tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24243754.post8583315995972338060..comments2023-08-04T16:36:43.692+07:00Comments on CALIIBRE: How Religion Impedes Moral DevelopmentAnonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09659954928399291008noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24243754.post-37695376825727469152013-04-28T05:56:27.460+07:002013-04-28T05:56:27.460+07:00Annie Japanie: Very well worded and defended. Whil...Annie Japanie: Very well worded and defended. While a single person cannot identify the morality of an entire society, neither can the acts of a few deviants erase the overwhelming goodness brought about by teaching a large society that love and kindness and personal, moral growth, bring happiness and a fulfilled life. Not all Christian based religions believe that a person is saved just by "accepting Christ as your Lord and Savior". Many teach that our choice of actions show the world if we really are a follower of Christ. It is impossible to come to such a stark and all-encompassing decision about the affect of Christianity or Religion on the morality of a person.Maureenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08300739284954285731noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24243754.post-90977231456677500802011-06-15T08:47:35.821+07:002011-06-15T08:47:35.821+07:00You're making a lot of assumptions here. You&#...You're making a lot of assumptions here. You're saying "religion" as if it were one thing. You're equating Islam with Calvinism and Catholicism and every other faith. Many of these belief systems directly contradict one another. How can such vastly different worldviews make the same impact on people's lives? Have you examined all of the world's very diverse religious beliefs? Are there some that DO seem to increase the morality of their believers? And are all "believers" the same? Martin Luther King Jr., one of the classic exemplars of stage 6 moral development who would risk his own comfort and be thrown in jail to protest the injustice of the socially acceptable laws of the time, was an extremely religious person.<br /><br />You also make some dangerous associations by correlating statistics such as Catholicism and prison populations. Are there more Catholics in prison than in the general population? It appears so. But could there be other confounding variables at work? I can name a very obvious one - socioeconomic status and ethnic heritage. Catholicism is very high among certain ethnic populations in the United States and those populations also live under the poverty line at levels much higher than the majority ethnic groups. Because more of these populations who come from traditionally Catholic backgrounds are living in economic and social situations that have been proven to lead to a higher incidence of drug use and crime, no wonder there is a correlation between their traditional religious affiliation and how many of them end up in prison. Is it because Catholics don't teach their followers to be moral people? No - it's because the largely Catholic populations have been dealt a crappy socioeconomic hand.<br /><br />Finally, you cannot cherry pick from the Bible to show how it is a poor moral teacher. The entire New Testament is a stunningly clear example of the difference between conventional (stages 3 & 4) and postconventional (stages 5 & 6) moral reasoning. Jesus confronts those in the conventional stages of blindly following traditional law time and time again. Perhaps the clearest example is when a group of angry nobles brings an accused woman before Christ and says "Master, this woman was taken in adultery, in the very act. Now Moses in the law commanded us, that such should be stoned: but what sayest thou?" Christ responds to their invocation of "the law" with a very morally advanced argument. "So when they continued asking him, he lifted up himself, and said unto them, He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her." This story clearly illustrates very vital aspects of Kohlberg's theory. Can people who are relying on religious dogma to make moral choices be stunted in their own moral development? Clearly. But does this mean that "religion impedes moral development?" Certainly not, seeing as it is the teachings of their very own religion that contradict this substandard morality.<br /><br />Do some people justify immoral behavior on the grounds of their misunderstanding of religious teaching? Yes. Some people rely on religion as the authority figure for their stage 3 and 4 moral reasoning. Some may cite their belief in Jesus's atoning sacrifice as exonerating them for terrible crimes. But do you know what? Some people think that committing a heinous crime will impress Jodie Foster. Criminals don't tend to be morally well-developed people. Concentrating on those populations to try to prove a causal argument about religion in a backwards chain of logic is not an effective method. Looking at the actual teachings of individual religions, and looking at the people who follow those teachings (rather than looking at cultural demographics to identify "religious people") will show a very marked increase in moral reasoning that is very compatible with Kohlberg's theory.Annie Japanniehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11597462471442823536noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24243754.post-33996991896762422752011-05-12T02:13:33.864+07:002011-05-12T02:13:33.864+07:00This is a great post. I've been interested in ...This is a great post. I've been interested in this topic for a while now, after working in the area of meta-ethics and moral cognition, and following the implications of Kohlberg's theory of moral development. I wrote a similar essay, but it doesn't have the statistical support that yours does. <br /><br />If you don't mind, I may cite this essay in future work.Ryan Mhttp://www.dialecticalatheism.wordpress.comnoreply@blogger.com