Imaginary Gods, belief and psychology
Belief can involve of a variety of psychological techniques including:
Indoctrination. Widespread religious indoctrination seems to be acceptable to many. Families, “faith” schools, and religious groups focus on this to maintain and increase their support.
Most people do not choose or find a religion. Instead they are indoctrinated into it as children. For these people, their religion is simply an accident of birth. Born to Jewish parents most often leads to becoming Jewish. Born to Muslim parents most often leads to becoming Muslim. Born to Hindu parents most often leads to becoming Hindu. Born to Christian parents most often leads to becoming Christian, and so this goes on…..
Conformity and groupthink. Religions and their imaginary gods benefit from social conformity. Members of the religion encourage conformity in accepting the beliefs, practices, traditions and structures.
Doublethink, is a term invented by George Orwell to describe simultaneously holding two opinions while knowing them to be contradictory and believing in both of them. It sounds irrational but is employed my many religions and believers. Believing a god never makes mistakes while also believing he decided he had made a mistake creating humans and must wipe them out with a great flood. Believing God has a fixed plan while believing he might change it because of your prayer. Believing God is love while believing God tortures most people in hell for eternity. These are just a few examples.
Compartmentalization, which is a mechanism in which thoughts and feelings that seem to conflict are kept separated or isolated from each other in the mind.
Mental abuse. The religions built around imaginary gods can and often do employ a variety of techniques which when looked at objectively can be described as mental abuse, which are also common in abusive and controlling relationships. Examples include:
Intimidation (threat of hell for eternity);
blame (sin);
demands of obedience to rules they impose;
demand not to be questioned or doubted;
Promises of love while making threats (punishments for breaching unjust fixed rules, punishments for leaving the faith);
Saying you only exert control because you love them;
Discouraging or forbidding friendships and relationships outside of the religion.
Exploitation of the desire to believe. It’s nice to think of an afterlife in heaven or that some powerful god loves you and has plans just for you.
These methods stifle free and critical thinking, and makes it difficult for believers to escape.
Links to study of psychology of belief systems:
How religion evolved: https://youtu.be/dfAXx6CELPg?si=Xjgf89rJnSrHUywB
The Dragon in My Garage by Carl Sagan: https://youtu.be/Z3zbXCtUy1c
The Psychology of Belief - Bias and the Brain: https://youtu.be/lnMkHB0vNCE
Stephen Fry on Religion: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vpn-NhSPYQE
Why do we believe things that aren't true: https://youtu.be/jobYTQTgeUE?si=i3jUSzTftjFcRqSu
https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2014.01588/full
https://www.psychologytoday.com/intl/blog/the-human-beast/201904/why-people-conform?amp