Crosspost from [email protected].

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.

  • @[email protected]
    link
    fedilink
    English
    11 year 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’.

    • @[email protected]
      link
      fedilink
      English
      11 year 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.