
Belief in God has been overwhelmingly linked with do-gooders
https://thedebrief.org/belief-in-god-has...-behavior/
EXCERPTS: People are more likely to associate the performance of good deeds with a religious person, and specifically a belief in God, according to researchers from the University of California, Merced.
Previous studies, dating back over a decade, had shown a bias linking atheists with less prosocial behavior and more immoral behavior, something also confirmed in the recent research. However, the scientists behind the latest study say the link they found between the performance of good deeds and a perceived belief in God was significantly higher.
“Though we also found that people intuitively link atheism with immoral behavior, people appear to associate believing in God with being generous, helpful, and caring to a much greater extent,” explained Colin Holbrook, a professor in the university’s Department of Cognitive and Information Sciences and a co-author on the paper detailing the findings.
Although statistically significant and with results displayed on a global scale, the researchers caution that their study only found a link between perceptions that those who believe in God are more likely to commit good deeds. Whether or not they are actually more likely to do so is still an open question.
[...] “So instead of a stereotype of atheists as immoral driving the effect, the stereotype of the moral person of faith may be the more important force,” Holbrook said in a statement. “We replicated the findings of the earlier studies linking evil with atheism, but we found that the effects linking prosociality with faith were remarkably larger.”
Additionally, the team found that the respondent’s own religious beliefs appeared to affect their responses. “Religious individuals were far more likely to associate prosociality with the prospect that the target character also believed in God,” they write, “a result which is consistent with the premise that religion enhances trust and cooperation among co-religionists.”
Finally, the researchers found that the results were more or less consistent in both countries [US and New Zealand], even when correcting for differences in the respondents’ personal backgrounds. “These results also held when including political orientation and spiritual connection to God as predictors, and also when omitting all demographic variables,” they write... (MORE - details)
PAPER: Intuitive moral bias favors the religiously faithful
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Cynic's Corner: Apparently all the secular social justice offshoots from the French Revolution to Marxism to Critical Theory are still sailing over people's heads in terms of what they piggyback on, despite well over two centuries of radical revolt and activism. The difference between religious beliefs and moral crusading non-theist beliefs is that the former personifies concepts and principles, whereas the latter stops short a step and reifies its invented ideology as an abstract fact lacking those anthropmorphic or zoomorphic characteristics. (Self-righteous reverence of an _X_ either way
).
Max Stirner: That is why they [collectivists/socialists] are continuations and consequences of the Christian principle, the principle of love, of sacrifice for something universal, something alien. [...] Since they’re enemies of egoism, they are therefore Christians, or more generally, religious people, believers in ghosts, dependents, servants of whatever universal (God, society, etc.). --The Ego and His Own
https://thedebrief.org/belief-in-god-has...-behavior/
EXCERPTS: People are more likely to associate the performance of good deeds with a religious person, and specifically a belief in God, according to researchers from the University of California, Merced.
Previous studies, dating back over a decade, had shown a bias linking atheists with less prosocial behavior and more immoral behavior, something also confirmed in the recent research. However, the scientists behind the latest study say the link they found between the performance of good deeds and a perceived belief in God was significantly higher.
“Though we also found that people intuitively link atheism with immoral behavior, people appear to associate believing in God with being generous, helpful, and caring to a much greater extent,” explained Colin Holbrook, a professor in the university’s Department of Cognitive and Information Sciences and a co-author on the paper detailing the findings.
Although statistically significant and with results displayed on a global scale, the researchers caution that their study only found a link between perceptions that those who believe in God are more likely to commit good deeds. Whether or not they are actually more likely to do so is still an open question.
[...] “So instead of a stereotype of atheists as immoral driving the effect, the stereotype of the moral person of faith may be the more important force,” Holbrook said in a statement. “We replicated the findings of the earlier studies linking evil with atheism, but we found that the effects linking prosociality with faith were remarkably larger.”
Additionally, the team found that the respondent’s own religious beliefs appeared to affect their responses. “Religious individuals were far more likely to associate prosociality with the prospect that the target character also believed in God,” they write, “a result which is consistent with the premise that religion enhances trust and cooperation among co-religionists.”
Finally, the researchers found that the results were more or less consistent in both countries [US and New Zealand], even when correcting for differences in the respondents’ personal backgrounds. “These results also held when including political orientation and spiritual connection to God as predictors, and also when omitting all demographic variables,” they write... (MORE - details)
PAPER: Intuitive moral bias favors the religiously faithful
- - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Cynic's Corner: Apparently all the secular social justice offshoots from the French Revolution to Marxism to Critical Theory are still sailing over people's heads in terms of what they piggyback on, despite well over two centuries of radical revolt and activism. The difference between religious beliefs and moral crusading non-theist beliefs is that the former personifies concepts and principles, whereas the latter stops short a step and reifies its invented ideology as an abstract fact lacking those anthropmorphic or zoomorphic characteristics. (Self-righteous reverence of an _X_ either way

Max Stirner: That is why they [collectivists/socialists] are continuations and consequences of the Christian principle, the principle of love, of sacrifice for something universal, something alien. [...] Since they’re enemies of egoism, they are therefore Christians, or more generally, religious people, believers in ghosts, dependents, servants of whatever universal (God, society, etc.). --The Ego and His Own