There was an experiment where groups of children were given a task to do...

There was an experiment where groups of children were given a task to do, one group was simply given the task and left alone in a room to complete the task, the other was told there was an invisible woman in the room watching them, the third had a human stay in the room and watch them complete the task. The children that were simply left in the room to complete the task cheated the most obviously. The children told there was an invisible woman in the room had a level of cheating comparable to the room with the man watching the children complete the task(almost none). This was replicated in adults.

If religious beliefs result in cooperative and honest behavior, don't the benefits outweigh the costs? Does it really matter if a belief ins't supported by evidence as long as it has more utility than it's alternatives?

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I think there are many other costs associated with a religious society.

But I do think that humans tend to form spiritual or quasi-spiritual beliefs and it may be an important part of our psychology

>don't the benefits of being a cuck outweigh the costs

yes, op. go for it.

Children are lying little shits, do the experiment on adults.

The study was also performed on adults

>yfw you realize the majority of the population is only decent people because they truly and unironically believe they're being watched by the invisible sky father

The whole idea of telling people there's someone there even though there isn't reminds me of the panopticon. Cool stuff.

Have you not noticed what happens whenever a religious person begins to think they're favored by, related to, or are a god? Bunch of sociopaths desu

>They told a group of adults an invisible women was watching them

>en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hawthorne_effect

No. more like the belief that there is a supernatural entity observing your actions has an effect on adults, even atheists.

adult atheists were locked in a dark room one at a time, some were told the room is haunted and people died in the room, others told the room was perfectly normal. The atheists told the room
haunted experienced a heightened sense of fear compared to those not told this fact, despite being atheists.

WHIITED

*BLEACHED

That same train of logic would justify the government installing cameras all over the place including in your house. They would not be normally on but could be turned on at any time unbeknownst to you if you were under some sort of suspicion. The idea of constant possible surveillance would keep people in line for a little while. However, just like with god people would realize that the consequences of their actions are not immediate or real (cuz every individual cant be monitored all the time) so a lot would eventually go back to commiting minor crimes all the time.

Justice must be shown as being perpetually active and vigilant for people to act accordingly. Being monitored doesn't mean shit if there are no consequences. Look at regular classes in public school. The kids behave like animals because the worst the teacher can do is tell them to leave, it would be different if they got cut 5% points of their final grade every time they were sent to the principles office.

>cuz every individual cant be monitored all the time

uh, the cameras can send the feed to a database or something and people can look at it later after you've done the crime

that's how traffic light cameras work

realistically, they CAN monitor you for crimes 24/7

yeah but those files get deleted after a certain amount of time if there is no incident that requires a retrospective investigation. There is not enough space to store 24 hour footage of everywhere for all eternity. But you are right they could effectively have a recoding of you doing stuff.
But that doesnt mean you will be caught. If I steal office supplies or some shit and no one alerts security then the tapes will never be looked at.

>given a task to do
>cooperative and honest behavior
>cooperative and honest

Your experiment only measured subservience. You are equating compliance with two other completely unrelated qualities.

Also implying that blind obedience is a "benefit", or positive outcome. If you believe this to be true, then immediately kys for the good of mankind. Thank you in advance.

i think it's more the reverse, in that sociopaths are more likely to think they are god's favored.

I think morality isn't the issue.

I think that when people believe life is pointless they just stop doing anything that isn't hedonistic. I'd be more worried about a lackluster workforce than a crime wave.

>Also implying that blind obedience is a "benefit", or positive outcome. If you believe this to be true, then immediately kys for the good of mankind. Thank you in advance.
>implying everyone in society as a whole doesn't benefit greatly from most people being mostly subservient
>implying anything would work if everyone were shit flinging retards who don't take no shit from no one
You have to be 18 years old to post on this site.

>Evades the point altogether
>Falls for the strawman
>Classic ad hominem
Intellectually deficient beings should be culled immediately, for the benefit of society.
Kys would not suffice, I recommend your entire lineage be exterminated as well.

kek

sorry your whole worldview got btfo with a few lines of green text

I am truly sorry for your lots

>Argues that subservience as a whole is a benefit to society
>Doesn't refute that intellectually disabled beings such as himself should be culled for the benefit of society
>Refuses to kill himself
>"kek"
I can't even fathom existence with such a low level of cognition. The ignorant truly are blessed.
I sincerely hope you win the next Darwin Award. Sooner rather than later.

u mad

I'm kind of curious now, what do religious people, today and historically, say the point of life is?
With Christianity and I assume the other Abrahamic religions, it seems to be to lead a happy life, help others to do the same/be a good person in general, and qualify for entry to a good afterlife where you can live in eternal happiness after death by following the rules and guidelines laid out for you by the religion.

With the exception of the eternal part, isn't this not too different from the goals people tend to already have naturally? How does losing or not having faith make life pointless, then? Beyond it not being created with a purpose in mind, I suppose.

well yeah because hundreds of horror films and the basic human survival instinct that utter darkness is fuckin' scary are kinda hard coded in.

But if that were the sole factor, both groups should've experienced similar levels of fear, as the amount of cultural coding you get is the same whether or not you believe in the supernatural

read up on the stanford prison experiment and see if you still believe that

They're different from what i understand. In the Stanford prison experiment they weren't told they're being watched by something at all times, they also were given power over the prisoners. If there were two separate prisons and one was simply told they could treat the prisoners however they wanted and the other told their actions were being observed by supernatural means, and they both treated the prisoners the same then that would put into question the effect of belief about a supernatural agent observing your actions affecting behavior.