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Well, now someone has "studied" what most of us<big> knew</big>! You
do NOT need religion to be a moral person, and religion might just
be a detriment to behaving decently to others. How's them sour
apples, Mr. Wilson (and other folks) who say religiosity is the only
way people have joy, compassion, beauty, and decency in their lives?<br>
<br>
What is more beautiful than sharing good fortune with others, with
assisting people who are in need, with giving back to and accepting
<big>everyone</big> regardless of their financial
standing/opinions/sex/race/sexuality? <br>
<br>
Religiosity breeds judgmental-ism, negative behavior towards others
not like you, and a sense of "self-righteousness" that allows you to
do unto others what you do not think should be done to you, to
with-hold decency from others, and to offer joy and kindness only to
those who fit your description of "worthy". And with religiosity,
no responsibility attaches to you because you are "saved" and/or
elite. Ta Da!! <br>
<br>
Debi R-S <br>
<br>
<div class="moz-cite-prefix">On 11/7/2015 3:33 PM, Nielsen, Ralph
(<a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:nielsen@uidaho.edu">nielsen@uidaho.edu</a>) wrote:<br>
</div>
<blockquote
cite="mid:B6E864F5-7E30-45ED-B6BB-B05C1C627B8F@uidaho.edu"
type="cite">
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Study: Religious Kids Are Jerks</h1>
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A study published in the journal Current Biology testing the
behavior of Christian, Muslim, and atheist children has found
that religious kids are meaner and less generous. </div>
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For many, organized religions like Christianity provide a
moral compass. Holy books serve as guides that hold strict
rules about what is right and wrong. It is only common sense
to think that those who have religion in their lives are the
ones with a strong sense of morals, while those who lack
religious belief are left wandering in the dark, with no light
to show them the right path from the wrong one. But as we have
seen time and time again, common sense can be dead wrong.
According to a new study published in the journal <i
style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: 0px; margin: 0px;
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baseline; text-rendering: optimizelegibility;" class="">Current
Biology</i>, children that come from non-religious
households behave significantly more altruistically than those
from religious households, as measured by greater acts of
generosity towards others.</p>
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At present, 5.8 billion people around the world identify as
religious. That’s 84 percent of the total population who hold
a system of beliefs that provides them with moral
instructions. It is safe to say that for many of these people,
religion—at least in part—shapes their behavior and general
outlook on life. Religious parents teach their children
scriptures as moral lessons, hoping to instill values that
will cause them to be honest, just, fair, and for just about
every major religion, compassionate human beings. However,
somewhat ironically, the world’s foremost religions also teach
these children that if they fail to behave in the instructed
way, they shall receive punishment from an all-powerful
being—and in some cases, eternal damnation. Some pretty heavy
stuff, right?</p>
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So the question is, do religions really cause individuals to
behave more morally? What about children brought up in atheist
households, who have no metaphysical motivation to do good?
Would they act kindly to others when there are no direct
benefits to them, or will they behave like “godless heathens”?
A team of scientists decided to experimentally test these
intriguing questions directly under controlled laboratory
conditions.</p>
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Over 1,100 children, aged 5 to 12, from the United States,
China, Canada, Jordan, Turkey, and South Africa were chosen to
participate in the study. Most of the children came from
Christian, Muslim, or non-religious households. To test
whether children raised on religion would behave more morally
than non-religious children, they were asked to play what’s
called a “dictator game.” In this game, children were shown 30
stickers and told that they could pick their favorite 10 to
keep for themselves. The children were then each told that the
experimenter didn’t have enough time to play this game with
everyone, so some of the children at their school wouldn’t get
any stickers. What the results showed was that children from
Christian and Muslim households were both significantly less
generous than children from non-religious households when it
came to sharing their stickers with anonymous peers.</p>
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The findings not only show that religious kids aren’t more
altruistic than non-religious kids; it suggests that not being
religious may actually <i style="box-sizing: border-box;
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optimizelegibility;" class="">increase</i> moral behavior.
To most this would seem counterintuitive. The authors of the
study have an explanation that involves an interesting
phenomenon called <a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://www.pickthebrain.com/blog/moral-licensing-how-being-good-can-make-you-bad/"
target="_blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: 0px;
cursor: pointer; text-decoration: none; color: rgb(108, 137,
157); transition: color 0.2s ease-in-out;
-webkit-transition: color 0.2s ease-in-out; display:
inline;" class="">moral licensing</a>. The term refers to a
sort of mental glitch—whereby doing something that enhances
one’s positive self-image makes them less worried about the
consequences of immoral behavior. For instance, research has
shown that men who report being very opposed to sexism later
go on to hire men for what would traditionally be considered a
man’s job. They do this because they feel that since they are
not sexist—at least, in their own minds—a decision to choose a
male over a female can’t be immoral. </p>
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Similarly, someone that sees him or herself as being a moral
person for devoutly practicing a religion might be less
concerned about their actual behavior. In light of this, it is
not so surprising that children who identified as religious
did not feel as compelled to share stickers, since they
believed themselves to be a good person independent of their
behavior. On the other hand, an atheist child might be more
concerned about the morality of their acts, since it is their
behavior that tells them they are a good person, and not the
following of rituals or prayer. </p>
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The study also showed that children from religious households
were more willing to give harsher punishments to people who
committed acts that harmed others, like pushing or bumping
into another. Although this could be interpreted as showing
that religious children are more concerned with justice, it
may also demonstrate that non-religious children are more
tolerant of others’ behavior, and more willing to forgive.</p>
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What this study makes strikingly clear is that religion and
morality are not one and the same. In fact, in some instances
those who don’t believe in god might actually behave more
altruistically. And since they wouldn’t be doing it out of a
fear of being punished, but instead out of what some might
call “the goodness of their hearts,” one could argue that they
in fact have higher moral standards.</p>
<p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: 0px; margin: 1em 0px;
padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-size: 1.1875em;
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Hopefully such findings will help dispel the widely accepted
myth that atheists don’t have strong values, or that an
atheist president would lack the compassion and ethical code
that world leaders require. The truth of the matter is that as
science awareness continues to expand, we will see a
progressively secular society. As such, it is important that
both religious and non-religious people learn to understand
each other better and be more tolerant of one another, so that
they may work together to achieve common goals.</p>
<div class=""><br class="">
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