Those Who Don't Believe in God are Willing to Believe Anything Else

My brother passed me this article "Look Who's Irrational Now," that talks about a comprehensive new study released by Baylor University yesterday that shows that traditional Christian religion greatly decreases belief in superstitious and pseudoscience. Belief in God decreased the belief in everything from the efficacy of palm readers to the usefulness of astrology. The study also shows that the irreligious and the members of more liberal Protestant denominations, far from being resistant to superstition, tend to be much more likely to believe in the paranormal and in pseudoscience than evangelical Christians.

In my own personal experience, I also find this true. The students in my class that are the most grounded, the most likely to use rational thought and chuckle at irrational claims, are those who are also the most traditionally Christian. And those students in my class who are openly anti-religious tend to believe in magic- they have charms and rings, they are superstitious about rituals, and I even had one anti-religious student put a curse on me. From the article:

Anti-religionists such as Mr. Maher bring to mind the assertion of G.K. Chesterton's Father Brown character that all atheists, secularists, humanists and rationalists are susceptible to superstition: "It's the first effect of not believing in God that you lose your common sense, and can't see things as they are."

Maybe this is why Americans are becoming gullible fools? Maybe the fall of Christianity is the reason that they're more likely to buy into charlatans who promise to sell them the world? Maybe this is why they actually get excited and faint over the One when he gives a speech, and they mock those who 'cling to their guns and religion' while clinging to One who promises to walk on water and control the weather? Maybe the fall of traditional Christianity is the reason why people believe that Bush personally knocked down the towers on 9/11, or personally destroyed the levies in New Orleans- or any of the other host of irrational concerns that are now commonly accepted. Who knows? Guess I'll just have to ask for guidance and faith from my 2,000-year-old space god.