Atheists Sweat God

I never get tired of stating that deep down atheists are attracted to God (see: Atheists Don't Exist). This is so obvious in their obsession with God. The concept and person of God is always on their mind; in their status updates and even in their conferences.  They even have "Atheist TV" which talks about... yes you have guess it: God!

Well a new study published in The International Journal for the Psychology of Religion entitled, "Atheists Become Emotionally Aroused When Daring God to Do Terrible Things," it was demonstrated that atheists take God as serious as theists.  The study took place in Finland which has a high rate of atheists. In the first study, psychologists took 29 subjects.  16 were atheists and 13 were theists. Each read 36 statements ranging from God, offensive speech and neutral speech.  The second study had 19 atheists and they were asked to say statements calling on God to bring harm on others, in some cases their own parents.  Skin-conductance tests using machines that measure perspiration were used.  When the studies were completed, it was found that both atheists and theists perspired heavily when calling upon God to bring harm to others. This seems to show that atheists believed they were in fact talking to a being capable of bringing harm which elevated their anxiety and stress levels.

If we think about it, why would atheists get nervous and sweat over a statement made calling on an imaginary being to do harm? Would you sweat or get nervous if you said, "may a fairy push my wife down the stairs?"  Most likely, we all would try hard not to crack a smile when saying this silly statement because we know fairies do not exist. The interesting thing here is that the atheists tested were not smiling.  They literally believed the statement they read despite believing God is nothing more than a myth or "sky fairy" as atheists usually describe God.  This is very interesting indeed and shows that God is not really a mythological concept for atheists.  Their perspiration and elevated stress leveled shows that they believed the statements would have had an effect in reality even though they believe God is not real.  Is atheism merely a mental block?    

Source:


http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/10508619.2013.771991

http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/10508619.2013.771991#.VFCMsiLF-gF

http://chronicle.com/blogs/percolator/do-atheists-really-believe-in-god/32301

http://www.strangenotions.com/do-atheists-believe-in-god-after-all/

http://epiphenom.fieldofscience.com/2013/11/atheists-get-sweaty-when-daring-god.html

http://www.scienceandreligiontoday.com/2013/12/04/atheists-get-sweaty-when-daring-god/