So Much For Religious People Being More Righteous

[prasad1]

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So much for religious people being more righteous than non-believers.


Sure-to-be-controversial new research shows that religious and non-religious people are equally likely to misbehave. The only difference between the groups is that religious people show stronger emotional reactions to moral and immoral deeds.


“To our knowledge, it’s the first study that directly assesses how morality plays out in people’s everyday lived experience,” Dr. Linda Skitka, a psychologist at the University of Illinois at Chicago and the co-author of a paper describing the research, said in a written statement.
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What did the researchers find? Religious and non-religious people alike reported experiencing around the same number of moral acts. Furthermore, no difference was found between liberals and conservatives. People reported committing good deeds more often than bad ones, and reported hearing about bad deeds more often than good ones.


The researchers also found that people who benefited from good deeds often "paid them forward," doing something good for someone else later on.


The only differences between the religious and non-religious people included how they felt about and described moral acts. Religious people were more likely to express pride over performing moral acts, gratefulness over benefitting from moral acts, and guilt and disgust over immoral ones. Conservatives and liberals differed in the kinds of moral acts that they focused on.


"Liberals more often mention moral phenomena related to fairness and honesty," co-author Dan Wisneski, a psychology professor at Saint Peter's University in Jersey City, N.J., told LiveScience. "Conservatives more often mention moral phenomena related to loyalty and disloyalty or sanctity and degradation."

So Much For Religious People Being More Righteous

 

[renuka]

Its simple..they need not have even spent money on research.

They should have just observed the world..

1)Terrorists have firm believe in God.

2)Most Mafia Dons have strong believe in God.

3)Most Indian Dons too have strong believe in God.

4)Most corrupted politicians have a strong believe in God.

5)Criminals also believe in God but have no problems lying under oath.

I am not trying to say that those who believe in God are bad..but it shows that a believe in God need not translate as being Morally right.

The more a person says he believes in anything..the more he is unsure of himself.

When we are sure of something..we do not wake up in the morning repeating it and proclaiming that "I am religious..I believe in God..I am of a higher mental mode"

Only when we are insecure we repeat all these.

All of us would have been through these stages in life.

But do we get up in the morning saying "I strongly and firmly believe that my name is so and so?"

We dont..becos we have faith in ourselves.

True faith does not need a declaration..only insecurity needs a declaration.

 

[Vaagmi]

Its simple..they need not have even spent money on research.

The more a person says he believes in anything..the more he is unsure of himself.

When we are sure of something..we do not wake up in the morning repeating it and proclaiming that "I am religious..I believe in God..I am of a higher mental mode"

Only when we are insecure we repeat all these.

All of us would have been through these stages in life.

But do we get up in the morning saying "I strongly and firmly believe that my name is so and so?"

We dont..becos we have faith in ourselves.

True faith does not need a declaration..only insecurity needs a declaration.

Renukaji,

Why this attempt to speak about two different things in the same breath? The individual is like an antenna and the system connected to it. As long as there is no decibels coming out from the system the system looks like it is dead. When a signal comes and hits the antenna the system comes to life and crackles. An individual remains dead silent as long as there is no triggering. When triggered-like when called out by name, when shouted at, when mildly reminded by the assistant about the engagement waiting or when harshly reminded by the wife in the morning that we have to get up we system starts making noises. Similarly when you are told that there is no God, there is no good religion on earth, that there is no use with your scriptures etc., the system crackles. Otherwise it is perfectly at ease with itself and its surroundings. LOL.

 

[sangom]

< Clipped >

I am not trying to say that those who believe in God are bad..but it shows that a believe in God need not translate as being Morally right.

The more a person says he believes in anything..the more he is unsure of himself.

When we are sure of something..we do not wake up in the morning repeating it and proclaiming that "I am religious..I believe in God..I am of a higher mental mode"

< Clipped >

I find that the above statements are generally true. Having had occasions to know first-hand about people in different parts of our country, over a longish period, that too, I have the following observations to make.

1. Before our Independence and for a few years thereafter, the higher castes enjoyed feudalistic superiority over the lower castes, in many parts of our country. Within the hindu religion, the lower castes had virtually no place and, despite whatever laws existed to the contrary, the hindu religion and temples, etc., were almost the exclusive property of the higher castes.

The higher caste people were scrupulously religious, talked about all the moralizing stories from the puranas, itihasas, etc., but they had no qualms in dealing with and treating the lower caste people just as if they were no better than domesticated animals. Inter se, there were large numbers of instances of cheating, criminal breach of trust, and even utter cruelty among the higher castes. The lower caste people had practically no religion and hardly any time, leisure or the necessary education for being religious, but, generally they were honest and sincere to their words and promises. (This could have been a trait brought about by their fear of the higher castes, coming down through centuries, but, it was there.)

2. Over a period of time, due to steps taken by the governments, the lower caste people in India have come to participate in religion (and I am talking here only w.r.t. the hindus) and their standard of honesty has come down proportionately. Wherever possible, these once-upon-a-time lower castes overlord one still lower caste/s and practice the same kind of feudal overlordship over the latter, just the same way, the original higher castes practised these over the very same people, in the past.

3. Dedication to work, complete sincerity to one's work and the urge to excel in it, capacity to do hard work under inclement surroundings, etc., have disappeared and the Indian people have all become good only for the soft and idle life of our erstwhile Zamindars! At the same time people-participation in religion of every shade has enormously increased. Some intelligent fellows who could judge this pulse, became godmen, godwoman, etc., and could amass fortunes!

Hence, I feel it will be correct to say that, generally, overt religiousness goes hand-in-hand with covert moral degradation of a person's character. If a person has nothing much to hide about himself/herself, he/she can go about the daily life without showing oneself to be religious etc., but when there are personal secrets which constantly trouble one's inner conscience, religion, godliness, etc., come in handy as a very effective cover — something like the sunscreen lotions which are supposed to afford protection from sunburns — here it is truth-burn, that's all.

 

[auh]

The human mind learns, and once it realizes that the wrath of the God(s) is only a concoction, it is only a fight for survival, while trying to maintain an appearance that is conducive to their ends, as they see it fit.

Moral and immoral have no relevance here as they are just a majority view and can change with changing times.

 

[vgane]

I would say that people with moral conscience will be more righteous..If the morally conscientious soul is also religious it is a boon to society as he will be able to reform society to a large extent..Now we can name a few individuals who were both..Such souls are pious, humble and work for the common good!