Religious People Are Better People

**brokenandtwisted** · October 2nd, 2008, 03:48 PM

Religious people more generous, UBC psychologist finds

Published: Thursday, October 02, 2008

VANCOUVER - Religious people tend to be more helpful and generous than others because their belief in God assumes the existence of an all-knowing "supernatural police" officer who monitors their behavior, University of B.C. psychologist Ara Norenzayan said in an interview Thursday.

The prestigious journal, Science, published an article Thursday by Norenzayan and his assistant Azim Shariff that surveys 30 years of wide-ranging research into the relationship between religion and moral behaviour.

The UBC authors conclude that religious people are on average more ethical than atheists - but only on two conditions.

Religious people tend to behave more ethically on condition they believe it will enhance their reputation among their group, and only when they have been freshly reminded of their belief in God, said Norenzayan.

Emphasizing he is not out to either defend or attack religion but to look at "hard scentific evidence," Norenzayen said he is grateful that the global scientific community has become much more open to researching religious behavior in the past six years.

Norenzayan, who has gained international attention for some of his earlier psychological experiments into religion, said their latest report in Science does not necessarily contradict those who claim religion exacerbates conflict between cultures and traditions.

That's because the UBC researchers discovered religious people are often more generous and helpful (or "pro-social") only to members of their religion, not necessarily to outsiders.

The UBC study shows that, even though religion has been helpful in creating moral behavior, it has no monopoly on producing honest and empathic people.

Norenzayen says the beneficial role that an all-knowing, morally concerned God has played in history is being replaced in some cases by non-religious mechanisms - such as effective policing, courts and social surveillance.

Still, Norenzayan said, religiously-motivated virtuous behavior has played a vital role throughout history in societies that have generally been strongly religious, by encouraging cooperation among large groups of genetically unrelated people.

For instance, Noranzeyen said, recent anthropological studies have suggested there is more cooperation among religious societies than non-religious, especially when group survival is under threat.

Economic studies have shown religiosity increases trust, he said.

And psychology experiments, some conducted by Norenzayen, have shown belief in God reduces cheating and selfish behavior.

http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/s...a-1670ce6df949

I don't know what to say on this article...it explains everything. Why I'm apathetic, sarcastic, unhelpful, argumentative and a total cunt. Should I be finding God? On a serious note the writer is completely ignoring all religious-motivated hate in history in this article....

**Athena** · October 2nd, 2008, 04:25 PM

Only if the end justifies the means.

An atheist's interest in the well being of mankind is inherently more genuine, by this measure.

**Optimus_Rhyme** · October 2nd, 2008, 04:33 PM

i disagree and i only need a two worded example:

Spanish Inquisition (not the Mel Brooks dancing one)

here's one more word

Holocaust

or

The Crusades

or

Jihad

The Roman's fed Christians to Lions. The Irish killed each other for decades over who's version of Christianity was better...i mean we could go on....

while yes i would agree that religous people tend to have a better grasp on doing "the right thing" and making sound moral and ethical choices, there are also a shit ton of crazy religious fanatics who think that god told them to go kill people or blow some stuff up.

You could argue that religion is sometimes a weapon of mass destruction

p.s. no i'm not a Bill Mahr style atheist

**Envy** · October 2nd, 2008, 06:39 PM

What is scentific? i can't find a translation any where...

Perhaps only "God" knows...

**polis** · October 2nd, 2008, 06:51 PM

religious people in canada?

generous only to the causes they believe in?

hmmm...

**brokenandtwisted** · October 2nd, 2008, 07:02 PM

No. There are no religious people in Canada. We are an atheist state.

**katyk** · October 2nd, 2008, 07:09 PM

Originally Posted by brokenandtwisted

No. There are no religious people in Canada. We are an atheist state.

That's not what they said in Degrassi Jr High. I think I heard some people praying to god on there. Damn, seriously, that's a good show.

**brokenandtwisted** · October 2nd, 2008, 07:11 PM

Originally Posted by katyk

That's not what they said in Degrassi Jr High. I think I heard some people praying to god on there. Damn, seriously, that's a good show.

Degrassi arguably has American influences.

**katyk** · October 2nd, 2008, 07:17 PM

Originally Posted by brokenandtwisted

Degrassi arguably has American influences.

Like the drinkin' and drivin', the unwed baby havin', snorting coke off of toilet bowls, gettin' AIDS...right?

**polis** · October 2nd, 2008, 07:19 PM

Originally Posted by brokenandtwisted

No. There are no religious people in Canada. We are an atheist state.

ha!

i did a fragment i know. i'm busy.

anyhow i meant was this only done on the religious in canada?

i always knew canadians believed in no fairytales! bastards.

**brokenandtwisted** · October 2nd, 2008, 07:19 PM

Originally Posted by katyk

Like the drinkin' and drivin', the unwed baby havin', snorting coke off of toilet bowls, gettin' AIDS...right?

Exactly. You know your country too well.

**katyk** · October 2nd, 2008, 07:27 PM

Originally Posted by brokenandtwisted

Exactly. You know your country too well.

I'm an Amurrican, dammit! I eat Freedom Toast for breakfast!

Hey. Funny story. Off-topic. As usual.

Opt and I decided to be "American" on the 4th of July and went to a local hamburger joint. The waitress was very dramatic, as all waitresses in LA are since they all want to be actresses.

Anyway, we tell her we're there to be patriotic on the 4th of July. Of course, we laughed as we said this, since it's ridiculous.

For the entire meal she made fun of us because she thought we were serious. She'd bring our drinks, put them down and go, "America drinks. Yay." And walk away. Then she'd bring ketchup and say, "Go America." And walk away. Finally, she asked us if we "really loved America" like that. We said yes, but we aren't the kind of people who think America is better than any other nation. She's just like, "Oh good because I thought you guys were assholes." hahah.

Gotta love Los Angeles.

**Optimus_Rhyme** · October 2nd, 2008, 08:14 PM

Originally Posted by katyk

I'm an Amurrican, dammit! I eat Freedom Toast for breakfast!

Hey. Funny story. Off-topic. As usual.

Opt and I decided to be "American" on the 4th of July and went to a local hamburger joint. The waitress was very dramatic, as all waitresses in LA are since they all want to be actresses.

Anyway, we tell her we're there to be patriotic on the 4th of July. Of course, we laughed as we said this, since it's ridiculous.

For the entire meal she made fun of us because she thought we were serious. She'd bring our drinks, put them down and go, "America drinks. Yay." And walk away. Then she'd bring ketchup and say, "Go America." And walk away. Finally, she asked us if we "really loved America" like that. We said yes, but we aren't the kind of people who think America is better than any other nation. She's just like, "Oh good because I thought you guys were assholes." hahah.

Gotta love Los Angeles.

i think i remember saying something about how we love america so much we're going to move to europe to get real healthcare.

she laughed and it was ok. i wonder if she spit in our food when she thought we were republicans.

**TheLittleFriend** · October 2nd, 2008, 11:29 PM

Originally Posted by katyk

That's not what they said in Degrassi Jr High. I think I heard some people praying to god on there. Damn, seriously, that's a good show.

I'm 25 and I still watch it!

Anyway, religious people are better? Bullshit.

**Aelwynn** · October 3rd, 2008, 05:31 PM

While I'm religious, I don't think my religious upbringing taught me to be nicer/more morally correct than other people. I think that was all on my folks and my own personal choices really. I can be an asshole when I want to be, no lie. I've seen a lot of so-called religious people that treat others like shit. But, that's also on them...personal choices and all that jazz.

I doubt this study has any REAL value to it. One Catholic is not the same as another Catholic. There can be some really hateful people out there that are die-hard religious...like the Roper-Phelps clan, and there can be some decent human beings out there that aren't religious at all. Folks come in all shapes, colors and sizes.

**michelle** · October 3rd, 2008, 07:17 PM

In my opinion, how good a person is can't be measured by their "claim" to religion or their "claim" to doing the right thing.
I simply measure the worth/goodness of a person through their actions, especially when they don't think anyone is looking or think they won't get caught.

**Owd Scrat** · October 5th, 2008, 11:40 PM

Originally Posted by brokenandtwisted

I don't know what to say on this article...it explains everything. Why I'm apathetic, sarcastic, unhelpful, argumentative and a total cunt. Should I be finding God? On a serious note the writer is completely ignoring all religious-motivated hate in history in this article....

Now I don't know about that! I'm all those wonderful attributes as well but I am also very spiritual. We're all human, religion or not!

**Waldowas** · February 24th, 2012, 03:44 PM

Actually it depends on the society around you and how well you feel to cope with it. If the society is a religious one and sets high value on religion then the more you cope with that the easier you feel yourself and thus the better your self-esteem too, and vice-versa. That's just because human beings are highly social animals to which belonging to the pack or group is strongly hard-wired in our minds already millions of years ago, and the same goes on naturally even today. This sounds perhaps even too self-evident to require any hard data, but actually we have also that in this rather recent study:

Results:

The eDarling dataset comprises more than 200,000 participants (47% female) from 11 European countries. The eDarling data supported our hypothesis. Across the complete international sample, believers indicated better psychological health than non-believers. However, this was only due to some countries: In countries, in which believers are applauded for being religious, because religiosity is popular and important (e.g., Russia, Poland, and Turkey) believers reported higher social self-esteem and better psychological adjustment in comparison to non-believers.
In contrast, in countries, in which believers are not applauded for being religious, because religiosity is not as popular and important (e.g., Sweden, Germany, France) believers and non-believers hardly differed in their social self-esteem and psychological adjustment.

The rest of the story: http://www.edarling.org/edarling-stu...ral-comparison

Interestingly is not however other way around in those highly secular societies which seems to indicate they are indeed secular in a sense that no religion or non-religious conviction is regarded higher than any other and thus all people feel as good to live in those societies. That means that religious people need and should not worry about the secularization of their society, because it doesn't make it less comfortable for them to live. However non-religious people have clearly it better in secular societies and thus it's a good argument for deneral secularization of societies!