Does Faith Makes Us Better?

[seer]

And is probably key in survival.

Belief in moral-watching, all-knowing, punitive gods might have helped human societies grow far beyond small, close-knit groups, a new study shows. Researchers who ran an experiment with a total of 591 people in eight different small-scale societies around the world found that people who believed their deity of choice knew about their misdeeds and would punish them were more likely to play fairly in a game where money was on the line.Fear of supernatural reprisal, it seems, keeps people from cheating....


...So having this kind of a deity and religious system could improve group cohesion, make you more likely to behave in less risky ways and allow one group to, say, conquer another one and take over their territory.

http://www.latimes.com/science/scien...210-story.html

[The Thinker]

And is probably key in survival.

Asking if faith made us better and implying that we still need it is like asking if training wheels helped you learn how to ride a bike and saying you still need them.


If faith made us better the most faithful countries would be the safest and the least faithful would be the least safest. That is not true.

[37818]

The fact is, we do not know anything without faith, that is, believing something.

[Tassman]

And is probably key in survival.

http://www.scientificamerican.com/ar...less-altruism/

[seer]

http://www.scientificamerican.com/ar...less-altruism/

Well according to this new study you are wrong:

Belief in moral-watching, all-knowing, punitive gods might have helped human societies grow far beyond small, close-knit groups, a new study shows. Researchers who ran an experiment with a total of 591 people in eight different small-scale societies around the world found that people who believed their deity of choice knew about their misdeeds and would punish them were more likely to play fairly in a game where money was on the line.

[Tassman]

Well according to this new study you are wrong:

http://www.scientificamerican.com/ar...less-altruism/http://www.latimes.com/opinion/op-ed...101-story.html

[JimL]

And is probably key in survival.

Common sense seer. People who believe they will be punished are more likely to behave. Thats why as social groups we created the notion of all seeing Gods to rule over them.

[seer]

http://www.scientificamerican.com/ar...less-altruism/http://www.latimes.com/opinion/op-ed...101-story.html

Tass, first my quote was from the OP with the link, second your study is bunk - terrible methodology:

http://berkleycenter.georgetown.edu/...ore-altruistic

[Tassman]

Tass, first my quote was from the OP with the link, second your study is bunk - terrible methodology:

http://berkleycenter.georgetown.edu/...ore-altruistic

http://www.latimes.com/opinion/op-ed...101-story.html

[seer]

You mean your favoured study says what you want to hear. But then this is not surprising given the strong Evangelical credentials of the author, Robert Woodberry.

And the author of your study is not bias? It is obvious that your study did not control for certain variables. And my first link was not study done by an Evangelical, it was published in the journal Nature.

[Tassman]

And the author of your study is not bias? It is obvious that your study did not control for certain variables. And my first link was not study done by an Evangelical, it was published in the journal Nature.

http://www.latimes.com/opinion/op-ed...115-story.html

[seer]

No Tass, I was speaking of the link in my opening post. That was published in Nature. And it does not change the fact that your first study has been debunked, Robert Woodberry pointed out the clear flaws - if you think he is wrong, show me where.

http://berkleycenter.georgetown.edu/...ore-altruistic

[Tassman]

No Tass, I was speaking of the link in my opening post. That was published in Nature. And it does not change the fact that your first study has been debunked, Robert Woodberry pointed out the clear flaws - if you think he is wrong, show me where.

http://berkleycenter.georgetown.edu/...ore-altruistic

http://www.latimes.com/opinion/op-ed...115-story.html

[seer]

Nevertheless, despite your (typically) cherry-picked quote which reinforces your personal presuppositions, there are a host of studies and statistics which show that the societies today which are the most religious tend to have the highest violent crime rates, while those societies in which faith and church attendance are the weakest tend to have the lowest.

Again I did not cherry pick anything. And is religion the driving factor in the studies you cite? Or is it economics or other cultural factors? I mean really Tass, do you think the population of Norway would become more violent if they all became devout Christians or devout Baha'is?

[Tassman]

Again I did not cherry pick anything. And is religion the driving factor in the studies you cite? Or is it economics or other cultural factors? I mean really Tass, do you think the population of Norway would become more violent if they all became devout Christians or devout Baha'is?

The point is the claim that faith makes for a more moral society is false. If anything the reverse is true.