I read about a study done in Israel: Two groups of students read the biblical story of Joshua and the sack of Jerrico:
1st group read story as is and were overwhelmingly positive about Joshua's actions--the mass slaughter of men, women, children, and animals. They all pointed out that God had promissed the territory to tem and that no action against these people could therefore be "evil".
The seconf group read the story with all the names of people and places replaced by Chinese ones, told the story was from the "Three Kingdoms" period there. THIS group universaly condemmed the actions, most comparing them to the Holocaust.
What do you think these results say about religon and thinking?
2006-12-05 10:59:17 · 5 answers · asked by Anonymous in Social Science ➔ Psychology
Religion is the antithesis of reason. Faith, in and of itself, is a practice in ignoring evidence and reason. Which is why this type of question in universally pointless.
2006-12-05 11:01:36 · answer #1 · answered by ;-) 3 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Very interesting study. I find it impossible to distinguish between superstition and religion. What is the cross but a magic talisman? All that crossing that the Catholics do--what is it supposed to accomplish? The film "Nuns On The Run" had a great scene--one of the criminals who was masquerading as a nun was Jewish, one Catholic. The Jewish guy is asking the Catholic guy about the Holy Trinity, and finally says, "But it just doesn't make any sense!", to which the Catholic guy responds, "Ah, but if it made any sense you wouldn't have to accept it on faith, would you?"
2006-12-05 19:03:41 · answer #2 · answered by jxt299 7 · 0⤊ 1⤋
Religion makes the thinking in a "mine and yours" way. Mine of course is good and others always bad. But religion or fear of God had some good results in good morality of the society in general. When every thing viewed only through the prism of logic or reason, many social orders may collapse. Institution of marriage surviving due to the religious fears to a greater extent in societies.
So we need both religion and reasoning also.
2006-12-05 19:08:41 · answer #3 · answered by Rammohan 4 · 0⤊ 2⤋
You know, I think that the different situations deal with different things. Killing innocent people just to gain a city is one thing, but God allowed the Israelites to go in and kill the people in the city because God had given them the city, but also because the people inside were not being obedient to Him. God gave them the city because He promised it to them, and He refused to be protective of the evil inside. However, if the people inside were obeying Him, God would not have given the city to His people to take.
2006-12-05 19:05:43 · answer #4 · answered by SmartyPants 1 · 0⤊ 2⤋
people are willing to forgo on their morals if they think a god wants it that way.
people will also ignore these morals if an authority figure tells them to or someone can get them to think their actions are for the greater-good.
2006-12-05 19:20:57 · answer #5 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 1⤋