Atheism and empathy
The Barna Group found that even when church-based giving is subtracted from the equation, active-faith adults donated twice as many dollars last year as did atheists and agnostics.[1] See also: Atheism and charity
Empathy is the understanding of the emotional state or thoughts of another person.
In 2007 the Baptist Press reported about atheism and empathy:
| “ | ...a pollster at the University of Lethbridge in Alberta, Canada, found that adults who profess a belief in God are significantly more likely than atheists to say that forgiveness, patience, generosity and a concern for others are "very important." In fact, the poll found that on 11 of 12 values, there was a double-digit gap between theists and atheists, with theists more likely to label each value "very important."
The survey by sociologist and pollster Reginald Bibby examined the beliefs of 1,600 Canadians, 82 percent who said they believed in "God or a higher power" and 18 percent who said they did not.[2] |
” |
From a metaphysical, moral and spiritual perspective, atheists have an inability to satisfactorily explain the existence of love.[3][4] See also: Atheism and love and Atheism and social justice
Atheism and pschopathy
See also: Atheism and psychopathy
Psychopathy is strongly correlated with crime, violence, and antisocial behavior.[5][6] See also: Irreligion, psychopathy, crime, violence and antisocial behavior
A psychopath is someone with an anti-social personality disorder characterized by violent, perverted or immoral behavior often leading to criminality. Psychopaths have little or no concern for other people. Some psychopaths equate love with sexual arousal.[7]
A 2016 study relating to atheism and psychopathy published in Plus One indicates:
| “ | Similarly, a survey of 312 college students examining the relationship between Religious/Spiritual Well-Being (RSWB) and ‘dark triad’ personality traits found that “RSWB was confirmed to be negatively correlated with these negative aspects of personality, in particular with subclinical psychopathy.”
...moral concern is associated with a spiritual worldview.[8] |
” |
According to the 2014 journal article Correlates of psychopathic personality traits in everyday life: results from a large community survey published in the journal Frontiers of Psychology lack of belief in God is positively associated with psychopathic traits.[9]
Atheism and sociopathy
See also
References
- ↑ Atheists and Agnostics Take Aim at Christians The Barna Update, 2007.
- ↑ Foust, Michael (October 23, 2007). "Poll: Atheists less likely to 'do good'" Baptist Press. Retrieved on July 20, 2014.
- ↑ How do atheists define love? by Dr. Taylor Marshall
- ↑ What is love? how materialist atheism fails to have a satisfactory answer, July 9, 2014
- ↑ (2005) Handbook of Psychopathy. Guilford Press, 440–3.
- ↑ Coid, Jeremy; Yang, Min; Ullrich, Simone; Roberts, Amanda; Moran, Paul; Bebbington, Paul; Brugha, Traolach; Jenkins, Rachel et al. (May 2009). [Psychopathy among prisoners in England and Wales "Psychopathy among prisoners in England and Wales"]. International Journal of Law and Psychiatry (Elsevier Ltd) 32 (3): 134–41. doi:10.1016/j.ijlp.2009.02.008. PMID 19345418. Psychopathy among prisoners in England and Wales. Retrieved 1 April 2016.
- ↑ Robert D. Hare (2011). Without Conscience: The Disturbing World of the Psychopaths Among Us. Guilford Press, 52. ISBN 978-16062-35782.
- ↑ Why Do You Believe in God? Relationships between Religious Belief, Analytic Thinking, Mentalizing and Moral Concern by Anthony Ian Jack , Jared Parker Friedman, Richard Eleftherios Boyatzis, Scott Nolan Taylor, Plus One, March 23, 2016
- ↑ Correlates of psychopathic personality traits in everyday life: results from a large community survey by Scott O. Lilienfeld, Robert D. Latzman, Ashley L. Watts, Sarah F. Smith, and Kevin Dutton, Frontiers of Psychology, 2014