Thursday, March 7, 2019

Do Those Who Experience War Become More Religious?


Phys.org: Study shows that many who experience trauma of war become increasingly religious

It's been said that there are no atheists in foxholes, but a new study led by Joseph Henrich has shown that the impact of war on religion extends well beyond the front lines.

The chair of the Department of Human and Evolutionary Biology, Henrich and a team of international collaborators gathered survey data from several locations around the globe and found that, following the trauma of seeing a friend or loved one killed or injured during conflict, many became more religious. The study is described in a Jan. 28 paper published in Nature Human Behavior.

"I became interested in this question through my prior work, which has been focused on how religious beliefs can cause people to cooperate more in a group," Henrich said. "The idea is that if you can expand the sphere of cooperation, then that group can more successfully compete against others, sometimes even through violent conflict.

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WNU Editor: My father fought for almost four years on the Russian front for the Soviet Union during the Second World War, and he was never religious. Two of my cousins fought for the Soviet Union in Afghanistan during the 1980s, and they are very religious. I guess it all comes down to who and what the person is.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Wnu, not just what person - but what experiences.. some war experiences are different than others.. for example, studies have shown that in the case of a bombardmenet for example - the closer the bombs hit, even if you survive - you become a different perception of mortality... when bombs only are dropped in far distance, you think more of immortal of yourself.. or something along those lines - I forgot the details of the study to be honest haaha but it was basically that different bombs/death situations and their distance to you impacted your perceived sense of mortality and with it, of course, impacts your thoughts on religion.

Anonymous said...

https://youtu.be/buSpGWq9aS4

Bob Huntley said...

Religion and God, and war go hand in hand. If the stuff in the bible is to be believed God couldn't even resolve conflict in his own home, heaven, and ended up having to have his "good guys" drive the "bad guys" out. Given that, what else can mankind do but fight to the death while God and the angels watch.

Bob Huntley said...

Anon

When mankind wipes itself off the face of the Earth/universe the gods too, having nobody to worship them, will disappear also.

Anonymous said...

Turn now to the Holocaust and survivors: many lost their religion because they saw one million children slaughtered etc...on the other hand, others embraced religion as giving them strength in order to survive. thus it varied. And the countless suicides and drug addictions among military who survived our wars and left the military?