Why your faith beliefs should change over time (according to neuroscience)
Hi! I’m Katie, and I’m a cultural and social psychologist—but you can think of me as your BFF with a PhD. I live in the desert of Texas alongside the cacti, roadrunners, and horned lizards. If you’re looking to understand your inner landscape and the whirlwind of the world around you, I hope you find something of value here. Make sure to subscribe—and you won’t miss a beat! Thank you so much for being here.
The below photo is of my partner’s and my reflection in the window of a historical church in Norway.
The church was such a visual paradox.
It was beautiful.
Crisp-white and pristine yet old and weathered.
Surrounded by an absolutely indescribable countryside.
Green rolling hills, vibrant flowers.
Yet, the entire landscape was coated in a strange and distal fog that also warmly wrapped hundreds of gravestones peppering the church grounds.
The sanctity and solemnity of the site seemed to effortlessly embrace the paradox of the beauty that appeared to be keeping it alive.
Over my adult life, my concept of God has taken on an organic life of its own, evolving into something both equally beautiful and crystal-clear—and inexplainable and disorienting.
Much like standing before the paradox of that church, I often find myself embracing and affirming that there is a central meaning to existence and something that breathes life into that existence.
In the same breath, I have questions.
I used to feel shame about this.
Others dropped that shame on me, and at times, I placed it on myself.
I was told something was wrong with me, that my faith was weak.
I began to believe that I was the odd man out.
The one that no one else could understand.
Over time, that narrative took a turn.
I learned to sit with my cognitive dissonance and welcome in my uncertainty.
I befriended my questions, and like any good academic, I turned to social scientific research for clues.
As I studied more and more evidence-based research on belief change and specifically faith change, the more and more I pressed into my own personal experience of it.
And, more and more, I began to discover that this is an entirely healthy, expected, and deeply meaningful place to be.
BELIEF CHANGE IS NORMAL
Psychological research in the area of human development has shown that belief change is a normal and healthy feature of what it means to be human.
When we evolve our beliefs, it’s even thought to be a marker of maturity.
Furthermore, a more nuanced (and less black-and-white) moral belief system is shown to be a more mature one.
Even research from the field of neuroscience supports the notion that belief change, specifically faith change, is normal and healthy over time.
Andrew Newberg and Mark Robert Waldman, neuroscientists studying the effects of spirituality on the brain, have found interesting evidence that shows our neurological images of God evolve across the lifespan.
Consider grabbing a pen and paper and drawing a quick picture of God.
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