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Highly religious people are less motivated by compassion than are non-believers

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jeremy0:
Eh - with these two posts, we can explain:

"With highly religious people, the scientists concluded that religion did not play a factor in generosity"

Hence, religion did not play a factor in me wanting to help a stranger or a homeless person when I was religious, and now I am not much different in the same act of said generosity or compassion..

ParkingPlaces:
This study is in line with what I have observed, especially in my fundamentalist friends and acquaintances. Their concern for human life outside of their own circle has never seemed normal to me.

Chronos:
My experience leads to a circular question. If the strangers who have asked me for help were Christian, they haven't stated such. It isn't important to them at that moment, or they simply don't find it useful to announce their faith when asking for help. I am otherwise imagining the approach of a stranger as "Can you help a faithful Christian man in his time of need?" but I've never been approached like that. (For the record, every person approaching me for help has been a man except for one stranger who was a young woman.) Perhaps the directness of their approaches have been in relation to their frustration that no one else has helped and they are just getting to the point.

Nevertheless, since this is a "Christian nation" as pronounced by so many, why wouldn't they announce their faith as an added bonus for helping one of their own kind? Is it those who need help and identify Christian know people they can call or contact in advance? Is it only the faithless who have to randomly ask strangers for help? I realize that I'm likely pressing this issue too much. It's just that I get approached in other circumstances routinely by those who wish to proclaim their faith, the value of their faith and the help that comes to them from their faith (but not typically couched in a circumstances as needing money for gas to get back home).

Since the majority of people in the US proclaim this Christian faith, why would they not use it to help them? Perhaps my experience belies an atheist aura I emit that only attracts the godless?

If I were in need of money for gas to get back home, I know that I would expect to get the least help from those who identify as Christian. I feel that there would always be strings attached to whatever help I get, and I don't think I would get that much help. Now, if I were a member of a church and I called upon someone else in my church for help, I might get more help because the other church member would know me personally (assuming I am otherwise viewed in a good light). Still, this is not what happens when people are suddenly in need of money. Maybe I am just a sucker for a good huckster? (I don't think so.)

Omen:

--- Quote from: ParkingPlaces on April 30, 2012, 09:19:36 PM ---This study is in line with what I have observed, especially in my fundamentalist friends and acquaintances. Their concern for human life outside of their own circle has never seemed normal to me.

--- End quote ---

Agreed, the worst thing I ever experienced was someone proselytizing at a funeral.  The funeral was just an opportunity to evangelize for him.  The same individual often tries to prey upon other children in the family by sending them messages in private again with the intent to proselytize.

velkyn:
rings true for me, especially for many Christians. They are sure their special seat in heaven depends on how they act and it is only to get their reward that they act for the benefit of others.  Indeed, it *is* all about them. 

as I can see from the constant begging by the local mission, I know that religion does not play a factor in generosity.

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