Studies concerning the changing landscapes of religiosity and spirituality in the lives of young people in England and Wales draw attention to decline in traditional religiosity and to growth in alternative spiritualities. The present study examined whether such alternative spiritualities occupy the same personality space as traditional religiosity. A sample of 2,950 13- to 16-year-old pupils attending 11 secondary schools in England and Wales completed the Francis Scale of Attitude toward Christianity and an index of paranormal belief, alongside the abbreviated-form (...) Junior Eysenck Personality Questionnaire Revised. The data demonstrated that these two forms of belief were related in different ways to Eysenck's dimensional model of personality space. While attitude toward Christianity occupied the space defined by low psychoticism scores and high lie scale scores, paranormal belief was related to high psychoticism scores and was independent of lie scale scores. These findings support the view that alternative spiritualities may be associated with different personalities. (shrink)

Paranormal beliefs are often divided between those that are central to traditional Christian doctrine, such as the belief in heaven and hell, and those that are commonly associated with the supernatural or occult, such as the belief in ESP and psychic healing. This study employs data from a recent nationwide random sample general population survey to catalog the social correlates of paranormal beliefs and to examine the relationships between religious and other paranormal beliefs. The results indicate that standard social background (...) factors do a poor job of accounting for who believes in paranormal phenomena and that the importance of specific background factors changes dramatically from phenomenon to phenomenon. The results also show that the correlations between belief in religious phenomena and other paranormal phenomena are largely insignificant. These findings call into question many prevailing theories about paranormal beliefs. (shrink)

The literature on the relationship between religion and belief in the paranormal is complex and sometimes seemingly contradictory. However, previous research suggests that this relationship depends on the religious characteristics of the sample and the measures of religion. Research also suggests that science knowledge is unrelated to paranormal beliefs, but critical thinking is at odds with paranormal beliefs. Psychology college students and conservative Christians answered questions about paranormal beliefs, religious beliefs, Bible knowledge, science knowledge, and evidence-based thinking. Conservative Christians displayed (...) the lowest belief in the paranormal. Religious beliefs and paranormal beliefs were unrelated, but attendance at services was negatively related to paranormal beliefs. Evidence-based thinking was also negatively related to paranormal beliefs. (shrink)

Previous empirical studies concerned with the association between paranormal beliefs and conventional religiosity have produced conflicting evidence. Drawing on Rice's distinction between classic paranormal beliefs and religious paranormal beliefs, the present study proposed a modified form of the Tobacyk Revised Paranormal Belief Scale to produce separate scores for these two forms of paranormal belief, styled ‘religious paranormal beliefs’ and ‘classic paranormal beliefs’. Data provided by a sample of 143 undergraduate students in Northern Ireland and Wales, who completed the Francis Scale (...) of Attitude toward Christianity alongside the Tobacyk Revised Paranormal Belief Scale, demonstrated that conventional religiosity is positively correlated with religious paranormal beliefs, but independent of classic paranormal beliefs. These findings provide a clear framework within which previous conflicting evidence can be interpreted. It is recommended that future research should distinguish clearly between these two forms of paranormal beliefs and that the Tobacyk Revised Paranormal Beliefs Scale should be routinely modified to detach the four religious paranormal belief items from the total scale score. (shrink)

The literature on the relationship between religion and belief in the paranormal is complex and sometimes seemingly contradictory. However, previous research suggests that this relationship depends on the religious characteristics of the sample and the measures of religion. Research also suggests that science knowledge is unrelated to paranormal beliefs, but critical thinking is at odds with paranormal beliefs. Psychology college students and conservative Christians answered questions about paranormal beliefs, religious beliefs, Bible knowledge, science knowledge, and evidence-based thinking. Conservative Christians displayed (...) the lowest belief in the paranormal. Religious beliefs and paranormal beliefs were unrelated, but attendance at services was negatively related to paranormal beliefs. Evidence-based thinking was also negatively related to paranormal beliefs. (shrink)