Religion and Torture

[mangxema]

Oh boy....

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The more often Americans go to church, the more likely they are to support the torture of suspected terrorists, according to a new survey.

More than half of people who attend services at least once a week -- 54 percent -- said the use of torture against suspected terrorists is "often" or "sometimes" justified. Only 42 percent of people who "seldom or never" go to services agreed, according the analysis released Wednesday by the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life.

White evangelical Protestants were the religious group most likely to say torture is often or sometimes justified -- more than six in 10 supported it. People unaffiliated with any religious organization were least likely to back it. Only four in 10 of them did.

The analysis is based on a Pew Research Center survey of 742 American adults conducted April 14-21. It did not include analysis of groups other than white evangelicals, white non-Hispanic Catholics, white mainline Protestants and the religiously unaffiliated, because the sample size was too small.

The president of the National Association of Evangelicals, Leith Anderson, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The survey asked: "Do you think the use of torture against suspected terrorists in order to gain important information can often be justified, sometimes be justified, rarely be justified, or never be justified?"

Roughly half of all respondents -- 49 percent -- said it is often or sometimes justified. A quarter said it never is.

The religious group most likely to say torture is never justified was Protestant denominations -- such as Episcopalians, Lutherans and Presbyterians -- categorized as "mainline" Protestants, in contrast to evangelicals. Just over three in 10 of them said torture is never justified. A quarter of the religiously unaffiliated said the same, compared with two in 10 white non-Hispanic Catholics and one in eight evangelicals.

Granted... it really only surveyed white people, but still, that is not what I wanted to see.

 

[PeteAtoms]

All I'm going to say is that correlation is not the same as causation.

 

[Cutlass]

All I'm going to say is that correlation is not the same causation.

No. But in this case the correlation tells a story all by itself.

 

[hossam]

All I'm going to say is that correlation is not the same causation.

yes, yes it is.

 

[mangxema]

No. But in this case the correlation tells a story all by itself.

Agreed. At the very least, anyone who says atheists can't possibly have a moral compass can go stuff it.

 

[kulade]

The evangelical movement as really always been just as much of a political movement as a religious one.

No surprise in any of this.

 

[Formaldehyde]

No surprise in any of this.

Not at all.

Life is sacred: Pro-life.

Life is not sacred: Capital punishment. War. Torture.

 

[Cutlass]

Not at all.

Life is sacred: Pro-life.

Life is not sacred: Capital punishment. War. Torture.

You may have missed the memo on what religious conservatives in the US actually believe.

 

[kulade]

Not at all.

Life is sacred: Pro-life.

Life is not sacred: Capital punishment. War. Torture.

I said it was political, not that it made sense.

 

[Smidlee]

The question does not seem to deal with what kind of torture. For example playing loud music is often an accepted form of torture even though I some doubts how effective playing AC/DC "Hell's bells" would be.

 

[Defiant47]

Take a statistics course and educate yourself. Correlation always implies causation.

 

[GenMarshall]

All I'm going to say is that correlation is not the same as causation.

I second this statement. I attend church and yet oppose torture. case closed.

Take a statistics course and educate yourself. Correlation always implies causation.

Wrong! Dead wrong!

 

[nonconformist]

I second this statement. I attend church and yet oppose torture. case closed.

Likewise, the plural of 'anecdote' is not 'data'

 

[GoodGame]

Take a statistics course and educate yourself. Correlation always implies causation.

The keyword is implies. Statistics can always be used to make logical inferences by correlation, but never proves causality just by a correlation. A true scientific experiment is needed to prove causality. In other words, you can say "I think there's something to that correlation", or "That correlation makes me suspicious that there's a link", but you can't point only at statistics and say that you've scientifically proven something without doing an actual experiment.

Main article: Correlation does not imply causation
The conventional dictum that "correlation does not imply causation" means that correlation cannot be validly used to infer a causal relationship between the variables. This dictum should not be taken to mean that correlations cannot indicate causal relations. However, the causes underlying the correlation, if any, may be indirect and unknown. Consequently, establishing a correlation between two variables is not a sufficient condition to establish a causal relationship (in either direction).

 

[GenMarshall]

Likewise, the plural of 'anecdote' is not 'data'

If you are paying attention, it is. Did you not see the polling results or are you discrediting the other 46% that attend church and oppose torture!?

FYI, I'm not a Protestant. What I dont want to see is baseless generalization on Christians in general (Unfortunately happens in OT ).

 

[GoodGame]

Actually anecdotes is the plural and anecdote. And data is actually the plural of datum.

(just being snotty).

 

[mangxema]

I second this statement. I attend church and yet oppose torture. case closed.

Wow. A sample size of one. How persuasive.

 

[Formaldehyde]

I said it was political, not that it made sense.

Hey. I'm agreeing with you.

 

[nonconformist]

If you are paying attention, it is.

No, it's not.

Unless you want to argue against the very nature of data

 

[Formaldehyde]

FYI, I'm not a Protestant. What I dont want to see is baseless generalization on Christians in general (Unfortunately happens in OT ).

According to the article, the non-fundamentalist Protestants did better than any of the other groups in the answer that really matters:

The religious group most likely to say torture is never justified was Protestant denominations -- such as Episcopalians, Lutherans and Presbyterians -- categorized as "mainline" Protestants, in contrast to evangelicals. Just over three in 10 of them said torture is never justified. A quarter of the religiously unaffiliated said the same, compared with two in 10 white non-Hispanic Catholics and one in eight evangelicals.

So yeah, 3 out of 10. Wow.