Statistically, religious people DO donate to charity more than non religious people on average. Now whether that is causation or correlation, can't be proven... But statistically by that one measure they do love their neighbour more. On the other hand religious people go to jail at a higher rate than non religious people. Again, no way to tell if causation or correlation.
its one of those easy measures and tax deductible. Think about it. what's easier. Give to charity and claim it back in tax or do good deeds. Again as i recall now wasn't there a little old lady who gave he last penny to the synagogue in the bible and some such story about that being worth more than the rich person sneering at her while putting on a show of ostentatious donating? something like that anyway. the person that goes and does something real is usually the last to be recognised in the kings list while famous people or civil servants or cronies get a higher award automatically. its the way of things.
merely a despot for eternity or something. hardly like Perseus or hercules at all. Disney won't get a movie out of it i think.
that can't count! that's done out of duress at risk of their mortal soul. Blackmail is not charity (but it is also tax deductible in many countries)
True, but it could be included in the statistics in order to make them look better - which is why I asked.
I was brought up Catholic. Though I gave up on it in my early teens, an abiding memory I have was the strong movement towards ecumenism amongst the different strands of Christianity - in the UK at least. We were taught that the Old Testament was no more than a set of morality tales (though I won't go into how deeply flawed that idea is) and that we should all follow the teachings of Christ - peace, love, kindness and justice etc. What baffles me is these groups that claim they're the one true Christian sect, yet they eschew all of those values and attach themselves to the despotic, tyrannical, angry God of the Old Testament. If you don't believe in their version then you'll be tortured in Hell for eternity, how anyone can claim that that is following Jesus is beyond me. I'm not a theist, but I wouldn't presume to tell anyone who is that they're wrong - I just think that many of those groups have the most un-Christian values imaginable.
nozzer might. I recall some German lad I was talking to, he was explaining this to me on a visit over there years ago.
That sounds familiar to me. I seem to recall my German teacher way back in High School saying something of the sort. I also believe it was public record whether you chose to give money to church or not... Sort of to shame you into doing so. Things could have changed over the years though.
There's a Kirchensteuer/church tax, which is 8-9% of your income tax, so less than what a tithe would traditionally be (10% of income). I think it's also additional to, rather than instead of, normal income tax. It's paid if you're an official member of the Catholic or Protestant church. As a tax advisor, if someone asks you how they could save tax, you're legally obliged to mention leaving the church as an option.
Karl Marx said "Religion is the opium of the masses" some would argue those days are gone as religion plays very little part in Western culture nowadays, different in other cultures. Orwell was more accurate in his novel 1984, but it was the Blair government that allowed the explosion in gambling. It could be argued that with the internet it would have happened anyway as it is difficult to control the internet. please log in to view this image
Northern Europe religion is dying out. I think it's still very much alive in other parts of Western World, even if a shadow of what it once was. US now, feels about as religious as UK was 30 years ago, with the exception that those who believe in God are a lot more extreme about it. Latin America is very religious. Eastern Europe is still very religious. I think even places like Italy and Ireland majority still consider themselves religious. I guess part of it depends on where you draw the line around "western". Do you consider East Europe, Latin America, as western?
I think Creationists are still very influential in the US. You see people quite high up the political ladder trying to get evolution teaching taken out of schools. I think the far right would like to see the country turn back into a theocracy, though you'd know better than I as to how serious a threat that is. I agree with what you say about the rest of the world.
The thing about the US is that it attracted a lot of religious people to it's shores over the years. People who wanted to maintain their way of life and have the freedom to hold their, sometimes, pretty extreme views without interference from the state, from the Pilgrims (many of whom were extreme puritans) on. This seems have have stayed till the present day. Also, it's interesting to see how what you see today is very far removed from the Founding Fathers intended with separation of church and state. It's almost impossible to be President or a leading politician without being religious and frequently taking about your faith. All political speeches will include "God bless America" in their somewhere. In the UK, you almost never hear a politician talk about it and when they do confess to be deeply religious, are thought to be a bit weird because of it e.g Tim Barron
