THE TENDENCY TO CERTAINTY IN RELIGIOUS BELIEF.

BY ROBERT H. THOULESS.
(From the Department of Psychology, Glasgow University.)
First published in British Journal of Psychology, XXVI, pp. 16-31, 1935.
I. Introduction (p. 16).
II. The scope of the enquiry (pp. 16-17).
III. The results of the enquiry (pp. 18-23).
IV. Discussion of the results (pp. 23-29).
(a) The law of belief formation (pp. 23-24).
(b) Comparison of religious and non-religious beliefs (pp. 24-27).
(c) Political and ‘tabloid’ beliefs (p. 27).
(d) Relation of certainty of belief to intelligence (pp. 27-28).
(e) Certainty of disbelief (pp. 28-29).
(f) Other relationships of certainty of belief (p. 29).
V. General conclusion (p. 29).
VI. Summary (pp. 29-30).
Appendix (pp. 30-31).
I. INTRODUCTION.
Ordinary observation of the strength of beliefs leads one to the conclusion that
most people have a strong tendency to feel much much certain than the
evidence warrants. Particularly is this to be noticed when opposite opinions are
held, and we find. that some people are certain that a proposition is true and
some are certain that it is false, while relatively few persons adopt the attitude
of partial belief, that is, of regarding it as more or less probable. This is
particularly striking with respect to religious and political beliefs, although I
think common observation would also lead us to suppose that it was not
confined to them. There seems to be a general tendency for our reaction to be
that of certainly accepting or certainly rejecting a proposition rather than either
the attitude of partial belief, which we may call ‘scepticism’, or that of
oscillation between two opposed beliefs, which we may call ‘doubt’.

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