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Most religions are centered around the afterlife, and you can't take anything with you when you die. The dogma of most religions states that charity is good and
by Konnstann 7y ago
Most religions are centered around the afterlife, and you can't take anything with you when you die. The dogma of most religions states that charity is good and will help get you into whatever version of heaven they believe in, hence charity.
- PaulHoule 7y agoA friend of mine teaches computer science at a small Jesuit college. He was wanting to put together a program where students would go volunteer to help NGOs do software projects in India. Something he was surprised by was that NGOs in India are almost all oriented around lobbying the government to do things (particularly that they'd already promised to do) and not around provisioning social services themselves. My understanding is that in some religions, we are living today in the "afterlife" of a previous life, and subject to karma based on what we've done. If one has bad karma that has put one in an undesirable social position, it's not a stretch that Earth is a hell for those people, and we're supposed to be the demons that make life miserable for them.
- sysbin 7y ago> My understanding is that in some religions, we are living today in the "afterlife" of a previous life, and subject to karma based on what we've done. If one has bad karma that has put one in an undesirable social position, it's not a stretch that Earth is a hell for those people, and we're supposed to be the demons that make life miserable for them. Can you name those religions for me. I view everything as deterministic and see the world as either heaven/hell. Although the idea of karma doesn't make sense when understanding determinism. Since everyone is destined to do bad or good depending on the life they're born into. edit: whoever downvoted me, I'm asking a simple question and stating what I observe. Please let me know why you find the need to downvote for that.
- colejohnson66 7y agoIf I’m remembering correctly, a few Eastern religions do
- sysbin 7y agoI get the eastern religions that reference karma but the part I'm interested in is from "it's not a stretch that Earth is a hell for those people, and we're supposed to be the demons that make life miserable for them" and because I haven't seen that expressed before. It would be nice to know the specific names that share that ideology of others being demons for some that are destined to experience a bad life this time around.
- nsxwolf 7y agoThis is the hypothesis that religious people are gullible, stupid, and selfish - only concerned with the threat of their own eternal torment in hell, not with the welfare of others. It's offensive.
- wtallis 7y agoIt's offensive to many, but it's also unquestionably true of a non-trivial portion of the religious populace. That subset of the religious demographic is also prone to making equally-offensive but less truthful accusations along the lines of saying that atheists cannot be moral because morality can only come from their god.
- Konnstann 7y agoThis is the hypothesis that charitableness can be modeled on a normal distribution, but the additional incentive of religion shifts the mean of that distribution higher for religious people than atheists. It's not offensive to believe there is a subset of the population that is influenced by the dogma of the church to do things they wouldn't already do.
- krustyburger 7y agoAre you suggesting non-religious people do think they can think take stuff with them when they die?
- Konnstann 7y agoI'm suggesting non-religious people don't bank on an afterlife therefore don't have an additional incentive to give.
- bargl 7y agoMost religions teach the golden rule. Treat others as you want to be treated. And if I was poor I'd want someone to feed me.
- alistairSH 7y agoTreat others as you want to be treated. ...unless they're gay, atheist, or some other out-group.
- benjohnson 7y agoMy religion has an exhaustive list of sinful behaviors. We help everybody - that's the point because we're all sinners.
- bargl 7y agoIt depends on the church. The best churches to me are the ones who believe that church is for the "sinners" not the in-group. This means accepting everyone and not excluding anyone. But we also have to recognize that churches are centered around people and people are very flawed. Organizations tend to be too. I have to say, I fall much closer to atheist than theist now but that's mostly due to doctrine not practices within the church. Also, as a side effect of how I was raised I was on the out-group of two religions. 90% of people in both churches treated me with respect and dignity. It was up to me to see that the 10% had no power in either church or over me.
- gdubs 7y agoI’m not sure I buy it. Similar logic leads people to believe that atheists, lacking fear of retribution from a vengeful god, are more likely to commit crimes. I believe the data suggests otherwise. This suggests a moral center in atheists that comes from somewhere else. My guess is that there are simply fewer atheists.
- dfxm12 7y agoSimilar logic leads people to believe that atheists, lacking fear of retribution from a vengeful god, are more likely to commit crimes. I don't see how this follows. There are punishments for committing crimes that don't come from a vengeful god, like punishment from a legal system.