(C) Daily Kos This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . Religion 101: ???? [1] ['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.'] Date: 2024-12-22 (First, about the title: my editor told me that I needed a different title for this essay and since I couldn’t think of one, I just gave it ????. She also indicated that it was too academic for Daily Kos, but I’m posting it anyway. If you think it’s too academic, let me know.) There are many academic disciplines in which the study of religion is a sub-discipline. In these disciplines, religion is studied as a part of a larger system. Many introductory textbooks in anthropology, sociology, history, psychology, geography, philosophy, archaeology, art history, and political science may contain a chapter or two on religion. While the study of religion as a subject in its own right is often relegated to theology, theology generally focuses on the study of a single religion from the perspective of a believer. Comparative religion is an interdisciplinary approach which utilizes social science methods and insights. This means that a scientific approach is generally used, and caution is needed to avoid confirmation bias: that is, selecting data that confirms or conforms to a pre-existing model. In his book The Believing Brain: From Ghosts and Gods to Politics and Conspiracies—How We Construct Beliefs and Reinforce Them as Truths, Michael Shermer defines confirmation bias this way: “…the tendency to seek and find confirmatory evidence in support of already existing beliefs and ignore or reinterpret disconfirming evidence.” Confirmation bias is a normal human way of understanding the world around us. In an article in Skeptical Inquirer, Carol Tavris and Elliot Aronson write: “…the fact that we notice and remember information that confirms what we believe and ignore, forget, or minimize information that disconfirms it. We might even call it the consonance bias, because it keeps our beliefs in harmony by eliminating dissonant information before we are even aware of it.” While confirmation bias may occur in all research endeavors, it is most evident in research about religion. Paul Bohannan, in his textbook Social Anthropology, writes: “The error of most students of comparative religion is that they unconsciously—or even consciously—create, on the analytical and intellectual level, the universalism of what the religion lacks on the folk level. In short, they create a pseudo-Scripture modeled on those that characterize the universalistic religions they know, thereby sharply misrepresenting the nature of tribal religion.” Confirmation bias in the study of religion occurs in several areas. The first involves the definition of religion in which the most important characteristics of the researcher’s religion are used to define religion in general. Thus Christian researchers, for example, may begin looking at religion by seeking data on gods, faith, and religious social structures which resemble those of a Christian church. Information about animistic religions, such as those of the aboriginal Americas, Australia, and Africa, may not fit this model and be discarded by the researcher. Similarly, since Confucianism, Daoism, Buddhism, Shinto, and other religions may not be considered religions in this viewpoint, information about them may be ignored. Theology, particularly Christian theology, often engages in research which is based on confirmation bias. In his book Faith vs. Fact: Why Science and Religion are Incompatible, Jerry Coyne writes: “In the end, religious investigations of ‘truth,’ unlike those of science, are deeply dependent on confirmation bias. You start with what you were taught to believe, or what you want to believe, and then accept only those facts that support your prejudice. This is the basis for the theological practice of ‘apologetics,’ designed to defend religion against counterarguments and disconfirming evidence.” Regarding confirmation bias in studying the history of Christianity, philosophy professor Matthew McCormick, in his book Atheism and the Case Against Christ, writes: “That is, since Jesus must come first, the only acceptable historical methods for proving Jesus was real must be ones proving he was real. If our historical methods do not produce the correct conclusion, then it must be the methods, not the conclusions that are wrong.” Another example of confirmation bias is sometimes found in the history of a particular religion. This may come from an a priori and often unstated assumption that everything that the religion does is good or bad. Thus, some histories of Christian missionaries working with Native American communities fail to see the physical brutality, cultural genocide, and sexual abuse imposed upon children in the missionary schools. Confirmation bias often restricts the kind of information which can be collected. For example, many Christian fundamentalists and creationists begin with an assumption that their creation myth is factually accurate, and that the world is only a few thousand years old. Thus, they reject data regarding evolution and evidence showing that the earth is millions of years old. On the other hand, Hindu creationists start with the assumption that the human lineage is tens of millions of years old. Thus, they often accuse the archaeological “establishment” of suppressing fossil evidence showing this great antiquity. Is it possible to eliminate confirmation bias in the study of religion? Probably not, as confirmation bias seems to be an innate human trait. The scientific approach used in many social science studies may reduce the impact of confirmation bias, particularly when the researchers are aware of their own biases. More about religion Religion 101: Asceticism Religion 101: Beliefs and Creeds Religion 101: Freethought and women's rights Religion 101: Women and marriage under ancient Irish Brehon law Religion 101: Sacred Fire Religion 101: Religious Prophets Religion 101: Theism, Pantheism, Panentheism Religion 102: Humanism [END] --- [1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2024/12/22/2292780/-Religion-101?pm_campaign=front_page&pm_source=community_groups_DAILY+KOS+UNIVERSITY&pm_medium=web Published and (C) by Daily Kos Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified. via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds: gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/