Analytical this...

CNN brings us a report of a new study which allegedly shows that analytical thinking decreases religious belief. "Religious belief is intuitive - and analytical thinking can undermine intuitive thinking," says one of the co-authors of the study.

Now, on its face the article doesn't seem to be an outright attack on religion. According to the article, the only thing the study claims to show is that people who engage in analytical thinking are more likely to experience a decrease in religious belief. Likewise, the same co-author of the study points out that his team doesn't think analytical thinking is better than intuitive thinking.

That's nice. But I'd like to zero in on a couple points here. First, is the co-author right? Is religious belief merely intuitive? The general definition of intuitive is, "based on what one feels to be true even without conscious reasoning." Is religious belief simply what one feels to be true without any conscious reasoning? Sed contra, take a look at Article 3 of the Second Question of the First Part of St. Thomas's Summa. Or for that matter, take a look at the whole Summa Theologica. Looks like St. Thomas's religious beliefs are based on a little more than feelings don't you think?

Second, what's up with the "my team doesn't think analytical thinking is better than intuitive thinking?" The common definition of analytical is, "using logical reasoning." So is the guy really trying to say that his team doesn't think that using logical reasoning is any better than simply going with what one feels to be true without any reasoning? I guess that makes sense in today's relativistic culture where belief in objective truth has been abandoned.

Third, it seems like the real thesis of this article by CNN is, "Hey dummies, smart people don't believe in God." It's the old faith v. reason false dichotomy in a little different package. The thesis being that faith is incompatible with reason. This is directly contrary to Catholic teaching. The Catholic Encyclopedia's entry on Fideism puts it nicely, "Rejecting both rationalism and fideism, [the Church] teaches that human reason is capable (physical ability) of knowing the moral and religious truths of the natural order; that it can prove with certainty the existence of God, the immortality of the soul, and can acknowledge most certainly the teaching of God; that, however, in the present conditions of life, it needs (of moral necessity) the help of revelation to acquire a sufficient knowledge of all the natural truths necessary to direct human life according to the precepts of natural religion."

And Fr. Robert Barron's take here.