Research links
some scriptures to hostile acts
By Amy Choate-Nielsen
Deseret Morning News
Feb. 27, 2007
PROVO Utah — Chances are, not many people in Utah would like to
think of scripture as a violent medium that promotes hostility. But a
study of 490 students — 248 of them at Brigham Young University —
suggests a correlation between exposure to scriptural violence that is
condoned by God and increased aggression.
University of Michigan psychologist Brad Bushman, BYU professor Robert
Ridge and three other researchers co-wrote "When God Sanctions
Killing," which will appear in the March issue of Psychological Science
magazine. Although the study points to a correlation between scriptural
violence and aggression, Ridge said the research is not meant to attack
scripture study.
"We were not saying that reading the scriptures is bad, but we were
pointing out that if a person was seeing that kind of (violent)
literature, it could have some negative effects," Ridge said. "We
weren't trying to find fault with religion or the scriptures or
anything, but when you think about terrorists and they say, 'God will
sit in judgment,' and they sometimes refer to a scripture, our question
was, 'Could that really make a person behave more aggressively?' And the
answer is, yes, it could."
About a year ago, Ridge recruited 95 male and 153 female
students from BYU — a private university in Provo owned by The
Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints — to participate
in the project. They were selected to represent a population
of people who are strongly religious. Ninety-nine percent of
the students reported having a belief in God and the Bible.
The students were given extra credit for their participation.
In addition to the BYU students, 110 male and 132 female
students from Vrije Universiteit in Amsterdam, the
Netherlands, participated in the study. These students were
chosen because they represented a more diverse population of
people with different religious backgrounds. Of the group, 50
percent said they believe in God and 27 percent said they
believe in the Bible.
To do the study, both groups of students were shown a passage
of scripture from the Old Testament that contained tales of
beatings, rape and murder. Half of the students were shown an
additional passage that included violent retribution as
sanctioned by God. The other half was not. The students who
were not shown the additional passage were told the story came
from an ancient scroll. The others were told it came from the
Bible.
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Members of both the religious and non-religious groups who
were exposed to the additional verse responded with greater
aggression in a subsequent test than did those who did not
read the passage.
In the test, participants were placed in groups of two. Each
person was given headphones and a "weapon" — a button that
would produce a noise frequency that could be as loud as a
smoke alarm. The students each pressed a button as fast as
possible for 25 trials and the slowest of the pair would
receive a blast in the ears. The winning button-pusher could
choose how loud to make the sound in the other person's ears.
Aggression was measured by the frequency with which the
winning students blasted their partners.
The study indicated that those with a stronger religious
background responded with slightly more hostility — and louder
blasts — than those who were not as religious.
Ridge says that indicates a correlation between aggression and
isolated violent passages.
The correlation also mirrors studies that show the
relationship between hostility and violent movies, music or
video games. The key difference is that if scriptures are read
as a whole and not taken out of context, the results can be
the opposite, Ridge says, as the overall themes of the Bible,
specifically, are peace and love.
"We're not saying that just in and of itself violent media is
uniformly bad but oftentimes there is no redeeming context to
it," Ridge said. "If one reads the scriptures with an
understanding of context, both historical as well as with a
(desire) to hear what God is trying to teach us, you can read
it in a different way. But if a person dives into (a violent
passage) without the context, you could probably get some
increased aggression."
Daniel Judd, BYU professor of ancient scripture, who was not
involved in the study, said he agrees with the importance of
understanding scriptural context. Taken by itself, a
scriptural passage can wrongly rationalize negative behavior,
he says. "You can use scripture to justify anything you're
looking for," Judd said.
Ridge received approval from BYU's institutional review board
before he conducted his test, but the board only serves to
make sure proposed research projects are scientifically sound,
not politically correct. Ridge said he had some trepidation
about how his report will be received, but he hopes people
will read the study before making final judgment.
As a highly religious university with a scriptural curriculum
requirement, the study is somewhat ironic in its setting. But
BYU spokeswoman Carri Jenkins says she hopes people won't hear
of the study and get the wrong idea. "Our concern is with how
people will perceive the conclusion,"
Jenkins said. "But like all research, it does need to be
studied carefully."
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Religion in the News
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Ellen Johnson, President (973)
625-6900
Dave Silverman, Communications Director (732) 648-9333
Apr. 2 2007
ATHEISTS WARN
PROPOSED U.N. BAN ON "DEFAMING" RELIGION THREAT TO FREE SPEECH,
CHURCH-STATE SEPARATION
"This proposal amounts to an international 'blasphemy' statute, and
punishes those exercising a right to question and criticize religious
superstition..."
-- Ellen Johnson, President, American Atheists.
An Atheist civil rights group condemned Friday's passage at the United
Nations of a proposal for a global ban on "defaming" religion.
The measure, passed 24 -14 (nine abstentions) by the U.N. Human Rights
Council called upon governments to "take resolute action to prohibit the
dissemination including through political institutions and organizations
of racist and xenophobic ideas and material aimed at any religion..."
States are also asked to encourage "tolerance and respect" for religion,
and report on acts of violence or discrimination against religious
populations.
"One of the problems here is that religion and religious believers are
being singled out for 'special treatment,' " said Ellen Johnson,
President of American Atheists. "Atheists aren't mentioned, and we have
plenty of cases where inappropriate and aggressive religious
proselytizing, even physical coercion, is being allowed in schools, the
workplace and in government."
Johnson also warned that the resolution was vague and overly-broad, and
that criticizing or even questioning religious creeds is seen by many as
a form of "defamation."
"This amounts to an 'anti-blasphemy' statute that can punish anyone
exercising free speech," said Johnson.
The measure was supported primarily by Islamic countries. Dave
Silverman, Communications Director for American Atheists," noted that
the measure only mentioned Islam and Muslim minorities.
"Many of these countries have shabby records when it comes to human
rights and freedom of expression," said Mr. Silverman. "Even if all
religions were included in this dangerous proposal, however, we would
still oppose any attempt to punish people for expressing an honest
opinion about religion and what many of us argue is a superstitious and
un-enlightened point of view."
Silverman added that all concerned with freedom of speech, including
religious groups, should oppose the measure.
AMERICAN ATHEISTS is a nationwide movement that defends civil rights for
Atheists; works for the total separation of church and state; and
addresses issues of First Amendment public policy.
American Atheists, Inc.
P. O. Box 5733
Parsippany, NJ 07054-6733
Tel: (908) 276-7300
Fax: (908) 276-7402
Australian scientist faces
excommunication from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
Published Thursday, July 21st, 2005
The Associated Press
SALT LAKE CITY (AP) - An Australian scientist who wrote a book saying DNA evidence contradicts ancestry claims in the Book of Mormon faces
disciplinary action in a separate case that could bring excommunication from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Simon Southerton told The Associated Press he's been ordered to a July
31 hearing before church leaders in Canberra, Australia.
Southerton's book "Losing a Lost Tribe: Native Americans, DNA and the
Mormon Church" uses DNA data to argue against Book of Mormon teachings
that ancient America's inhabitants descended from Israelites.
Yet Southerton, a plant geneticist in Canberra, faces charges of
adultery, not heresy. He acknowledges an affair five years ago, after
separating from his wife, but contends church authorities are using that
against him while the more difficult apostasy charge is "obviously the
major issue."
Southerton says church authorities never mentioned adultery when they
paid him a recent visit, instead bringing up his book, abandonment of
the church in 1998 (though he technically remains a
LONDON — Albert Einstein: arch rationalist or scientist with a spiritual
core?
A letter being auctioned in London this week adds more fuel to the
long-simmering debate about the Nobel prize-winning physicist's
religious views.
In the note, written the year before his death, Einstein dismissed the
idea of God as the product of human weakness and the Bible as "pretty
childish."
The letter, handwritten in German, is being sold by Bloomsbury Auctions
on Thursday and is expected to fetch between $12,000 and $16,000.
Einstein, who helped unravel the mysteries of the universe with his
theory of relativity, expressed complex and arguably contradictory views
on faith, perceiving a universe suffused with spirituality while
rejecting organized religion.
The letter up for sale, written to philosopher Eric Gutkind in January
1954, suggests his views on religion did not mellow with age.
In it, Einstein said that "the word God is for me nothing more than the
expression and product of human weaknesses, the Bible a collection of
honorable but still primitive legends which are nevertheless pretty
childish."
"For me," he added, "the Jewish religion like all other religions is an
incarnation of the most childish superstitions."
Addressing
the idea that the Jews are God's chosen people, Einstein wrote that "the
Jewish people to whom I gladly belong and with whose mentality I have a
deep affinity have no different quality for me than all other people. As
far as my experience goes, they are also no better than other human
groups, although they are protected from the worst cancers by a lack of
power. Otherwise I cannot see anything 'chosen' about them."
Bloomsbury spokesman Richard Caton said the auction house was "100
percent certain" of the letter's authenticity.
It is being offered at auction for the first time, by a private vendor.
John Brooke, emeritus professor of science and religion at Oxford
University, said the letter lends weight to the notion that "Einstein
was not a conventional theist" — although he was not an atheist, either.
"Like many great scientists of the past, he is rather quirky about
religion, and not always consistent from one period to another," Brooke
said.
Born to a Jewish family in Germany in 1879, Einstein said he went
through a devout phase as a child before beginning to question
conventional religion at the age of 12.
In later life, he expressed a sense of wonder at the universe and its
mysteries — what he called a "cosmic religious feeling" — and famously
said: "Science without religion is lame, religion without science is
blind."
But, he also said: "I do not believe in the God of theology who rewards
good and punishes evil. My God created laws that take care of that. His
universe is not ruled by wishful thinking, but by immutable laws."
Brooke said Einstein believed that "there is some kind of intelligence
working its way through nature. But it is certainly not a conventional
Christian or Judaic religious view."
Einstein's most famous legacy is the special theory of relativity, which
makes the point that a large amount of energy could be released from a
tiny amount of matter, as expressed in the equation E=MC2 (energy equals
mass times the speed of light squared).
The theory changed the face of physics, allowing scientists to make
predictions about space and paving the way for nuclear power and the
atomic bomb.
Einstein's musings on science, war, peace and God helped make him world
famous, and his scientific legacy prompted Time magazine to name him its
Person of the 20th Century.
Addressing
the idea that the Jews are God's chosen people, Einstein wrote that "the
Jewish people to whom I gladly belong and with whose mentality I have a
deep affinity have no different quality for me than all other people. As
far as my experience goes, they are also no better than other human
groups, although they are protected from the worst cancers by a lack of
power. Otherwise I cannot see anything 'chosen' about them."