Site map

Community
How do shared beliefs and interactions between members promote harmony?
How do we demonstrate our loyalty to loved ones through religion?
Addressing social needs with study groups, services, and community outreach.

Rituals
Why we sing, dance, pray, share testimonials, lead discussions, speak in tongues, make predictions, claim God's gifts, proselytise, and plan events.
Activities that lead you outside your comfort zone.

Attendance
How believers and institutions benefit from regular attendance.
Why people are sometimes reluctant to attend, and how they overcome this.
Why some believers attend services faithfully, and others do not.

Religious texts
How do ancient religious texts stay relevant, influence us, and attract steady streams of followers?
Why the scriptures are such an enduring source of inspiration.

Tithing
Why the system of tithing is psychologically satisfying and beneficial.
Giving back to God in tangible ways.

Tradition
Why do we take religion seriously? What do we expect from institutions that are rich in history and advocate traditional values?
Why we crave stability from our religious institutions.

Authority
Why do we need leaders? What makes a good leader? Where do their insights come from and how do they develop their skills? How do leaders get their faith?
What we learn from our spiritual leaders.

Institutions
What is an institution? How does it depend on its followers? How do institutions attract devotees?
Responsibilities borne by institutions that represent God.

Technology
In what ways do we associate technology with God's power? How can it help us control our environment? Can technology bring us closer to God?
How religious institutions harness technology to engage and attract followers.

Material wealth
What are our attitudes towards money in a religious context?
How do we justify disparities in wealth, when God made us all equal?
Why material wealth is a blessing from God, not a curse.

Blind faith
Have you experienced God's power directly? Have you physically experienced God's presence? Do you 'just know' deep down in your heart that God is real?
Knowing deep down that God is real.

Human suffering
Where does human suffering come from? Can moral codes change over time?
Why does evil exist? Why doesn't God just get rid of the devil?!

Unspoken maxims
Why are some topics considered taboo? How do we avoid tricky discussions? When and why do we stop asking questions?
Addressing difficult topics with 'don't ask, don't tell.'

Changing times
How does the role of religion change to suit our needs?
How religion adapts and remains applicable in an ever-changing world.

Human biology

Truth and morality
How do people establish moral codes? What is meant by 'absolute truth,' and why's it so elusive? What are the consequences of our belief in a higher standard of morality?
What is 'absolute truth'? How do we define morality?

Forgiveness
Why do we feel the burden of sin? How can our soul be cleansed? What happens when we forgive?
How forgiveness and reconciliation bring us peace and spiritual cleansing.

Homosexuality
What attitudes prevail in society? How do we assign a gender to a person?
Criteria used to categorise individuals by gender.

Spirit realm
How do dramatic physical changes take hold of congregations of people?
Supernatural proofs of God's existence?

Biology & life
How we define life in biological terms, how we perceive it from our human perspective, and why we quantify it in individual units.
What is life?

Hierarchy of species
Are human beings ranked higher than all other creatures? Are human lives intrinsically more valuable? Are we the only beings with a sense of morality? Has God given us this special status?
Is our species superior to all others? Why, if so?

Mind and body
What is the mind, exactly? How can the power of thought influence the rest of our body?
Soul, body, mind, & spirit: What are they & where do they come from?

Consciousness
What is consciousness? Is it a single, indivisible phenomenon? Does it exist in other species?
The sense of being.

Human ability

Altruism
How we can teach ourselves to do good for good's sake.
How religion motivates us to help and love others.

Presentation
Why high levels of confidence and persuasion can sway our judgment.
Why presentation style and delivery persuades us independently of content.

Confabulation
How do we react when we discover gaps in knowledge?
People love to weave complex narratives.

Probability
How confirmation bias and a capacity for pattern detection play a role in our belief systems.
Too coincidental to be an accident? God, please send a sign.

Reckoning
How do religious texts offer their words of wisdom just when we need it?
Turning to the right page, the right text, at the right time.

Conviction
Why confidence is attractive, and what happens when it wanes.
Why some believers are fiercely devout, while others are indifferent.

Moral codes
Where our moral codes comes from, how they're perpetuated, and why we observe similarities and differences in values across cultures.
Where does our sense of right and wrong come from?

Partial truths
How the overall picture gets misrepresented when we cherry pick only the facts that work in our favour.
Why the presence of the truth is different from the presence of the whole truth.

Credulity
The power of peer pressure, the reasons for belief, and the factors that lead us to accept dubious information.
How we convince ourselves through logic and language.

Known/ Unknown
What it means to be aware or remain oblivious of things that are known and unknown.
Examining categories of knowledge and self-awareness.

Question evasion
How we change the subject, talk fast, and use personality issues to dodge questions.
Why it's so hard to get straight answers to questions about religion.

Spiritual health
What factors do we use to gauge the strength of our relationship with God? Where do these standards come from?
Are we walking together with God?

God's existence

Critical thinking
What's the context of the argument? Who's making it? Are facts described accurately? What are the limitations of the assumptions?
What questions should we ask, to assess the strength of an argument?

Scientific enquiry
What criteria must scientific studies fulfil, before they are accepted?
How rigorous evaluations are carried out in scientific research.

Rejecting facts
What are some commonly-held disbeliefs among believers?
When maintenance of one's beliefs requires suppression of knowledge.

Free will
What is free will, and how does it apply in a religious context? How does it affect our chance of salvation?
How could free will coexist with an omniscient God?

Purpose of life
Why we strive to worship and glorify God, and obey His will.
Why were we created?

Famous believers
Why we quote Darwin, C. S. Lewis, and Francis Collins, and why we should be careful in doing so.
Citing famous intellectuals, in support of religion.

Anti-science
What happens when we take scepticism and suspicion to the extreme.
How wrong-doing scientists erode public faith in science.

God's existence
Premeditated design, the presence of life and the universe, and the existence of morality.
Arguments offered for God's existence,

Scientific discoveries
How scientific principles are established after intensive analysis and differ from intuitive observation and prediction-making.
Examples of principles that are well-established or poorly-understood.

Emergence of complexity
How do we define complexity and how is that related to our brain capacity?
How does complexity arise?
How complex systems evolve spontaneously from simple beginnings.

Unsolved mysteries
Why we do not yet have all the answers? Do these gaps in our understanding necessitate a belief in God?
Our horizons of knowledge expand continually.

Non-believers
Why are people motivated to do good? What are the benefits and disadvantages of being guided by religious beliefs?
What do atheists believe?

Index

A- B- C- D- E- F- G- H- I- J- K- L- M- N- O- P- Q- R- S- T- U- V- W- X- Y- Z

about this site

absolute truth moral codes

advertising use of technology savvy leaders cherry-picking

advice from the community advice through prayer relevant advice advice from leaders

altruism praying for others altruism in the community

ambiguity interpreting religious texts unsolved mysteries exploiting ambiguity

anti-science rejection of facts proponents for God's existence non-believers cherry-picking

assumptions questioning assumptions

atheists critical thinking scientific enquiry purpose of life

attendance

authority respect for authority criticism of authority responsibilities of leaders faith in authority

awareness self-awareness

change technological change institutional change

checks scientific enquiry

cherry-picking

choice absence of conscious planning

community community support contributing to the community benefits of community attachment to community

complexity knowledge mind and body consciousness

components components of the mind units of complex systems

conclusions

confabulation partial truths probabilities

confidence persuasion confidence of leaders power of thought faith credulity

confirmation bias

consciousness free will mind and body

contact us

contribute

conviction persuasion power of thought faith credulity

correlation vs causation

credulity critical thinking presentation confidence question evasion rejection of facts anti-science

critical thinking scientific enquiry knowledge probability guesswork credulity fact rejection arguments for God's existence proponents of God's existence

criticism constructive criticism criticism through group prayer personal criticism criticism taken to the extreme criticism of leaders suppression of criticism

culture morality

cynicism rejection of facts disappointment with science proponents of God's existence non-believers

death

devil blaming the devil

discoveries, scientific scientific enquiry complexity critical thinking knowledge probability unsolved mysteries cherry-picking

fainting mind and body

fairies imagination

faith benefits of faith testing of faith

famous believers rejection of facts presentation credulity

FAQ

forgiveness

free will consciousness mind and body faith God's existence

gender assignation of gender

glory glorifying God through life glorifying God through rituals

God mind and body supernatural God walking with God perfect God mental concept of God

healing, spiritual rituals

health, spiritual purpose of life moral codes feeling of reward

homosexuality

humility

institutions, religious wealth adaptability of institutions attractiveness of institutions

intuition reckoning credulity presentation

knowledge acquisition of knowledge presentation unspoken knowledge question evasion cherry-picking scientific discoveries unsolved mysteries

known probability

leaders conviction becoming a leader

life biological life purpose of life

loved ones solidarity caring and sharing

newsletter

non-believers critical thinking scientific enquiry purpose of life

opinion preformed opinions community bonding influences from prior experience revising opinions sharing testimonials

partial truths question evasion

peace forgiveness spiritual health tithing altruism

peer pressure

perception use of technology presentation our perception of insitutions our perception of leaders perceptions of loyalty judging based on attendance

perfection fairness of God

persuasion credulity persuading oneself anecdotal evidence

philosophy

power of the mind consciousness complexity of the mind free will pleasurable sensations

practise familiarity with texts attendance experience with rituals leadership experience persuasion

prayer meetings rituals group meetings connection with God supernatural effects association with God

presentation presentation that misleads confident presentation

probability estimation

prophesying rituals prior knowledge confirmation bias

proselytising rituals spreading the word

psychology persuasion peer pressure loyalty perception power of thought the mind forgiveness altruism tithing the supernatural following rituals external influences

purpose of life biological purpose altruism spiritual health

question evasion unspoken knowledge cherry-picking presentation confabulation non-believers

scientific discoveries scientific enquiry complexity critical thinking knowledge probability unsolved mysteries cherry-picking

scientific enquiry critical thinking knowledge scientific discoveries unsolved mysteries fact rejection anti-science arguments for God's existence

sign from God supernatural experiences spiritual rituals

sin forgiveness of sin

site map

society morality

soul free will

sources data collection

speaking in tongues rituals

species minds of other species consciousness of other species

species, hierarchy of

spirit realm power of thought

suffering

suppression suppression of beliefs unspoken maxims question evasion confabulation cherry-picking

technology technology that attracts showy technology

terms and conditions

tithing

tradition attractiveness of tradition repackaging of tradition

truth rejection of truth half truths

truth, absolute moral codes

truths, partial unspoken truths question evasion

uncertainty unsolved mysteries faith error margins exploiting uncertainty

universe proof of God

unknown probability confabulation cherry-picking

unspoken maxims questioning our leaders

will, God's explaining suffering

worship singing communal worship