How Ordinary Cognition Informs Petitionary Prayer

摘要: Four studies (two experiments, a journaling study, and questionnaire) conducted with American Protestant college students explored intuitions concerning petitionary prayer. Since theology offers little teaching on through which modes of causation God is most likely to act, it was hypothesized that intuitive causal cognition would be used generate inferences regarding this aspect Participants in these favored asking act via psychological over the biological mechanistic domains. Further, fictitious scenarios participants reported being more ask supercomputer or Superman solve problem intervention than God. These results are consistent two previous findings: often intuitively represented as having single physical location (and not nearby); psychosocial agents (such God) expected require contact non-agents.