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Heaven & Crime

Lewis

Member
Study Finds People Who Believe In Heaven Commit More Crimes

SEATTLE (CBS Seattle) — Believing if you are on a “highway to hell†could impact whether or not if you commit a crime.
A study published in the scientific journal PLoS One by University of Oregon’s Azim Shariff and University of Kansas’s Mijke Rhemtulla finds that people who believe in hell are less likely to commit a crime while people who believe in heaven more likely are to get in trouble with the law.
The two professors collected data for belief in hell, heaven and God from the World and European Values Surveys that were conducted between 1981 until 2007 with 143,197 participants based in 67 countries. They compared the data to the mean standardized crime rate in those countries based on homicides, robberies, rapes, kidnappings, assaults, thefts, auto thefts, drug crimes, burglaries and human trafficking.
“[R]ates of belief in heaven and hell had significant, unique, and opposing effects on crime rates,†Shariff and Rhemtulla found in the study. “Belief in hell predicted lower crime rates … whereas belief in heaven predicted higher crime rates.â€
They also found that a recent social psychological experiment found that Christian participants who believe in a forgiving God gave themselves more money for the study.
“Participants in the punishing God and both human conditions overpaid themselves less than 50 cents more than what they deserved for their anagrams, and did not statistically differ from the neutral condition, those who wrote about a forgiving God overpaid themselves significantly more-nearly two dollars,†the study found.
Shariff and Rhemtulla believe that the study raises “important questions about the potential impact of religious beliefs on global crime.â€
http://seattle.cbslocal.com/2012/06...ious/gqlf+(Christian+Headlines+Top+Headlines)
 
If it came out of Seattle, I wouldn't trust a word of it personally. Seattle has the highest rate of "Mental Illness" in the country... it also has the highest concentration of therapists and psychiatrists. I think they blame it on the rain :shocked!

Put it this way, I view my step mom as having some very liberal views yet she says that she is considered very conservative and that pretty much goes with geographical lines. Anything west of the mountains and your liberal, anything east of the mountain and your conservative.
 
Study Finds People Who Believe In Heaven Commit More Crimes

SEATTLE (CBS Seattle) — Believing if you are on a “highway to hell†could impact whether or not if you commit a crime.
A study published in the scientific journal PLoS One by University of Oregon’s Azim Shariff and University of Kansas’s Mijke Rhemtulla finds that people who believe in hell are less likely to commit a crime while people who believe in heaven more likely are to get in trouble with the law.

Well, as the same people who believe in hell believe in heaven, and vice versa, i think the poll is pretty much flawed;)
 
Well, as the same people who believe in hell believe in heaven, and vice versa, i think the poll is pretty much flawed;)

Yeah, I was thinking that myself... I know some who believe in heave that deny hell... but I don't know of any who believe in hell who deny there's a heaven.
 
Yeah, I was thinking that myself... I know some who believe in heave that deny hell... but I don't know of any who believe in hell who deny there's a heaven.

People who deny hell are just trying to air condition it before they move in.
Good luck with that:thumbsup
 
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Basically from what I gather the idea of the study was that if a person felt they were slated to go to hell, that they'd be less likely to do bad crimes (so that hell would not be made hotter for them I suppose). I can believe that, and the doctrine of being forever alive and at the same time burned in a conscious torment of hell forever and ever was one way this was used to control the masses, biblical truth aside. "Conversion" was out of fear of this supposed place and "faith" in Christ was really a form of fire insurance instead of loving the Lord.
 
If it came out of Seattle, I wouldn't trust a word of it personally. Seattle has the highest rate of "Mental Illness" in the country... it also has the highest concentration of therapists and psychiatrists. I think they blame it on the rain :shocked!

Put it this way, I view my step mom as having some very liberal views yet she says that she is considered very conservative and that pretty much goes with geographical lines. Anything west of the mountains and your liberal, anything east of the mountain and your conservative.

It didn't come out of Seattle. It was simply reported by the Seattle branch office for some reason. The study was from universities in Oregon and Kansas. The Governor of Kansas, along with every member of both the senate and house delegation from Kansas are Republicans. For Oregon, it's about the reverse, with all but one being Democrats. So assuming there were some politics involved (which there isn't and we both know it), this could be said to be bipartisan.
 
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