Draft 1 The Evolutionary Foundation for Religious Belief in Women

This topic submitted by Kristin McCartney, Kate Hetrick (simpleselma@hotmail.com) at 1:24 pm on 2/2/01. Additions were last made on Wednesday, February 21, 2001. Section: Myers.

We are interested in exploring the claim that women are more religious or spiritual than men. Specifically, we want to see if women believe differently than men. We think that women are much more emotional and committed in their religious belief; men are more rational or utilitarian in their belief. In short, women have more 'faith'. We will test this in a survey that askes men and women to identify their reasons for (dis)belief. Some reasons may include:

1) Natural beauty and perfect design of the world (divine creation hypothesis).

2) Experience of God/Feeling of God everyday (faith)

3) The Bible/religious text of choice says so.

4) It is comforting/consoling to believe in God.

5) Just in case; I don't want to go to hell. (Pascal's wager)

6) Raised that way.

7) If you don't believe in God, what do you believe in?

8) The existence of good and evil.

And so on.....

As we design our experiment we will have to keep these things in mind: 1) Not to suggest answers, 2) Choosing a representative sample, 3) Remember it is a self-reporting survey (people are sometimes liars). We will use previous surveys like those published in HOW WE BELIEVE as models for our own.


IS GOD A VIRUS by John Bowler, 1995

EMOTION AND RELIGION: A CRITICAL ASSESSMENT AND ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY by John Corrigan, Eric Crump, and John Kloos, 2000.

HOW WE BELIEVE by Michael Shermer, 2000

ON LISTENING AND SPEAKING: MEN, MASCULINITY, AND RELIGION by Steven Boyd, 1993

GENEROUS LIVES: AMERICAN CATHOLIC WOMEN TODAY by Jane Redmont, 1993

CHALLENGING RACISM AND SEXISM: ALTERNATIVE TO GENETIC EXPLANATION Ed. by Ethel Tobach and Betty Rosoff, 1994

FEMINISM AND EVOLUTIONARY BIOLOGY: BOUNDARIES, INTERSECTIONS, AND FRONTIERS. Ed. by Patricia Adair Gowaty, 1996

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