Are "J"s more likely to believe in God? (or become very firm atheists?)

[Architectonic]

Are "J"s more likely to believe in God?

The reason I ask this is because while percievers may be content with an unanswered question, are "J"s much more likely to believe in god because they feel they will be incomplete without that belief? (Or become very firm athiests) Whereas percievers may be much more content with an agnostic* belief.


*By agnostic, I mean the dictionary definition:

One who believes that it is impossible to know whether there is a God.
One who is skeptical about the existence of God but does not profess true atheism.
I do not mean a reasonably firm athiest without any real proof of the inexistence of god.

I also realize that INTJs might be a bit of a grey area...

[Vagabond]

INTJs: There is One Truth out there, we are trying to find it.

INTPs: There might or might not be One Truth out there; that is what we are trying to find out.

Yeah, INTPs are more likely to be agnostic, whereas INTJs are more likely to have a firm belief even if that is god, atheism, a certain philosophy etc.

(I have to remember where I read this particular description about INTJs and INTPs... that article was good).

[Lee]

I think you are right to say J's are more likely to be religious, of course there will be many exceptions but as a general rule I agree, I expect the likelyhood is probably even greater for FJ's. But using the Judgement preference from MBTI can probably in some cases be misleading, the J can manifest itself in many ways and depending on the other functions can behave quite differently.

Of course whether any believer would be comfortable with the fact that thier belief has it's roots in brain chemistry is not... well, thats a touchy subject, i'll leave it there, partially because I do not have access to the various study's that show a connection, too busy right now to look.

[Geoff]

I think you are right to say J's are more likely to be religious, of course there will be many exceptions but as a general rule I agree, I expect the likelyhood is probably even greater for FJ's. But using the Judgement preference from MBTI can probably in some cases be misleading, the J can manifest itself in many ways and depending on the other functions can behave quite differently.

Of course whether any believer would be comfortable with the fact that thier belief has it's roots in brain chemistry is not... well, thats a touchy subject, i'll leave it there, partially because I do not have access to the various study's that show a connection, too busy right now to look.

If you are comparing *any* type with INTP that will be true. INTP are statistically the type least likely to believe in a higher being. At least according to the study I read (which also pointed out that alcohol is our drug of choice and most likely one to abuse - maybe the two are connected :devil: )

I would say that J's are more likely to have a strongly held conviction (which may be that there is no God) rather than an element of uncertainty - they prefer to deal in absolutes. Whether that conviction is then converted into a belief in a religious system rather than a belief that there is no religious system is largely dependent upon upbringing and culture (eg there are not many Hindu Polytheistic 'J's in Denmark, I would imagine).

-Geoff

[Lee]

I think these will probably be the correlations -

I suspect that STJ's will have a strong conviction either way, depending on how they were brought up.
SFJ's will probably feel the same as STJ's in most situations, however I would expect to find more religious SFJ's than STJ's.
NFJ's are also very likely to be religious, however they probably came to thier beliefs thier own way.
I think ENFP's will emulate the behaviour of ESFJ's on this one.
INFP's will find thier own way, but then never be satisfied with thier beliefs and those beliefs divisive effects.
SP's are probably athiest or agnostic, usually because they do not care enough to think about it, although I expect many born again christians come from this group.
ENTP's and INTP's are no doubt the least likely to be religious because there are just to many unanswered questions surrounding the issue, most will be agnostic.
ENTJ's think they are God
and finally an INTJ will only be religious if thier F is sufficiently strong enough or they stick to the traditions of thier upbringing.
These are just a few random intuitions on the subject, a lot is no doubt missing and some of it is probably just plain wrong.

[Geoff]

On STJ's believers.

ISTJ will expect to live life according to God's rules.
ESTJ's will tell and expect others to live life according to God's rules.

-Geoff

[Lee]

On STJ's believers.

ISTJ will expect to live life according to God's rules.
ESTJ's will tell and expect others to live life according to God's rules.

-GeoffHa, very true, provided they believe in God of course otherwise.

ESTJ's will tell and expect others to live life according to the rules they make up.
ISTJ's will expect to live life according to the ESTJ's rules.

Oh, hang on, I think my one says the same thing as your one, just different words...:lol:

[Architectonic]

ENFPs can often be agnostic too, I guess they would be similar to INFP but extroverted - spend their seeking out the beliefs of others (who may sometimes be NFJs).

[nBT]

N causes alot of questions, exixtensial or otherwise. INP's quickly dimiss these on the base of their first judging function, while INJ's who have Ni as dominant function demand an answer. wether the answer is God or not is less important.

[LuridLemur]

I think these will probably be the correlations -

I suspect that STJ's will have a strong conviction either way, depending on how they were brought up.
SFJ's will probably feel the same as STJ's in most situations, however I would expect to find more religious SFJ's than STJ's.
NFJ's are also very likely to be religious, however they probably came to thier beliefs thier own way.
I think ENFP's will emulate the behaviour of ESFJ's on this one.
INFP's will find thier own way, but then never be satisfied with thier beliefs and those beliefs divisive effects.
SP's are probably athiest or agnostic, usually because they do not care enough to think about it, although I expect many born again christians come from this group.
ENTP's and INTP's are no doubt the least likely to be religious because there are just to many unanswered questions surrounding the issue, most will be agnostic.
ENTJ's think they are God
and finally an INTJ will only be religious if thier F is sufficiently strong enough or they stick to the traditions of thier upbringing.
These are just a few random intuitions on the subject, a lot is no doubt missing and some of it is probably just plain wrong.
Great post, I definitely agree with you... especially the ENTJ part.

[Jacque]

The difference is in not what we believe, but for what we pray. Mighty Google, please find what it is that I read years ago, but can't remember in keywords.

Cool! I just did a serach on this forum. This is old, but it's also new:
http://www.squarewheels.com/jokes/mbtiprayers.html

ISTJ:Lord, help me to relax my focus on insignificant details, even though any of them may cause significant problems later. Begin this tomorrow at 8:31:04 am.

ISTP:God, please help me to consider other people's feelings, even if most of them ARE excessively hypersensitive.

ESTP:God help me to accept responsibility for my own actions, even though problems are usually NOT my fault.

ESTJ:God, please help me to not try to RUN everything.
But, if You need some help, just ask.

ISFJ:Lord, please help me to be more laid back and help me to do that EXACTLY right.

ISFP:Lord, help me to stand up for my rights (if you don't mind my asking).

ESFP:God help me to take things more seriously, especially jokes, parties, conversation and dancing.

ESFJ:God give me the patience I need to deal with things more effectively, and I mean right NOW!

INFJ:Lord. Please help me not to be so perfectionistic! (Did I spell that correctly?)

INFP:God, help me to finish everything I sta..

ENFP:God, please help me to keep my mind on one...Look a butterfly!...thing at a time.

ENFJ:God help me to do only what I can, trusting you for all the rest. But would you mind putting that in writing?

INTJ:Lord keep me open to others' ideas, WRONG though they may be.

INTP:Lord, please help me to be a little less independent but in my own way, of course.

ENTP:Lord, please help me follow our established procedures today. On second thought, I'll settle for a couple of minutes.

ENTJ:Lord, help me slow downandnotrushthroughwhatIdo.

[Heather Harrison]

Here is my take on ENTJ, in the format of Jacque's post:

ENTJ: Lord, you are just not doing a good job - you just aren't grasping the big picture. Time to step down. I'm taking over.

But seriously, I would expect INTJs to be a little more rigid in their belief or non-belief, but the N function will always leave them open to change, whether they like it or not.

Although an INTP, I am a fairly committed atheist. My first inclination is to dismiss out-of-hand anything that isn't scientific. But I find other ideas interesting, and I am willing to entertain the possibility that something which now appears supernatural and unscientific may one day gain a proper scientific explanation. Would an INTJ be so open to such things? I don't know; maybe we should ask one.

Heather Harrison

[Eileen]

Js are probably more likely to firmly settle into something.

I have firmly settled into a paradoxical balance, myself.

[Sackanaka]

On STJ's believers.

ISTJ will expect to live life according to God's rules.
ESTJ's will tell and expect others to live life according to God's rules.

-Geoff

i'm not sackanaka (a friend of his though), but i'm using his username to reply... just 'cause i was interested.

i am an ISTJ and i am an agnostic. i find it hard to categorize people into what religion they will follow just based on their type. my parents never really doubted the existence of god, but they never forced or raised me with any sort of religious belief. instead i came to my own conclusion that there probably is no god (in high school)... later though, i came to another realization that we as human beings probably will never know the real truth... at least in this lifetime it seems. there's too many unanswered questions out there, the universe is huge and infinite, and to believe that human beings are very special because god took time to create us... is being somewhat naive. i may be leaning more towards athiesm still, but there is a doubt in my mind. there is no religion for me to believe in whole-heartedly, and there probably never will be.

but yeah... just thought i'd reply... i don't follow god's rules and like hell if i were to live by them. i have my own set of values based on experiences and how i've been raised.