Tests? What tests?

So here we go, more research. I do this for you, not for myself.


A study published online Oct. 24 in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology says that thinking about God and religion might turn you into a slacker.

"More than 90 percent of people in the world agree that God or a similar spiritual power exists or may exist,"study researcher Kristin Laurin of the University of Waterloo in Canada, said in a statement. "This is the first empirical evidence that simple reminders of God can diminish some types of self-regulation, such as pursuing one's goals, yet can improve others, such as resisting temptation."

In other words (if I'm reading this right), if you're thinking about God, you are more likely not to set and achieve goals, unless of course your goal is to get closer to God. (I added that)

In what I must say is awfully hard to believe results, a Gallup poll in May found that more than nine out of 10 Americans believe in God.

In what I must say is not that hard to believe results, these numbers drop for groups of younger Americans, liberals, those living in the Eastern United States, those with postgraduate educations and political independents. However, belief in God is nearly universal among Republicans and conservatives and, to a slightly lesser degree, in the South.

In the new study, the researchers primed more than 350 engineering students with the idea of God or faith, for example, by having participants write a sentence using a list of words with spiritual connotations. Students then completed skill tests in which they had to make as many words as possible from a group of letters. When prompted with religious imagery or language beforehand, the students came up with fewer words, regardless of their religious background, than those who hadn't been primed with such imagery.

There you have it. Proof positive. Of course, religions writers probably wouldn't be asked to take that same skill test, one wouldn't imagine.

Again, I'm not the one who would be given this test: a second study tempted participants with cookies after they had read one of two passages — one about God and the other on a non-religious topic. Participants who read the God passage not only reported a greater willingness to resist temptation, but also were less likely to help themselves to the cookies.

What are we to make of all this? That someone had way too much time on their hands. Oh, and I believe that those with goals can best meet them with the omnipotent God as their study partner. And I like cookies a whole lot.