Comments on: How Big is Religion’s Impact on Moral Judgment?

By: Morgan

Morgan — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 08:38:07 +0000

I’m writing a paper on the difference and relationship between Jonathan Haidt’s Social Intuitionist Model and moral theorists’ justification of morality through religious doctrine. I’m having some trouble portraying my theory that Intuitionism (the process of using moral reason and then, when defeated through discussion, saying “I don’t know why, I can’t explain it, I just know it’s wrong”) is just as excusing and concluding as religion is in moral argument. I figure there is a difference in the two but am having trouble illuminating it as well as I’d hope. Any suggestions?

By: anonymouse

anonymouse — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 05:10:34 +0000

Hoverfrog- People who don’t believe abortion is justified-in any circumstance-do not equate women with being human beings. They are merely breathing incubators. At least their intentions can’t be construed as thoughtful or love-based by anyone who looks past the superficial rhetoric. It’s about controlling womens’ bodies and sexuality.

By: Aj

Aj — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 20:57:20 +0000

…so really there should be a good reason if you would deny that to another.

If people were logically consistant on this point they’d advocate maximizing chance to conceive and bring to term as if it was some sort of duty to have as many kids as possible. Contraception or choosing to not have sex deny the chance of existence as well.

By: Monkfishy

Monkfishy — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 15:40:02 +0000

I definitely agree that the values and morals people are raised with inform their religious choices, versus their religion creating their values and morals. However, it’s too generic to lump whole countries together – especially countries as large and diverse as the U.S. The whole red state/blue state scenario is a good example of what a huge difference there can be between specific regions and communities within a country.

By: hoverFrog

hoverFrog — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 15:00:30 +0000

I’d bet that a similar graph would exist for those who support the death penalty. Something that I would consider to be morally abhorrent.

Also “never” justified? As in not ever? That’s a frightening thought. What if the pregnant woman was going to die unless she had an abortion? What if she’d been raped or was pregnant through incest? What if the fetus was severely disabled and was expected to live for only a few hours after birth? Are these circumstances that the anti-choice people would really be comfortable in denying an abortion for?

Very moral.

By: Anticontrame

Anticontrame — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 12:14:25 +0000

I love graphs!

Anothermike, I’ve seen the prison statistics claim posted around the intertubes, but I haven’t been able to find any decent sources that back up that interpretation. If anyone knows of one, please let me know.

By: rowanth

rowanth — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 11:58:32 +0000

I personally believe that abortion extends further than being a religious issue and should be debated robustly by the non-believing community also. As a very staunch atheist and active campaigner for secularism here in Ireland I always wondered why I had conflicting opinions on abortion. Certainly culturally you can feel the apprehension surrounding this issue here but on the other hand you are surrounded by, as an atheist, the staunchly pro choice sentiments from that community and so as an atheist in Ireland the question is one in which time must be invested in order to come up with an objective view. Ireland is one of the very few countries in western Europe where abortion is still illegal, it is also illegal to travel abroad for such services.

Personally I have come to the opinion that abortion, certainly, should be legal but and it is a big but, that the concept of the unborn child is not without merit, that a certain level of trepidation and apprehension surrounding the issue is a good thing and finally that we have all gotten the chance to experience and enjoy this brief and beautiful spark of existence, so really there should be a good reason if you would deny that to another.

By: Sabio

Sabio — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 11:48:53 +0000

Robert Wright’s new book addresses Moral Imaginations — these mirror neurons are used by the religious and atheists alike — but only when they don’t go haywire !

By: Miko

Miko — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 00:45:09 +0000

Aj’s comment sums up my thoughts nicely.

Religious communities encourage uniformity, but are not the only group in society that does so. I predict a strong positive correlation between percentage of population attending public/charter schools (or equivalent with a systematized and uniform shared curriculum) and agreement between the religious and non-religious on the issue.

By: Aj

Aj — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 00:21:23 +0000

There are other factors than religious vs nonreligious. I suspect loyalty and obedience to doctrine are factors, and predict a correlation between those and the state of liberty, education, and secularisation.

Religion is culture, a nation’s culture includes the religions of that nation. Even if people are non-religious, religion can still influence them culturally. Tradition, nationalism, conservatism can take religious values and retain them in a secular society.

Religions aren’t contentless, there is variation at almost every level. Where religions take no, or limited, position on abortion, you see that represented in no, or limited, difference between religious, non-religious, and atheist. Religious doctrine positions are complex, it’s not good lumping all “Protestant” groups together without the context of how they’re related to other groups.

Categories “religious”, “not religious” are vague and unhelpful. Religious perhaps should be continuous not discete, as there’s definitely variation in passion vs apathy. Even the definition of “atheist” is much debated.

70% of China, religious, non-religious, and atheists say abortion is never justified? Apart from the state’s policy of mandatory aborting unauthorized pregnancy and advocating abortion of fetuses with heredity illness, that same state had to ban selective abortion of females because of its popularity.