Chennai: A new research has claimed people who unconsciously predict complex patterns are likely to hold stronger beliefs that there is a God who creates patterns of events in the universe.
Neuroscientists at Georgetown University used implicit pattern learning to investigate faith in God.
Published in the journal Nature Communications, their study is the first to use implicit pattern learning to investigate religious belief. The study spanned two very different cultural and religious groups, one in the US and one in Afghanistan.
The goal was to test whether implicit pattern learning is a basis of belief and, if so, whether that connection holds across different faiths and cultures. The researchers indeed found that implicit pattern learning appears to offer a key to understanding a variety of religions.
Adam Green, an associate professor in the Department of Psychology and Interdisciplinary Program in Neuroscience at Georgetown, and director of the Georgetown Laboratory for Relational Cognition, said, “Belief in a God or Gods who intervene in the world to create order is a core element of global religions.”