Religion and Charity

Posted by Beetle B. on Fri 04 November 2016

Is God a Force of Good or Evil?

Religious people generally give more in charity, but usually to their own kind or through their own institutions. They also tend to do more volunteer work (again, usually preferring their own organizations).

In many spheres, markets that require a lot of trust to function efficiently tend to be dominated by religious folks.

People attending religious services tend to be more charitable to outsiders as well (at least in the US). The same goes for volunteering.

Belief in Hell, praying daily, the sect one is - none of these correlate well with generosity. What did correlate well was how enmeshed they were with their co-religionists (in terms of friendship).

Chimps and Bees and Gods

Becoming an atheist can be damaging. They likely have higher suicide rates.

Haidt claims that the more recent atheistic societies in Europe in the last few decaded are being inefficient in converting their resources into offspring.

tags : trm, morality, Haidt