For the John Templeton Foundation, I wrote about the intersection of neurostimulation and supernatural belief.
One of the Enlightenment’s key legacies has been the rise of a secular, even atheistic, approach to human reason, in which belief in the supernatural is seen as distinct from and often antithetical to rational thought. Over the past decade, a number of scientific studies have been published supporting the so-called Intuitive Belief Hypothesis, which associates intuitive thinking styles with religious belief — some even suggesting that priming people to think more analytically suppresses their supernatural beliefs.
Drawing on the insights of researchers like Nobel economics laureate Daniel Kahneman, cognitive psychologists have theorized that slow, analytical rational thought is a relatively recent evolutionary adaptation that exists alongside humans’ evolutionarily more ancient, quick, and instinctive way of thinking. When the two styles of thought conflict, the hypothesis claims, slower-thinking rationality must actively suppress the more intuitive response. In light of those findings, Miguel Farias, a U.K.-based experimental psychologist who studies the ways that religious beliefs alter people’s experiences, reasoned that if tendencies towards religious belief and non-belief are indeed part of the same dual system of thought, then one could experimentally suppress or enhance these sorts of rational thought processes to alter how people think about the supernatural.