Secular Café: Are Religious People Less Compassionate?

Secular Café Discuss atheism, religious apologetics, separation of church & state, theology, comparative religion and scripture.

Are Religious People Less Compassionate? May 7th 2012, 15:57 http://www.care2.com/causes/are-reli...assionate.html This should elicit some "interesting" responses....:D Quote: Why are highly religious people are lesslikely to be moved by compassion than atheists, agnostics, and people who are religiously unaffiliated? After all, charity is a central tenet of most religious traditions. But, according to a new study from scientists at the University of California, Berkeley, that fact may be exactly why highly religious people are least likely to be moved by compassion. In a series of experiments, the scientists found that nonreligious people were consistently compelled toward acts of generosity by feelings of compassion. According to the study’s news release, compassion is defined as “an emotion felt when people see the suffering of others which then motivates them to help, often at a personal risk or cost.” By contrast, for people who were rated “highly religious” on an unidentified religiosity scale (the full article is behind a firewall), compassion had no impact on their levels of generosity. This finding is especially interesting in light of recent evidence showing that the highly religious are less likely to think analytically. Read more at the link.....

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