#434 Thomas Coleman: The Psychology of Believers and Nonbelievers
RECORDED ON DECEMBER 10th 2020.
Thomas Coleman III is PhD student at Coventry University, and a Postdoctoral Researcher at the University of Bialystok as part of the Society and Cognition Unit. He draws on multiple approaches from across the sciences and humanities, to study the origins, development, and maintenance of (non)religious worldviews. His research focuses on three areas: Identifying and measuring components of nonreligious worldviews; computer simulated models of the cognitive and social dynamics leading to (non)belief in supernatural agents; investigating how and why moral motivations are stereotypically attributed to religious, as opposed to nonreligious factors.
In this episode, we talk about the psychology of believes and nonbelievers. We start with some of the psychological differences between religious people and atheists. We deal with the case of agnosticism. We discuss phenomena like absorption and mentalizing. We talk about worldviews, and fatalism and nihilism. We also go through what we can learn from pilgrimage studies, the four different kinds of religious orientation, and where atheist derive value and meaning from. Toward the end, we discuss the evolutionary bases of atheism, and Thomas tells us about a Postdoc project he is part of: Religion, Ideology & Prosociality: Simulating Secularising Societies.
Time Links:
The psychological differences between religious people and atheists
Agnosticism
Religious beliefs
Are atheists undogmatic?
Absorption and mysticism
Worldviews, fatalism and nihilism
Motivations behind pilgrimage
Different kinds of religious orientation
Value and meaning
The evolutionary bases of atheism
Religion, Ideology & Prosociality: Simulating Secularising Societies
Follow Thomas’ work!
Follow Dr. Thomas’ work:
Coventry page: https://bit.ly/3m3S3YJ
Website: https://bit.ly/3oGoApy
Society and Cognition Unit: https://bit.ly/376IkMM
The RIP project https://bit.ly/341reOG
ResearchGate page: https://bit.ly/2KdOXUx