I subscribe to a Christian news feed, ChristianPost.com, and I think that every now and then it gets hijacked by rogue atheists, like today, when I learned that:
Psychologists in a new study suggest that moral judgments operate
independently of religious background.
. . .
In their study, which was published by Cell Press in the journal Trends in
Cognitive Sciences, the psychologists cite several studies in moral psychology,
including one that involved thousands of students from the elementary school
level to those with graduate degrees and another that involved the rural, Mayan
population. Subjects read and judged the moral permissibility of an
action.
Drs. Pyysiainen and Hauser note that the moral judgments provided by
religious subjects did not differ from that of atheists.
The authors highlight that religion appears to have "no influence at
all on the intuitive system that operates more generally, and for unfamiliar
cases."
"In fact, a considerable amount of work in this area shows that moral
judgments are relatively immune to the explicit moral dictates of both religious
and legal institutions," they state.
Presumably, they interviewed the traditionalist Mayans as opposed to the Catholic Mayans, but really, it's all quite fascinating. This entire article was offered free of any commentary, which is what makes me suspect rogue atheists.
Consider the following two situations:
ReplyDelete(1) An out-of-control trolley is hurtling down the railroad tracks. Five people have been tied to the railroad tracks and will be run over and killed if nothing is done. You can flip a switch and divert the trolley to safety. However, doing that will send the trolley over a single person who has been tied to the track. Should you proceed?
(2) As before, an out-of-control trolley is hurtling down the tracks. Five people have been tied to the tracks and will be run over and killed if nothing is done. You are on a footbridge the tracks pass under, and can stop the trolley by dropping a heavy weight in front of it. The only heavy weight at hand is an immensely fat man. You can stop the trolley by pushing the fat man off the bridge (you are not heavy enough to stop the trolley). If you push the fat man off the bridge, he will be killed, but the five would be saved. Should you proceed?
In studies involving over 200000 people from over a hundred countries, people, when confronted with these moral dilemmas, answered them the same way (cite). In general, 95% of people would flip the switch, while 95% of people would not push the fat man off the bridge.
Hence, in this sense, the study you talk of is nothing new; it has been shown before that people solve moral dilemmas the same way, regardless of culture or religion.
This entire article was offered free of any commentary, which is what makes me suspect rogue atheists.
ReplyDeleteCome on FP - give the Christians credit when they deserve it.
FH*
ReplyDelete