How is God viewed? Is it 'God is love,' or is God a judge who will punish bad behavior?
And what is the effect of that view?
1." For the past two generations, God has rarely been depicted as judging and punishing. Instead all we have heard is the phrase, God Is Love, which, when offered as the one description of God, is morally meaningless and even morally dangerous.
2. If your aim is to produce moral behavior and that should be the primary aim of every religion God is love is no more helpful than Dad is love is to producing a good son.
Morally speaking, God will judge you is a far superior message.
3. Because we live in the most secular age in recorded history, our age lacks any concept of an afterlife reward and punishment. Making things worse, it is also a wisdom-challenged age that believes people are basically good and therefore dont need threats of punishment. Worst of all, this thinking has spread to mainstream Judaism and Christianity, most of whose clergy find threats of hell intellectually primitive and morally useless.
a. Last week, Pope Francis warned Italys Mafia leaders that if they continue their evil ways, they will go to hell."
Pope Francis threatens hell -- Hooray!
4. Radio host Dennis Prager told of this question asked of a teenage girl: 'Why don't you use drugs?' Her answer, telling and consistent with the above, was 'My mother would kill me!"
Not "because my mother loves me."
Actually, the University of Oregon had an enlightening answer to the question.
5. "....criminal activity is lower in societies where people's religious beliefs contain a strong punitive component than in places where religious beliefs are more benevolent.... where many more people believe in heaven than in hell, for example, is likely to have a much higher crime rate than one where these beliefs are about equal. The finding surfaced from a comprehensive analysis of 26 years of data involving 143,197 people in 67 countries.
a. .... a nation's rate of belief in hell predicts lower crime rates, but the nation's rate of belief in heaven predicts higher crime rates, and these are strong effects," ... it's possible that people who don't believe in the possibility of punishment in the afterlife feel like they can get away with unethical behavior.
b. .... in the International Journal for the Psychology of Religion, Shariff reported that undergraduate students were more likely to cheat when they believe in a forgiving God than a punishing God.
6. .... a growing body of evidence that supernatural punishment had emerged as a very effective cultural innovation to get people to act more ethically with each other.
7. In 2003, he said, Harvard University researchers ... found that gross domestic product was higher in developed countries when people believed in hell more than they did in heaven.
8. "This research provides new insights into the potential influences of cultural and religious beliefs on key outcomes at a societal level,"
Belief in hell, according to international data, is associated with reduced crime | Media Relations
The following, a pretty strong take on the above data, suggests that offering salvation for repentance, is actually a negative.
9. " If you promulgate the notion that people are born bad, and cannot help but to sin, but will still gain entrance into paradise as long as they "repent"-- they are more likely to sin, repent, sin, repent--and repeat when necessary. Pelagius was wise, and realized that this belief would lead to "moral laxity"--
10. The ancient Christian philosopher Pelagius also pointed this out long ago. That is, the Christian version of salvation promoted by Augustine, leads to "moral laxity" as believers are "saved" regardless of their actions--no consequences in relation to their salvation."
Debunking Christianity: Survey - Why Do Atheists Care Whether Christians Believe in Christianity or Not?
And what is the effect of that view?
1." For the past two generations, God has rarely been depicted as judging and punishing. Instead all we have heard is the phrase, God Is Love, which, when offered as the one description of God, is morally meaningless and even morally dangerous.
2. If your aim is to produce moral behavior and that should be the primary aim of every religion God is love is no more helpful than Dad is love is to producing a good son.
Morally speaking, God will judge you is a far superior message.
3. Because we live in the most secular age in recorded history, our age lacks any concept of an afterlife reward and punishment. Making things worse, it is also a wisdom-challenged age that believes people are basically good and therefore dont need threats of punishment. Worst of all, this thinking has spread to mainstream Judaism and Christianity, most of whose clergy find threats of hell intellectually primitive and morally useless.
a. Last week, Pope Francis warned Italys Mafia leaders that if they continue their evil ways, they will go to hell."
Pope Francis threatens hell -- Hooray!
4. Radio host Dennis Prager told of this question asked of a teenage girl: 'Why don't you use drugs?' Her answer, telling and consistent with the above, was 'My mother would kill me!"
Not "because my mother loves me."
Actually, the University of Oregon had an enlightening answer to the question.
5. "....criminal activity is lower in societies where people's religious beliefs contain a strong punitive component than in places where religious beliefs are more benevolent.... where many more people believe in heaven than in hell, for example, is likely to have a much higher crime rate than one where these beliefs are about equal. The finding surfaced from a comprehensive analysis of 26 years of data involving 143,197 people in 67 countries.
a. .... a nation's rate of belief in hell predicts lower crime rates, but the nation's rate of belief in heaven predicts higher crime rates, and these are strong effects," ... it's possible that people who don't believe in the possibility of punishment in the afterlife feel like they can get away with unethical behavior.
b. .... in the International Journal for the Psychology of Religion, Shariff reported that undergraduate students were more likely to cheat when they believe in a forgiving God than a punishing God.
6. .... a growing body of evidence that supernatural punishment had emerged as a very effective cultural innovation to get people to act more ethically with each other.
7. In 2003, he said, Harvard University researchers ... found that gross domestic product was higher in developed countries when people believed in hell more than they did in heaven.
8. "This research provides new insights into the potential influences of cultural and religious beliefs on key outcomes at a societal level,"
Belief in hell, according to international data, is associated with reduced crime | Media Relations
The following, a pretty strong take on the above data, suggests that offering salvation for repentance, is actually a negative.
9. " If you promulgate the notion that people are born bad, and cannot help but to sin, but will still gain entrance into paradise as long as they "repent"-- they are more likely to sin, repent, sin, repent--and repeat when necessary. Pelagius was wise, and realized that this belief would lead to "moral laxity"--
10. The ancient Christian philosopher Pelagius also pointed this out long ago. That is, the Christian version of salvation promoted by Augustine, leads to "moral laxity" as believers are "saved" regardless of their actions--no consequences in relation to their salvation."
Debunking Christianity: Survey - Why Do Atheists Care Whether Christians Believe in Christianity or Not?
