"Does Secularism Make People More Ethical?"

Here is an article in Der Spiegel International that may resonate with some here: Going Godless: Does Secularism Make People More Ethical?

Non-believers are often more educated, more tolerant and know more about God than the pious. A new wave of research is trying to figure out what goes on in the minds of an ever-growing group of people known as the "Nones".

The most surprising insight revealed by the new wave of secular research so far is that atheists know more about the God they don't believe in than the believers themselves. This is the conclusion suggested by a 2010 Pew Research Center survey of US citizens. Even when the higher education levels of the unreligious were factored out, they proved to be better informed in matters of faith, followed by Jewish and Mormon believers. 

Two Different Thinking Styles

Boston University's Catherine Caldwell-Harris is researching the differences between the secular and religious minds. "Humans have two cognitive styles," the psychologist says. "One type finds deeper meaning in everything; even bad weather can be framed as fate. The other type is neurologically predisposed to be skeptical, and they don't put much weight in beliefs and agency detection."

Caldwell-Harris is currently testing her hypothesis through simple experiments. Test subjects watch a film in which triangles move about. One group experiences the film as a humanized drama, in which the larger triangles are attacking the smaller ones. The other group describes the scene mechanically, simply stating the manner in which the geometric shapes are moving. Those who do not anthropomorphize the triangles, she suspects, are unlikely to ascribe much importance to beliefs. "There have always been two cognitive comfort zones," she says, "but skeptics used to keep quiet in order to stay out of trouble."

Only a small portion of secularists are as radical as the "strong atheists" championed by British evolutionary biologist and author Richard Dawkins. The majority are more likely to be indifferent to religion or mildly agnostic, according to Kosmin's analysis. There are also secular humanists, free thinkers and many other factions. "One problem of atheism research is that we simply can't agree on a unified terminology," notes Kosmin. "Every researcher thinks he is Linnaeus and invents his own labels."

Then he tells of a meeting of secular groups last year in Washington. They were planning a big demonstration. "But they couldn't even agree on a motto," he says. "It was like herding cats, straight out of a Monty Python sketch." In the end, the march was called off.

While this was not associated with the above site, this may also interest some here:  Going Godless: Rediscovering Spirituality in the Material World

A Musical Treat For Those Of You Longing For The Good Old Days

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More on Denis Rohan and the Al-Asqa Mosque Fire

 

Here is some more info on Denis Rohan, the Worldwide Church of God member who burned down the Al-Aqsa Mosque.  HWA's backpedaling is typical of the Church in the way it spin doctors every tragedy that brings in the Church.  We saw that in action a few years ago when a member of Rod Meredith's cult went on a shooting spree killing several members.  LCG wiped many of their sermons off their main web page that had had a negative impact on the shooter.  We saw it in action when Gerald Flurry was arrested for public drunkenness, driving while in intoxicated and for attempting to bribe a Peace Officer.

From Creation Concepts

One of the two million subscribers to The Plain Truth Magazine was Denis Michael Rohan, an Australian sheep shearer. Rohan had also studied the Bible Correspondence Course that was offered by Armstrong and his World Tomorrow Radio program. After reading the editorial written by Armstrong in the June 1967 issue of The Plain Truth, Rohan believed he received some divine instructions. His idea, he thought, would hasten the coming of the Messiah.

On August 21, 1969, Rohan attempted to set fire to the Al-Aqsa mosque, on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem. The fire caused extensive damage, gutting the southeastern wing of the mosque. It destroyed a 1,000 year old wood and ivory minbar or pulpit, a gift of Saladin. Rohan was arrested for the arson attack on August 23, 1969.

Damage to the Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem after the fire on 21st of August 1969

On September 26, 1969, in a letter to his Coworkers and members of the Radio Church of God which supported The World Tomorrow program, Armstrong distanced himself from Rohan. Armstrong wrote: [5]

Every effort, it seems, is being made to link us with it in a way to discredit the Work of God. The man, Rohan being held as the arsonist, the dispatches say, claims to be identified with us. This claim is TOTALLY FALSE. The first any of us at Pasadena ever heard of this man was when the press dispatches began coming over the Teletypes in our News Bureau. Checkups revealed that this man had sent in for and received a number of our Correspondence Course lessons. Last December he had sent in a subscription to The PLAIN TRUTH. But any claim to any further connection or association with us is an absolute lie.

Two million others subscribe to The PLAIN TRUTH. 100,000 others subscribe to the Correspondence Course lessons. These are sent to any and everybody who requests them, FREE. But such subscriptions do not connect us with such subscribers or any act any one of them might commit, any more than a subscription to the New York TIMES makes that newspaper responsible for any acts committed by its subscribers.

On January 5, 1968, the Radio Church of God was renamed the Worldwide Church of God.

Years later, Bob Gerringer observed, “Soon after Rohan’s attempted Mosque burning Mr. HWA began saying that neither he nor anyone else in the WCG had ever proclaimed that a literal temple had to be built in Jerusalem.” [6]

Such statements by Herbert W. Armstrong can be understood only in the light of the church’s name change. Presumably, he viewed his statements made in the name of the Radio Church of God as not affecting the Worldwide Church of God.

Rohan was tried in an Israeli court, found to be insane, and hospitalized in a mental institution. On 14 May 1974, he was deported from Israel “on humanitarian grounds, for further psychiatric treatment near his family”. He was subsequently transferred to the Callan Park Hospital in Australia. He died in 1995.
Herbert W. Armstrong is remembered for his many failed predictions. [7]