Faith and Analytical Thinking: A misunderstanding of the meaning of Faith?

UBC social psychologists Will Gervais and Ara Norenzayan conducted an experiment among 650 subjects to determine the relaitonship between analytical thinking and belief. The experiment were conducted in two stages. In the initial stage, they asked the subjects to rate on a scale how important their beliefs were on God or angels. Once done, the subjects proceeded to the next stage and were asked to perform some "mathematical computations, answered questions posed in "hard-to read fonts" and were shown a photo of Rodin's sculpture of a man in a reflective position."

While the researchers had no intention of promoting atheism or degrading religion, their study indicated that analytical thinking weakens the subjects' faith.

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You wonder if St. Augustine or St. Thomas or any religious thinkers would have their faith weakened by thinking analytically on the tenets of their faith. You wonder whether their faith and the understanding of what faith is similar to that of the subjects. I am not on the side of the believers, but you need to ask yourself, in a critical way, whether they are talking about faith or a belief that is based on hearsay. A belief that is based on hearsay, a probability at best, can easily be weakened. It is quite obvious that that is not faith for St. Thomas Aquinas. Faith, to him, is a rational assent.

Analytical thinking is a tool. Two different persons could have a different purpose for using analytical thinking. The use of analytical thinking lies  would depend on the subjects' pre-understanding of their relationship with the world at large. Logically, if two persons hold 2 different or opposing world perspectives, then they wouldn't not apply analytical thinking in the exact manner.

From one perspective, the study shows that analytical thinking weakens the subjects' faith. However, it could also have revealed the weak or the shallow understanding of the subjects' faith.

What do you think?