A previous article on this site that referenced a study stating that there was a correlation between intelligence and religiosity has garnered a huge response, with 100 comments at the time of writing. Studies like this are very difficult to refute. The raw data is taken, analysed, and a conclusion reached. The conclusion is simply a correlation, and it’s important to note, for the benefit of those not familiar with the statistical analysis of data, that correlation and causation are not the same thing (just because I’m writing this on my laptop, and I’m not being attacked by wild dogs, does not mean that my laptop is some sort of wild dog repellent).
So it was with great interest I came across a recent study, called “Why Don’t We Practice What We Preach? A Meta-Analytic Review of Religious Racism”, that examined racism and religiosity in America. This was a meta-study, which in fact took in data from 55 separate studies, which in turn collected information from 20,000+ mostly white, mostly Christian Americans. Carl Marziali summarised the study on the USC (University of Southern California) website. To quote:
“So perhaps it’s no surprise that the strongly religious people in our research, who were mostly white Christians, discriminated against others who were different from them — blacks and minorities”
The full study can be found here (warning, requires subscription).
What’s interesting about this study is that the author has gone some way to show causation between racism and religiosity. The general concept underlying this theory stems from what appears to be two fundamental issues with religion.
The first is that religion tends to be practiced within closed social, geographically limited, racially similar groups. This is a discussion I’ve had many times with many religious friends, that were they born in a mostly Muslim country, rather than a mostly Christian country, they would be Muslim rather than Christian. Replaced country with family, or social group, and the effect is still present and clear. If you have a personality that is predisposed to believe in the intangible and unprovable, you will believe in the most prevalent ideology in your social group.
The second concept revolves around morality. The various world religions attempt to achieve ownership of morality. Each proclaims to be more morally robust than the rest. When this self-important, arrogant and “holier than thou” attitude is combined with the sort of social exclusion seen in religious social groups it is natural to see those who are not part of your closed group as immoral. And therefore inferior.
The study concludes that this correlation is strongest amongst those who are the most devout followers of religion, although a strong correlation still exists even with so-called “moderates”. The study does make reference to the fact that these moderates are more likely to want to appear to not be racist, but this was just “lip service”, and did not represent their true views.
An interesting point that is explored addresses the various degrees of correlation between religiosity and racism when compared to the respondent’s reasons for being religious. Understandably, those who are religious out of some mis-guided attempt to fit in with a particular social group became less racist as it became more socially unacceptable. Note that it is the opinion of others that is important to these people, rather than any internal or external moral compass or the desire to do what is “right”.
Note: I’d like to point out that the potential causation has to be taken at face value. The results of the study do not confirm nor deny this causation. Additionally, the suggested causes are more closely associated with the social situations religious people tend to find themselves in, especially when growing up, as opposed to religion itself. I’ve not seen a similar study that uses respondents from social groups that are closed for reasons other than religion in order to perform a fair comparison. One could certainly argue that if there was no religion, these closed (and closed minded) social groups would not exist in the first place, which would in turn break down certain barriers in society.
i head fairies/angels singing to me early in the morning.how do i establish a relation with god?
According to Atheist, I believe you first have to discover some race to hate.
I am shocked that supposedly ‘rational’ atheists would give this hooey the time of day.
Arguably the worst racial attack was the holocaust, which was perpetrated by an Atheist and was in fact opposed by religious people, many of whom risked their lives to fight it. The Holocaust blows any study of 20,000 people in the US out of the water.
Bear in mind that the Civil Rights movement in the US was also led by Christians, both black and white. Is there even one Atheist voice to be heard in this struggle for justice? Martin Luther King jr. was a pastor. So you have religious people on all sides of this conflict.
The notion that religious people are somehow innately more racist is absurd. Christians led the fight against the slave trade. If religious people have more of a tendency to racism…..why are they rescuing children from prostitution in Cambodia, building schools for aids orphans in Kenya and Uganda, feeding starving kids in Ethiopia etc…..
This sort of marginal sniping at groups smacks of bigotry and if believed can form the foundation for discrimination and worse. Maybe we should ban or censor the Bible and Koran – or perhaps a little book burning…..it worked for Hitler. We already think that religious people are slightly less intelligent than Atheists and if they are more prone to racism…maybe they are less human……..now where have I heard all this before…….where is my copy of Mein Kampf.
“Arguably the worst racial attack was the holocaust, which was perpetrated by an Atheist…”
First, Hitler was Catholic and all of his soldiers wore government issued belt buckles that said “God is with us”. That does not sound like an atheist. Second, the genocide of the American Indian was perpetrated by a so called Christian government, as were the millions that were tortured and killed over the millennia by the catholic church in Europe and the Americas.
“Christians led the fight against the slave trade.” The bible endorses slavery and Christians were the
predominate slave owners.
“…why are they rescuing children from prostitution in Cambodiaâ€.
There are just as many secular organizations world wide working for the same purpose of eliminating child slavery and the sex trade, building schools, feeding homeless, and caring for the indigent. I can name several religious organizations that practice outright racism and bigotry. Name me some atheist organizations that promote racial hatred. The fact of the matter is that religion remains the biggest threat to world peace than anything else. It is the stated mission of Christianity and Islam to create a political atmosphere where there will be such tremendous social upheaval that it will cause the gathering of all of the armies in the world to gather for one last great battle where all mankind will be wiped from the face of the earth so that your god of peace can establish an eternal theocracy. There is nothing that the three Abrahamic religions want more than to see the utter and total devastation of the other two religions and the total destruction of this world. It is your stated mission in Revelations. So don’t give me this god of love and peace crap. Religion exists for one purpose and that is the acquisition and maintenance of great wealth and political power. If you removed the money and the politics from your religion it wouldn’t last for a second. Prove me wrong Christian. Have your congregation divest itself of all of its wealth and political connections and then get back to me and let’s see how long your church survives. After all, god will provide, won’t he?
Hi Atheist,
While disagreeing with the content (and lack of logic) displayed by B Roodnick I do feel he is justified in his anger about the article.
The article title is inflammatory,
It isn’t enough for us to state that “correlation is not causation”, as we know that those who have an intolerance of Science find it difficult to grasp the concept in practice.
If this article had been written as “No correlation between Religion and Racial Tolerance” then we would have the basis of refuting the “even one Atheist voice to be heard in this struggle for justice” absurd nonsense that we have to put up with.
Those of a religious persuasion believe that morality comes from a devotion to their religion. This is perfectly reasonable from their perspective. Unfortunately it is the reason why Atheists are viewed with such suspicion. If we don’t follow a religion, and a devotion to religion is short-hand for being a moral person, then we must be immoral or amoral people that can’t be trusted.
As an Atheist, I know that the morality enshrined in different man-made religions illustrates the various attempts to enshrine fundamental aspects of Human Nature.
In order to dispel the notion that a devotion to a religion makes one more moral, then studies like these can be presented to illustrate that this is not the case. However they should be presented in a way that religious people don’t get so annoyed they entirely miss the point.
My personal favourite is this Princeton study http://www.aug.edu/sociology/Jerusalem.htm, which in summary showed
“A person not in a hurry may stop and offer help to a person in distress. A person in a hurry is likely to keep going. Ironically, he is likely to keep going even if he is hurrying to speak on the parable of the Good Samaritan, thus inadvertently confirming the point of the parable. (Indeed, on several occasions, a seminary student going to give his talk on the parable of the Good Samaritan literally stepped over the victim as he hurried on his way!)”
Coming to the realization through objective study that even a large number of “churches†composed of predominantly white people are racist is not surprising. The surprising part is considering whether that church is actually filled with true Christians. For instance, many who claim atheism actually aren’t atheists. Furthermore, many world-renown atheists certainly disapprove of the weak, faulty arguments of lesser trained atheists and would prefer to not even recognize their being part of the “freethinking†movement. This is the same for Christians. The Scriptures are clear that many who will go before the Lord saying “Lord, Lord†will be rejected by Him on the grounds that they are not known by Him. It is incredibly saddening to note the massive number of people who claim Christian faith, yet don’t even know or understand the Gospel. Obviously, this is a heart-issue, and because of this, it is most likely unknowable especially to an atheist who is truly a Gospel-centered Christian, and who is just a sheep among wolves. Any thoughts?