God is compassionate toward human suffering”) was associated with less worry. Interestingly, trust and mistrust in God were not just opposite ends of one attitudinal dimension; it’s possible for believers to have high levels of both simultaneously.

Isn't it interesting how a person who believes that God is unkind to them for no reason experiences nearly clinical levels of worry. Why is it interesting? Because you yourself don't believe that God would be unkind to people for no reason. In other words, you'd agree that such a belief is merely an imagined reality. Yet such a belief still has real consequences. So we have established, then, that real consequences (whether they be positive or negative) can follow from imagined realities. This is what the study highlights, although I suspect that you are thinking that it is highlighting something else.

Oh, and isn't all this just kinda really obvious anyway?