Secular Devil's Advocate Person

A Secular Devil's Advocate Person is a skeptical person (who critically evaluates ideas, arguments, and policies) who is a secular person.

Context:
- They can (often) provide Critical Analysis to enhance decision-making processes in corporate, political, or educational settings.
- They can (often) challenge prevailing assumptions or popular opinions to safeguard against groupthink and facilitate more robust outcomes.
- They can help in identifying potential weaknesses or flaws in arguments or plans, thereby strengthening the overall proposition.
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Example(s):
- an Organizational Consultant who acts as a Secular Devil's Advocate during strategic planning sessions to question the feasibility of proposed business expansions.
- a Political Advisor who performs the role of a Secular Devil's Advocate by critiquing policy proposals before they are presented in a legislative assembly.
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Counter-Example(s):
- Ecclesiastical Devil's Advocates, who perform a similar role but within religious contexts.
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See: Critical Thinking, Constructive Criticism, Adversarial System.

References

Shariff, A. F., Cohen, A. B., & Norenzayan, A. (2008). The devil's advocate: Secular arguments diminish both implicit and explicit religious belief. Journal of Cognition and Culture, 8(3-4), 417-423.
- QUOTE: The religion-science debate has heated up in recent years, with polemical arguments on both side decrying the other. Given that the dominant view is of religiousness as a relatively … Save Cite Cited by 89 Related articles All 9 versions