Posted on 04/30/2011 1:57:32 PM PDT by Gondring
[...]
The study, titled "Mean Gods Make Good People: Different Views of God Predict Cheating Behavior" was peer reviewed and published earlier this month in the International Journal for the Psychology of Religion.
In line with many previous studies, it found no difference between the ethical behavior of believers and nonbelievers. But those who believed in a loving, compassionate God were more likely to cheat than those who believed in an angry, punitive God.
"The take-home message is not whether you believe in God, but what God you believe in," said Azim Shariff, a psychologist at the University of Oregon.[...]
The authors found that 95% of Americans believe in God, but conceive of that higher being in very different ways. About 28% believe in an "authoritative" God who is engaged in the world and judgmental, and about 22% in an engaged but "benevolent" God who loves us despite our failings. Two other groups of believers view the deity as more abstract and less engaged: About 21% conceive of a "critical" God who keeps track of our sins and may render judgment in the afterlife, and about 24% see a "distant" God who set the universe in motion but is not involved in day-to-day life.
Froese said Shariff and Norenzayan's results fit with his own findings. "More wrathful images of God are related to moral absolutism, while people with benevolent, loving images of God tend to be moral relativists," he said.
[...]
(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...
Liberals. They worship a god without wrath who welcomes men without sin into a kingdom without judgment ministered to by a Christ without a cross. We've had their number for a century.
Reminds me of an old story:
Those who write on print house walls,
Roll their print in little balls.
Those who read these lines of wit,
Eat these little balls of... er, print.
It is a false dichotomy. God is both compassionate and just. The cheaters are -- apparently -- those who do not understand that they have a personal accountability to God.
Ping
I call bullshit on that one. I see it daily in my own personal life.
Another tax payer( probably) funded study that is grade “A” bs. Have you noticed that the result of most studies is “More study needed” (i.e. more money needed)? I actually think if it wasn’t for studies, our economy would really stink.
A punitive God, or a punitive spouse.
God is not mean; He is Just!
Nice to know I can rely on the Westboro Baptist bunch to not cheat...
I'd love impeachment for the creep, but since we won't get a conviction in the Senate, I'm looking to the ballot box of 2012.
That was the point that jumped out at me. I wonder about the methodology, but I don't have a subscription to that service and I'm not going to pay for the publication to find out! :-)
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