Christianity & Islam & Judaism Thomas on 01 Nov 2009 09:52 am
Another powerful negative effect for religion/conservatism - it fosters racism
Of all the evil that religion adds to our society, here is one of the most disgusting and insidious - religious/conservative beliefs foster racism:
Categories, essentialism, race, and culture.
The data for race were much more complex.
As an example, the participant might see a White girl and then an Asian girl and be told that the puppet thought that they were both the same kind of person.
The youngest children (5- and 7-year-olds) showed no strong preference for saying that the puppet was right or wrong when putting together people of different races. About half the time they said the puppet was right and half the time they said the puppet was wrong.
For the older children (10-year-olds and 17-year-olds), their answer depended on where they grew up. The older children who grew up in the politically liberal area said that it was correct to classify people from different races. Those who grew up in the politically conservative area said that it was incorrect to classify people from different races. That is, older kids from liberal environments had no problem with a category that involved people from different races, while older kids from a conservative environment thought it was wrong to classify people from different races in the same category.
The first thing to notice about these data is that the belief that race is a possible basis for classifying people emerges late. This observation is similar to what anthropologist Lawrence Hirschfeld has observed in his research.
The second thing to see is that beliefs about whether it is necessary to classify people based on their race depend on what other members of your culture suggest. You are much more likely to think it is necessary to classify people based on race if you grow up in a politically conservative environment than if you grow up in a politically liberal environment.
We already knew that religion is a direct cause of homophobia, and is strongly linked to sexism as well. Thanks religion for all of your positive influences on society.
on 01 Nov 2009 at 4:32 pm 1.Jax said …
Great study. The only problem is that it didn’t say a thing about racism or for that matter a word about religion. I guess you can see whatever you want to see. A minority sure doesn’t mind race when they are applying to college.
on 02 Nov 2009 at 12:50 pm 2.Anonymous said …
one of the most basic, and most fundamental, issues that can be considered by the human
mind is the question, “Does God exist?” In the field of logic, there are principles—or as they
are called more often, laws—that govern human thought processes and that are accepted as
analytically true.
on 02 Nov 2009 at 7:50 pm 3.Bishop said …
Go ask a black individual in Compton CA if OJ was guilty. That is just one of many cities. Most likely they will state no strictly based on his race. Race is a reality and this study proves the conservatives are much more realistic.