[extropy-chat] 'a process of non-thinking called faith' 2 (2)

[Acy Stapp]

Dawkins discusses a study by Isreali psychologist George Tamarin wherein he
presents to more than a thousand Israeli schoolchildren the account of the
battle of Jericho, in particular the quote

"Then they [Joshua's soldiers] utterly destroyed all in the city, both
men and women, young and old, exen, sheep, and asses, with the edge of
the sword... And they burned the city with fire, and all within it;
only the silver and gold, and the vessels of bronze and of iron, they
put into the treasury of the house of the LORD."

Tamarin then asked the children whether Joshua and the Israelites acted
morally or not. 66% expressed total approval, and 26% total disapproval. The
justifications given for approval were religious in every case, and even
some of those who expressed disapproval objected on backhanded religious
grounds.

Now what is especially interesting is the control group, who were given the
same text with "Joshua" replaced by "General Lin" and "Isreal" replaced by
"A Chinese kingdom 3000 years ago". In Dawkins words, "Only 7 per cent
approved of General Lin's behaviour, and 75 per cent disapproved. In other
words, when their loyalty to Judaism was removed from the calculation, thje
majority of the children agreed with the moral judgements that most modern
humans would share."

Perhaps there is a difference between making factual and moral judgements.

Acy

On 11/17/06, Keith Henson <hkhenson at rogers.com> wrote:
>
>
> So you need to account for this capacity.  Like virtually all
> psychological
> trait is must be rooted in the way stone age hunter gatherer bands lived
> and relative reproductive success.  So how do you account for people
> having
> the capacity to have religions? Note that people don't pick up religions
> (and faith) as young children.
>
>

-- 
Acy Stapp

"When I'm working on a problem, I never think about beauty. I think only how
to solve the problem. But when I have finished, if the solution is not
beautiful, I know it is wrong." -- R. Buckminster Fuller (1895 - 1983)
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