Atheism/Christianity & morality?

Question

In the July/August Annals of Family Medicine it was reported that 35% of atheist physicians donate time to help the poor while only 31% of Christian physicians do this. This study is consistent with many other studies that show the atheist population to be more charitable and kind and less violent and criminal than the Christain population. When education and socioeconomic background is controlled the differences are less but still slightly in favor of the atheists.

I am interested in thoughtful responses on what you think are the causative, or perhaps salient correlated factors for this difference in morality.

Please no denials from Christians; no accusations of "liberal scientists." To be published a study must have double blind controls to eliminate researcher bias. This is your chance to be reflective on the shortcomings of your faith.

For atheists please no bragging about your moral superiority...the differences in morality are only very modestly in your favor.

Jack, the research was done by Farr Curlin, John Lantos and Marshall Chin all of the University of Chicago and Lydia Dugdale of Yale U New Haven Hospital.

Jon, the sample used was large enough so that it was deemed statistically significant to less than 1% error factor.

beta, a number of objective measures can be used to determine kindness, or altruism, such as the amount of money or hours donated to charities, etc.

beta
It was published in the July/August Annals of Family Medicine

Answer 1

I think one factor might be the belief that "God will provide". Christians may believe (perhaps unconciously) that God will take care of those in need. Since atheist don't believe this, they may be slightly more inclined to provide the help themselves.

Answer 2

A difference of 4% points is likely still within one standard deviation from the norm. If the difference can be reduced by controlling for other factors it becomes even less significant.

Maybe the ones willing to say they are atheists are just a bit more honest and possess the traits that would be related to that.

The general mindset of the unsaved is different too. They do not believe in a higher power helping us so they realize that all we have in this world is each other. Heaven and Hell are not other places. Heaven and Hell are right here, right now, in our day to day life, and are they result (mostly) of how we treat each other.
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After thinking about it I thought I would point out something about altruism.
Al Capone at the start of the depression was one of the most altruistic people you could find. It was not just the Judges who benefited from his charity. Capone set up and ran large homeless shelters and soup kitchens for the unemployed masses. Something the Churches and the Government were unwilling (unable?)to do.
I do not think this means Capone was some kind of a saint. Far from it. He was a criminal all the way through.
But still...?...
At the height of the Medellin Drug Cartel's power they were doing the same thing. The result was that Escobar was held in the same reverence as Capone had been in Chicago.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pablo_Escobar
I put this in just to give another idea about charity to consider. Altruism is not always just about being altruistic.

Answer 3

I'm just curious, it says TIME, the Christian physicians may donate more financially to help the poor. Most Christian based religions are very big on donating monatary gifts to the church to help poor and disabled and loney. I also don't know about whether or not these reports on a whole are conclusive, you have to take into consideration that as far as less violent and criminal goes, there are many Christians who live in bad, horrible neighborhoods. (Baptist, Jahovah Witness, Church of Christ) These kids and young adults can only survive in their environment by participating in the violence, kill or be killed.
So, I suppose that without taking other donations other than that of "time" and not having full information on the other studies that you mention that this question is lacking some major scientific basis for analysis.

Answer 4

Can't deny those statistics, but I am itching to know if there were other factors that influence this phenomenon, Like for example the social status or the background (Cultural and economical) Of the doctors tested. It simply activates my curiosity.

Please no denials from Christians; no accusations of "liberal scientists." To be published a study must have double blind controls to eliminate researcher bias. This is your chance to be reflective on the shortcomings of your faith.

Please, not every Christian is conservative. But good way to keep those who are in line though.

Answer 5

What were the size of the groups
was it equal numbers of Atheist doctors and Christian doctors?

What questions were asked
how where they asked?
what was the frame of reference the questions where asked in?
What did they consider helping the poor?

Much of the US population claims to be Christian on the census pole but I don't think as many that claim are really Christian. I am sure the same holds true for doctors.

Did they ask the doctors if they were Christian or not or did they just gather the stats with out actually asking the Doctors?

Studies like this though published hold for little water for anything other than to start arguments.

Answer 6

I hope this is true and that the atheist physicians are donating time to help the poor.

Whatever Christians do, they should be doing for the glory of God and not man. Christian doctors should be donating time to the poor every day and not just when recognized. They have no right in God's eyes to ever deny their services to the poor.

Jesus put a towel around His waist and washed His disciples feet. This is our example.

The truth is that we cannot work our way to heaven. We can't be good enough to deserve heaven. There is only one way and that is Christ Jesus. Salvation is a free gift from God. Therefore no man can boast.

Answer 7

Since there is only a 4% difference between the two...the disparity isn't that great...and the fact that highest percentage is only 35% between the groups...that doesn't speak well of people making well over six figure incomes...but then, poor people don't need as much cosmetic surgery as rich people...

On the optimistic side one could argue that "Christian physicians" have more patients to care for and therefore cannot be away from their practices as other physicians...

On the negative side...there are a lot of physicians claiming Christianity falsely...

Answer 8

While I concur that morality in a healthy (non-sociopathic) person has nothing to do with religious dogms, what was the margin of error in the study? Even if it's only 2-3%, ot's still a pretty insignificant difference.

I do think that atheists have more time... they have Sunday mornings. (Okay, that's a BIT silly, but it's true)

Also, atheists consider this to be their only life and want to contribute positively to the only lives of others. Christians are more concerned with the souls of others. Of course giving comfort is important, but they believe that any discomfort in this life is insignificant as compared to the bliss or torment of the next, so the emphasis is not on this life.

Answer 9

I think it is to do with memes , to coin a phrase from Richard Dawkins. We decided a long time ago though auturistic genes , that we would not want to live in a society where rape and murder was acceptable behaviour. Similarly helping the less fortunate is something that comes naturally as part of our inherited evolution .

Unfortunately , those with Faith tend to rely on ancient holy texts rather than their natural instincts when it comes to moral judgement. Sometimes these religious people will feel they are doing a good deed just by following their religion , rather than doing a good deed in the physical world.

It comes as no surprise to me that less religion leads to less social problems , as seen in the Scandinavian countries. I wonder if anyone has statistics for prison populations ? And maybe what kind of crimes Atheists commit compared to religious people .

Answer 10

I saw a study a short while back that said Republicans are more charitable than Democrats. This bothered me until I realized that Republicans typically have more disposable income. Perhaps the only reason atheist physicians are doing more pro bono work is that they have more time on their hands than christian physicians, especially on Sunday mornings.

Answer 11

I have no way of knowing whether the correlation establishes causation. I have seen similar studies with similar results, but that is neither here nor there.

Possible salient correlative factors: education; autonomy; sense of obligation to fellow human beings for the sake of those human beings and not to score brownie points with the Big Guy; emotional/psycological stability - propensity to think rationally - fewer violent responses.