Religious truth claims resist disconfirmation, which strengthens members’ faith and defensiveness.
Evidence
Wellman and Tokuno (2004) argue that one of the primary motivators of religious faith and identity is that religion claims to be true. They continue by saying that whether implicit religious truth, rituals, and practice are normal, thus real, or explicit religious truth, which is defended against other claims, neither can be disconfirmed. The inability of religious truth claims to be disconfirmed heightens members’ faith and belief and willingness to defend against individuals or groups that oppose the group (Wellman & Tokuno, 2004). — Roderick M. Kramer, Geoffrey J. Leonardelli, Robert W. Livingston, Social Cognition, Social Identity, and…, 912
Categorization
Category: Causal Relationships
- DEEPTHINKING: The unfalsifiable-truth mechanism has parallels to political and ideological identity formation beyond religion.
Related
- Unfalsifiable truth claims intensify group defense against outsiders. (similarity 0.94)
- How a person believes religion is not separable from what they believe (similarity 0.79)
- Believers experience their truths as felt certainty, not testable belief. (similarity 0.79)
- True believers hold convictions as unquestionable faith, not fallible knowledge (similarity 0.78)