Necessary Roughness

ABC News reports that the University of Michigan’s psychology department is hosting a research effort to determine if people are more likely to commit aggression if religion says it’s ok.

The study compares two different universities, one in Holland where “27 percent believe in the Bible,” and Brigham Young University, where “99 percent said they believe in God and the Bible.” Here lies the first foul, because Mormons and non-Mormons agree that basic Mormon doctrine does not limit itself to the Biblical canon. The University of Notre Dame, Bob Jones University, or Liberty University might have been better test cases — maybe even Valparaiso University.

It would have been more interesting to see Jewish, Muslim, Confucian, or Hindu results too. As I recall Christians or their sectarians aren’t the only violent people in the world.

The test of aggressiveness reminds me of the Simpsons episode where the family is hauled into counseling and encouraged to push buttons and shock each other, only this time it’s done with sound and not electricity. That might have made for some AFV video.

The actual results are actually less controversial than the slap at Christianity: if one believes that God said that it’s permissible to commit violence, one is likely to be more aggressive. Of course, if you believe in a higher power with superior morals and unsearchable judgments, you’re going to defer to said supernatural being’s judgment. Your tax dollars at work, Michigan.

The principle involved is an important reminder of why people need to bone up on their catechesis and Bible study. Sure, our ordained ministers are trained in Greek, Hebrew, and sometimes Latin, but unless we ourselves are trained to take whole passages in context and use scripture to interpret scripture, we can be fooled into anything.