Religious People Less Driven By Compassion Than Are Atheists And Agnostics, Study Says

Here is an article I was given notice to by my cousin. It is a research study about generosity and compassion between atheists/religious people. Very interesting.

[by: LiveScience, all rights reserved]

Atheists and agnostics are more driven by compassion to help others than are highly religious people, a new study finds.

That doesn’t mean highly religious peopledon’t give, according to the research to be published in the July 2012 issue of the journal Social Psychological and Personality Science. But compassion seems to drive religious people’s charitable feelings less than other groups.

“Overall, we find that for less religious people, the strength of their emotional connection to another person is critical to whether they will help that person or not,” study co-author and University of California, Berkeley social psychologist Robb Willer said in a statement. “The more religious, on the other hand, may ground their generosity less in emotion, and more in other factors such as doctrine, a communal identity, or reputational concerns.”

Willer’s co-author Laura Saslow, now a postdoctoral scholar at the University of California, San Francisco, became interested in the question of what motivates charity after a non-religious friend lamented that he donated money to earthquake recovery in Haiti only after seeing a heart-touching video of a woman being pulled from rubble, not because of a logical understanding that help was needed.

“I was interested to find that this experience – an atheist being strongly influenced by his emotions to show generosity to strangers – was replicated in three large, systematic studies,” Saslow said in a statement.

In the first study, Saslow and her colleagues analyzed data from a national survey of more than 1,300 American adults taken in 2004. They found that compassionate attitudes were linked with how many generous behaviors a person was likely to report. But this link was strongest in people who were atheists or only slightly religious, compared with people who were more strongly religious. [8 Ways Religion Impacts Your Life]

In a second experiment, 101 adults were shown either a neutral video or an emotional video about children in poverty. They were then given 10 fake dollars and told they could give as much as they liked to a stranger. Those who were less religious gave more when they saw the emotional video first.

“The compassion-inducing video had a big effect on their generosity,” Willer said. “But it did not significantly change the generosity of more religious participants.”

Finally, a sample of more than 200 college students reported their current level of compassion and then played economic games in which they were given money to share or withhold from a stranger. Those who were the least religious but most momentarily compassionate shared the most.

More research will be needed to understand what factors motivate religious people’s giving, but the study makes clear that empathy and compassion are not the only factors at play.

“Overall, this research suggests that although less religious people tend to be less trusted in the U.S., when feeling compassionate, they may actually be more inclined to help their fellow citizens than more religious people,” Willer said.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/05/01/religious-compassion-atheists-agnostics_n_1468006.html

Richard Dawkins Interviewed by Revelation TV

Very interesting interview/debate on Revelation TV with renown atheistic author Richard Dawkins. This video is long but it provides a deep insight into the thoughts of both a theist and atheist, well worth it.

Holy Hypocritical Discrimination

I’m getting pretty tired from hearing of such hypocritical discrimination from theists of all kinds. I respect all religions of the world, but the respect for theists is diminishing. This kind of behavior is intolerable and does nothing but leave a bad name for your religion. The man in this video did nothing wrong, he was not only constitutionally protected but he was also correct in saying there needs to be separation of church and state… and yet he was assaulted by members of the senate as well as on duty police officers. Here is a popular article I wrote about the discrimination of non-believers… 
http://iantimberlake.wordpress.com/2010/12/05/the-un-society-of-atheism-why-theists-are-more-unholy-than-atheists/

The Un-Society of Atheism: Why Theists Are More Unholy than Atheists

Atheism is not a belief… it is an un-belief. You can’t generalize atheists because by the very fact it is an un-society makes it impossible to categorize them. The only thing that one atheist shares with another atheist is the fact that they both agree to disagree on one subject area of life on Earth.

I’m going to go with an old adage… If I had a nickel for every time I heard of an atheist being belittled and publicly scrutinized amongst a large audience or amongst their peers, I would be able to buy all the rights to the Bible. Atheists are likened to be violent, unintelligent, prostitutes, addicts, murderous, thievs, criminals… like it’s written in code. I have heard people say this to my face before they knew my beliefs. I have as well heard it after they knew my beliefs.

Actually, I had a friend tell me to my face that they wish all the atheists in the world were locked up because they’re no good child molesters. I saw the irony in this and laughed (if you got that, you’ll laugh too). I responded by saying, “I’m an atheist”. When hearing this, he sort of cocked his head and looked at me without saying a word for several seconds then mumbled with cherry red shame something like, “I had no idea”.

Now in that instance I said I was an atheist… when I usually don’t refer to myself as an atheist. I don’t like associating myself with a direct idea because the perception of these associations classifies me for better or for worse depending on the person. Because it then implies that I need to live my life under certain guidelines of that association. I don’t believe in small government because I tend to vote republican.

As far as intelligence goes, there are actually many documented studies out there from many places with large and small sample sizes that show that the less religious you are, the more intelligent you are. Example.

The absolute biggest problem I have is when a theist will refuse to get into a relationship or move a relationship further simply because of religion/non-religion. This, in my eyes, is the worst atrocity of religion. The denying of undeniable love and affection simply on the basis of what one believes when neither truly knows the answer.

I read in an About.com post, numbers from a Minnesota University study that showed that atheists are the most discriminated, despised, distrusted people in America.

This group does not at all agree with my vision of American society…

Atheist: 39.6%
Muslims: 26.3%
Homosexuals: 22.6%
Hispanics: 20%
Conservative Christians: 13.5%
Recent Immigrants: 12.5%
Jews: 7.6%

I would disapprove if my child wanted to marry a member of this group….

Atheist: 47.6%
Muslim: 33.5%
African-American 27.2%
Asian-Americans: 18.5%
Hispanics: 18.5%
Jews: 11.8%
Conservative Christians: 6.9%
Whites: 2.3%

I Google searched this study because the author didn’t provide the in text source and had a hard time finding it but found many, many hits that related to the discrimination of atheists in American society. You can try and find the exact study if you like, that is not as important to me as my point.

My problem is the extreme level of hypocracy amongst theists of all kinds. I want you to look at every war in history and tell me how many of those were fought because of religious ideas? This one is said a lot but that’s because it is a serious question to be answered. If atheists are as violent as they are claimed to be and as vindictive and murderous as likened, then why is it that nearly all religions in the world will fight simply for the notion of spreading their belief that much further? That alone is hypocritical and then you introduce the things in the Bible that say it’s a sin to kill another human.

There is no stopping in showing the unbelievable level of hypocracy amongst theists. And what really frustrates me the most about it is that there is almost this idea in the religious that they have a “get out of jail free card”. This is where the title of my article comes into play. Theists know that as long as they believe, their sins can be forgiven and their “pathetic (said from theist)”  lives will eventually be rewarded in the afterlife. Whereas the believers use atheists as a scapegoat for persecution simply because they are “living a sin and will forever be condemned to hell”. Mind you all this stuff is buried in children’s minds from the time they are born and begin going to church.

I got into a discussion with a fairly close friend and colleague about this and I asked him, “Do you believe that I am going to hell?” He sat in silence pondering the correct way to answer this question for at least 10 seconds and responded by saying, “yeah, I guess so”. I don’t believe in hell, but this still bothered me. Because here I am sitting with a friend who has known me for years and knows the life I live yet he is still willing to proclaim that I am going to hell simply because I don’t believe in his religion… even though he knows that I am no more “sinful” than his self.

This article isn’t meant to be against religion. In fact, I am not against religion except in the fact that it is forced upon in children from the day they are born and aren’t given the option to decide for themselves. In many ways, I believe religion is good for many people. It is perfectly fine with me if you want to believe in a god, you just sure as hell better start giving the respect of “freedom of religion” like atheists do to you. Chances are at least 1 in 5 of the people you regularly interact with are atheist, they just are too afraid to outright say it for fear of loss of relationship.

Atheists don’t discriminate against those of other religions. They don’t fight over religion, they don’t care. I could argue how atheists are the most peaceful of all people in the world and I could make a bulletproof case of it. Atheists don’t have anything against theists, except maybe the discrimination they receive from them. As far as I can tell, atheists are living more godly than theists are.

Additionally, both the religious and non-religious need to understand that there is no argument to be had. The ideology of religion and non-religion is based off things that cannot be compared. The two are literally on separate worlds. An atheist can’t argue against religion using science and logic on a system that has the power to neglect using such thing as faith and omnipotence. And theists can’t argue against atheists using things like the complexity of life and the universe can only be godly.

To put it simply, I don’t hope you “see the light” and leave god behind. Keep what you believe in, that’s called confidence in choice. Just don’t be arrogant and hypocritical enough to believe everything you’ve been told atheists are. The level of integrity and distrust that creates towards your religion isn’t worth it.

Feel free to share your opinions, “like” it or share this page with the links below… this kind of stuff is good to talk about and open up about.

- Timbo

Don’t take the Bible Literally, Atheist or Extreme Theist

AJ Jacobs spent a year living the Bible literally and he recounts what happened and what he learned. Whether you are an Atheist or an extreme Theist… a lot can be learned.