The associations between theism and beliefs in folklore, mythical beings, extra-terrestrials, and things that go bump in the dark

Abstract

The belief in the supernatural and paranormal is deeply intertwined in human history and culture with the recent inclusion of science fiction entity types e.g., extra-terrestrials. Investigating for the association between the beliefs in formal religions, pagan, and science fiction with worldview elements, 255 participants were recruited and surveyed. The demographic of the participants and their declared religious affiliation were found to be associated but not with their theistic beliefs using the non-parametric Kruskal-Wallis and Dunn’s tests. Non-monotheistic beliefs, particularly polytheistic and agnostic beliefs were significantly positively associated with beliefs in ghosts (H = 34.51, p < 0.01) and other pagan entities such as nature spirits (H = 36.41, p < 0.01) and luck (H = 28.85, p < 0.01). Monotheists tend to have more significant exclusive beliefs in supernatural entities e.g., angels and demons compared to the other theists including atheists, agnostics, polytheists, and pantheists (H = 53.58, p < 0.01). By gender, females were found to significantly believe in the paranormal (W = 9308, p < 0.01) and ghosts (W = 9308, p < 0.01) more than males. The findings here serve to uncover associations of religious beliefs with supernatural and paranormal beliefs such as extra-terrestrials, luck, and objective morality, with demographic background that includes education and professional vocations. The findings here would inform the basis for future studies on beliefs in supernatural and paranormal entities.