Religious people are more helpful and generous than others ”” but only on two conditions, according to a new study published in the prestigious journal Science.
University of British Columbia psychology researchers Ara Norenzayan and Azim Shariff concluded that religious people act more kindly than atheists on condition they believe their acts will enhance their reputations among their peers. The second condition is being freshly reminded, in a subconscious way, of the existence of a morally tinged God or supernatural being, the researchers said.
Well, I think the article itself is extremely superficial. However, I’m not sure these “condtions” make any sense, nor does their removal.
I agree. The article is superficial. It’s unclear also how the researchers could empirically test the “removal” of either condition for religious people.
That said, I am struck here as always by the way social scientists spend vast amounts of time and money reaching conclusions that folk wisdom, great literature, or plain common sense has made known for centuries.
For example, the observation that there are a lot of religious people out there who make public displays of charity so that other people will be impressed — that’s something this fellow named “Jesus” pointed out about 2000 years ago. In Matthew 6 for example:
1Take heed that ye do not your alms before men, to be seen of them: otherwise ye have no reward of your Father which is in heaven.
2Therefore when thou doest thine alms, do not sound a trumpet before thee, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may have glory of men. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward.
3But when thou doest alms, let not thy left hand know what thy right hand doeth:
4That thine alms may be in secret: and thy Father which seeth in secret himself shall reward thee openly.
Well this explains why there are so many hospitals and such with atheist and agnostic in their titles! Along with how to remove those pesky conditions. NOT.
A new book that I just read offers some interesting insights into giving by American Christians. It is entitled “Passing the Plate” by some university socioligists Smith & Emerson. It also addresses the problem of why American Christians give so little. I think church leaders would find it helpful. You can see some reviews of it on its Amazon page.
What a terribly cynical article. True, some folks won’t give unless their name is touted in the giving. But most givers prefer anonymity, and most of those are Christians. And the most philanthropic people in the West are Americans. You can look all this up. (btw, I’m a Canadian who greatly admires Yankee philanthropy.)
Reading the USA Today article, its hard to know what to make of the underlying Science Magazine article.
For those who may be interested, here is the Science article itself:
http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/322/5898/58
Just remember when you read this article about the study that it is written by the same reported who writes about the Anglican crisis in New Westminster…and he is no friend to the orthodox of any denomination. I’d be just as suspicious of the journalist as I am of the study.
I don’t know the seriousness with which this article should be taken, particularly as I cannot get at the underlying article in Science. However, it is true that often ‘impartial’ scientific studies find what they are set up to look for.
One article that does seem to be scientifically robust is available online at:
http://www.religjournal.com/articles/article_view.php?id=19
It is a review article i.e. it is looking at a wide range of scientific studies with a view to seeing what patterns are emerging rather than doing a new study itself. The abstract states:
[blockquote] This article systematizes the findings of previous studies of religion and philanthropic giving and volunteering, contributes to the theoretical understanding of the role religion plays in philanthropic giving and volunteering, and relates the conjunction of religion and philanthropic giving and volunteering to a polity marked by democratic norms. It does so by reviewing the findings of previously published studies and using existing datasets to examine key questions for which earlier studies have had inconsistent findings or that they have not studied. It examines the social network and religious belief theories for explaining the conjunction between religion and philanthropic giving and volunteering and concludes that both help to explain this conjunction but that social network theory is the stronger explanatory theory. It also documents a positive relationship among religiosity, giving and volunteering, and other marks of civic responsibility and concludes that people who are marked by high levels of religiosity come closer to the democratic norm of civic responsibility than do those with low levels of religiosity. [/blockquote]
In other words it found that religious people do have higher giving and volunteering rates and rates of democratic involvement, but that this seems to stem from the greater integration into society rather than from their beliefs as such. Of relevance here, it would seem that evangelical christians and liberal christians are much alike in their giving etc if they have the same pattern of attendance at religious services. (The difference is of course, that evangelical christians on average do attend services far more frequently than liberal ones.)
For those so inclined this online journal actually has a whole lot of really interesting articles. The index page is found here:
http://www.religjournal.com/
I particularly enjoyed:
1. [i]Human Development and the Demography of Secularization in Global Perspective [/i]– which put another nail in the coffin of the idea of the better educated you are the less religious you become
2. [i]International Religion Indexes: Government Regulation, Government Favoritism, and Social Regulation of Religion[/i] which again finds that having a monopolistic “established” church does christians no favours.
3. [i]Images of God: The Effect of Personal Theologies on Moral Attitudes, Political Affiliation, and Religious Behavior[/i] – which shows that people who believe God is actively involved in the world and will judge behaviour are far more likely to be actively involved in church life than those who think he is a far away remote being.
4. [i]Religious Competition and Revival in Italy: Exploring European Exceptionalism[/i] — which looks at the amazing upturn in Catholic practise (ie church attendance etc) in Italy (which I had never heard of before this article) and asks why is Italy an exception to the declining church attendance in Europe
and finally
5. [i]Atheism [/i]- which looks at the characteristics of atheists — and finds they are not well educated scientific souls, but rather they are disproportionately socially isolated young males.