# منتديات طلاب الجامعات الأردنية > English Forum > Islamic Forum >  Belief in God is part of human nature - Oxford study

## *charisma*

*Humans are naturally predisposed to believe in gods and life after death,    according to a major three-year international study. *  

Led by two academics at Oxford University, the £1.9 million study found that    human thought processes were “rooted” to  religious    concepts.  

 But people living in cities in highly developed countries were less likely to    hold religious beliefs than those living a more rural way of life, the    researchers found.   

  The project involved 57 academics in 20 countries around the world, and    spanned disciplines including anthropology, psychology, and philosophy.   

  It set out to establish whether belief in divine beings and an afterlife were    ideas simply learned from society or integral to human nature.   

  One of the studies, from Oxford, concluded that children below the age of five    found it easier to believe in some “superhuman” properties than to    understand human limitations.

Children were asked whether their mother would know the contents of a closed    box. Three-year-olds believed that their mother and God would always know    the contents, but by the age of four, children start to understand that    their mothers were not omniscient.   

Separate research from China suggested that people across different cultures    instinctively believed that some part of their mind, soul or spirit lived on    after death.   

The co-director of the project, Professor Roger Trigg, from the University of    Oxford, said the research showed that religion was “not just something for a    peculiar few to do on Sundays instead of playing golf”.   

“We have gathered a body of evidence that suggests that religion is a common    fact of human nature across different societies,” he said.   

“This suggests that attempts to suppress religion are likely to be short-lived    as human thought seems to be rooted to religious concepts, such as the    existence of supernatural agents or gods, and the possibility of an    afterlife or pre-life.”  

Dr Justin Barrett, from the University of Oxford’s Centre for Anthropology and    Mind, who directed the project, said faith may persist in diverse cultures    across the world because people who share the bonds of religion “might be    more likely to cooperate as societies”.   

“Interestingly, we found that religion is less likely to thrive in populations    living in cities in developed nations where there is already a strong social    support network.”

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