In my travels through the education sphere I came across an interesting article by one of psychology's biggest provacateurs. Probably to no regular readers's surprise, he finds no strong correlation between religion and generosity, compassion, or honesty.
What, then, can we surmise about the likelihood of someone’s being caring and generous just from knowing he or she is a believer? Virtually nothing, say psychologists and sociologists who have studied that question over the last few decades. Among the research findings:
* In the 1950s, a scientific study of about 2,000 Episcopalians across the U.S. turned up “no discernible relationship between involvement [in the Church] and charitable acts. In some cases, a negative relationship appears.”
* In a questionnaire-based study of male college students in 1960, there was only a slight correlation between altruism and belief in God, and no correlation at all between altruism and attendance of religious services.
* Interviews with randomly selected adults in 1965 found that nonbelievers were “nearly as frequently rated as being a good Samaritan, having love and compassion for their fellow man, and being humble as the most devout...”
* Less than half of college students in a 1975 study resisted the temptation to violate an honors code on an exam, and religious beliefs were unrelated to honesty. (In fact, atheists were the only group in which a majority did not cheat.) Religion was also irrelevant to the students’ willingness to volunteer time with disabled children.