Are Religious People more Moral than Atheists? Here are the Facts | Phil Zuckerman - Feddit - eviltoast

Crosspost from !atheism@feddit.de.

An overview of studies which investigate correlations between morality and religious vs. secular / atheist ideologies presented by Phil Zuckerman who is a professor of sociology and secular studies at the Claremont colleges in California, USA.

Summary: Atheists / secular people not only have morals but are even more moral than religious people.

Note: Of course moral is a matter of perspective. In this context we agree that compassion and empathy are our foundations of moral.

  • eric@lemmy.worldEnglish
    43·
    11 months ago

    That’s a completely different argument, and one I’ve had with many religious people, but that’s not what I’m referring to.

    Empathy and logic require intelligence, yet many people are too stupid to be empathetic or logical, and religion provides them with a much simpler reason to do the right thing when no one is looking.

    • Halasham@dormi.zoneEnglish
      1·
      11 months ago

      Can you give an example of how this reasoning is suppose to work? Trying to parse this the only behaviors coming to mind are the ‘fire & brimstone’ type. The 'I hate those people ‘cause the pastor said the book says to’.

      • jasory@programming.devEnglish
        21·
        11 months ago

        “Can you give an example of how this reasoning is supposed to work”

        Easily. Fear of punishment is a deterrent1.

        1. Yes fear of punishment is absolutely a deterrent, it simply isn’t a strong deterrent because most crime goes unreported and punished (this would not be a concern about an omniscient god). The fact that simple things like additional security are very effective, shows that fear of negative consequences (aka punishment) is actually effective.
    • jasory@programming.devEnglish
      15·
      11 months ago

      Technically most non-philosopher atheists seem to ascribe to moral anti-realism, which logically leads to the moral permissibility of all actions. It’s actually them engaging in erroneous logic that they adhere to morally good behavior.