The Deceptiveness of Sin — Deeper Than You Thought

Simon M. Lahama, Adam L. Alterb, and Geoffrey P. Goodwinc report a surprising result in “Easy on the mind, easy on the wrongdoer: Discrepantly fluent violations are deemed less morally wrong” Cognition, Volume 112, Issue 3, September 2009, pages 462–466.

From the paper:

Participants completed a questionnaire in which they read six vignettes describing various moral violations: ‘Punch’ (one man punches another in a bar), ‘Flag’ (teacher burns Australian flag in class), ‘Dog’ (family eats its dead dog), ‘Deface’ (man defaces a memorial), ‘Hitler’ (man taunts Jewish sports fans with Hitler imitation), ‘Kiss’ (brother and sister kiss passionately).

Each of the participants read three of the stories in an easy-to-read format and the other three in a harder-to-read format.

In the words of the authors:

…discrepant perceptual fluency decreased perceptions of wrongness compared to discrepant disfluency. Further, and consistent with effects of discrepant fluency on truth judgments (Hansen et al., 2008), it seems that this difference is accounted for by fluent processing decreasing, rather than disfluent processing increasing, perceptions of wrongness.

In normal English: people thought that immoral choices were less serious when they were easy to read about. In theological terms, they excused sin because of how good it looked (or more precisely based upon how easy it was to understand). Apparently cleanliness is next to godliness (or at least legibility is next to living right).

So the next time you have something to confess, be sure to print it on nice paper and use a laser printer. It just might give you the edge you need.

The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it? (Jer 17:9)

The American Religious Impulse

I just read the most amazing article by a Yale prof explaining the religious impulse in American history.

If you have any interest at all in politics, international relations, anti-Americanism, or the role of religion in public life you really ought to give this article a read: Americanism–And Its Enemies by David Gelernter (that’s his faculty bio page, there’s a much more interesting profile here). If you want to have your mind blown wide-open, read Amazon’s summary of his survival of an attack from the Unabomber.

Also, we have new photos in the gallery.

Religion By Major

Check out the results (or see some detailed data) of a national survey of 3,680 students by UCLA’s Higher Education Research Institute [which] found that religious commitment runs strongest among fine arts, education and humanities majors and lowest among biology, history and sociology majors.

I found one excerpt fascinating:

Still, Astin said it is premature to label all scientists or computer whizzes as spiritually hollow. Most of these academic disciplines simply don’t prompt or promote spiritual reflection, he said.

Implicit in there is the notion that students who don’t exhibit signs of “spiritual distress” can be supposed to be “spiritually hollow”. Interesting. I wonder how much of that is Astin’s real perspectve and how much of that is the byproduct of the interviewer’s line of questioning.

Also of note: Students who party frequently are more likely to stop attending religious services, and “spiritually committed” students generally earn higher grades.

Students who score high on measures of spiritual commitment generally are healthier, happier and more involved in community service.

Thanks to World Magazine blog for unearthing this link!

Religion and Economic Growth Linked

Here’s an interesting story from the New York Times: Research Around the World Links Religion to Economic Development.

Intriguing excerpts:

…

Some of the lowest levels of religiosity were found in China and North Korea. The lowest levels of economic growth were in sub-Saharan African countries. The former East Germany (which includes Weber’s birthplace) was one of the lowest in both religiosity and growth.

Flannery O’Connor on writing Christian fiction

Take heed, all you budding novelists – Flannery O’Connor has shown the way! Read all about it in O’Connor v. the Antichrist.

A few quotes from O’Connor taken from the essay:

“If you live today you breathe in nihilism. In or out of the Church, it’s the gas you breathe. If I hadn’t had the Church to fight it with or to tell me the necessity of fighting it, I would be the stinkingest logical positivist you ever saw right now.”

In her most famous statement about her work, she explained that “to the hard of hearing you shout, and for the almost-blind you draw large and startling figures.”

“All my stories,” she wrote, “are about the action of grace on a character who is not very willing to support it.”

O’Connor once wrote that “more than ever now it seems that the kingdom of heaven has to be taken by violence, or not at all. You have to push as hard as the age that pushes against you.”

Check out the essay (or at least check out some of O’Connor’s books).

Christian Professors Help Out In Afghanistan

Rebuilding Afghanistan U is a fascinating story of how well-educated Christians can make a difference.

It talks about how the International Institute for Christian Studies sent professors to Afghanistan after the war against the Taliban to rebuild their higher-education infrastructure.

The group is very picky about its candidates’ credentials (a graduate degree is a must), experience, and Christian witness. Only one of 10 applicants gets accepted. When Communist countries ask CEO Daryl McCarthy for teachers, he says something like this:

“You want experienced, hard-working, ethical professionals? We’ll get them for you. In fact, IICS is so particular that we make sure that every one of them is a Christian.” Says McCarthy: “It’s fun to hear the foreign officials say, ‘Ah, yes, very good. That’s what we need.’ “

The article is fascinating and well worth a read.

Dick Staub Interviews Mary Poplin

I just ran across a transcript of an interview with Mary Poplin.

Dr. Poplin is the Dean of the School of Educational Studies at Claremont Graduate University and she’s currently writing a book (title unknown) about integrating faith and academia. (see her faculty bio page)

You should really read the interview on Dick Staub’s website, but I’ve excerpted the most fascinating bits…
Read the rest of this entry »

Jesus, Ethics, and Us

these are notes from a class presentation I gave in Ron Howard’s class The Ethical Analyst about ethics in Christian perspective

The Hidden Danger of Ethics Classes
There is a great but hidden danger in classes such as this. By spending hours debating moral issues we too often train ourselves for rationalization instead of righteousness. There is no point in trying to understand good unless we also seek to be good!

Why Should We Care What Christianity Says?

Read the rest of this entry »

John W Templeton Student Internship

Student Internship
John Templeton Foundation
Radnor, PA

The John Templeton Foundation and its new Division, Templeton Venture Philanthropy Associates, is seeking a student intern for the summer of 2003.

The Foundation awards grants around the globe for projects that involve science and religion, spirituality and well-being, character development in youth, and free enterprise. A flavor of some of this work is on . Suitably qualified students might assist in a range of research-related tasks that might include searches of the WWW, statistical analyses, project design and day-to-day management, survey administration, and econometric modeling. Interns work a minimum of 10 hours per week to a maximum of 40 hours. Compensation will be determined based on background and whether academic credit is being sought.

Interested students should send a brief resume highlighting skills and work experience and a short cover letter in Word format to Marta Oliver at moliver@templeton.org. Questions may also be directed to this e-mail address. Please do not call the Foundation.

Jesus — A Level 5 Leader

If you’ve never read anything by Jim Collins, he’s a former prof at Stanford who’s hit it big (huge would be a more accurate term) in the world of business writing. His two books Built to Last and Good to Great are devoured by business leaders hungry for an edge.

In the latter book, Collins talks about the cruciality of level 5 leadership. Level 5 leaders combine humility and strength in a surprisingly potent package. I found this excerpt from an interview with him fascinating:

I have absolutely no religious background at all, which gives me more confidence in the findings. If I had come from a strong religious background, I’d be more suspicious. After the book came out, I kept hearing people say to me, “There was this ultimate Level 5 leader who lived 2,000 years ago. The things he talked about in the Gospel have great compatibility with what you say.” Of course I had heard about Jesus, but as a result of finding out about Level 5, I was inspired to begin reading the New Testament to see for myself. read the whole interview