reply to post by sk0rpi0n
Evidently you are . . . unaware . . .
of the fairly extensive work on
EXTRINSIC VS INTRINSIC religiosity.
hirr.hartsem.edu...
Based on Gordon Allport's theoretical distinction between mature and immature religion (see Allport and Ross 1967), the construction of an
intrinsic-extrinsic scale to measure different religious orientations appeared to clarify the troubling finding that general measures of religion had
positively correlated with prejudice. Consistent with Allport's conceptualization of mature religion, it was found that only extrinsic religion, or
religion as a means, correlated with prejudice. Intrinsic religion, or religion as an end, characterized the unprejudiced and was compatible with
Allport's views of mature religion. The scale to measure religious orientation, initially conceived as a continuum from extrinsic to intrinsic,
quickly generated interest among empirical researchers. Numerous studies have been published that relate intrinsic and extrinsic religion to a variety
of individual difference variables such as coping styles, narcissism, guilt, fear of death, a wide variety of religious experiences, various cognitive
processes, and varieties of prejudice.
Basically, extrinsic religiosity is put on and taken off as a coat for utilitarian purposes.
It is NOT a heart-felt-OWNED way of life integrated into the whole being and all their behaviors and values. That would be INTRINSIC religion.
It was hypothesized long ago--BY A LOT OF ATHEIST AND AGNOSTIC liberal socialist researchers--40 years? I forget . . .
that the very religious people would be the most bigoted, prejudiced etc.
It turned out, they could NOT HAVE BEEN
MORE WRONG!
There arose also the terms of indiscrimminantly pro-religious and indiscrimminantly anti-religious.
It turned out that the indiscrimminantly pro-religious comprised--more or less equalled the EXTRINSICALLY RELIGIOUS.
And the indiscrimminantly anti-religious comprised the atheists, agnostics who were most vocal, evangelistic, loud about their hostility toward
religion. It is highly likely that a HUGE percentage of the hostile to religion folks on ATS would fall in that category. And many would likely be at
the extreme end of that scale.
So, if we think of the groups as:
INDISCRIMMINANTLY ANTI-RELIGIOUS . . . EXTRINSICALLY RELIGIOUS . . . INTRINSICALLY RELIGIOUS.
I wonder which you'd guess would be the
LEAST and which the MOST bigoted, prejudiced, abusive etc? I'll say at the end of
this post.
For the atheists hereon . . . here's 3 paragraphs about such from the
ATHEIST REVOLUTION:
www.atheistrev.com...
Simply put, an intrinsic (I) religious orientation is described as being more mature in that the believer views religion as an end into itself. That
is, the believer believes without clearly identifiable external motives for doing so. In contrast, an extrinsic (E) religious orientation is immature
and is more of a means to some other end. That is, belief is motivated external factors (e.g., social acceptance, advancement, etc.). E (but not I) is
correlated with prejudice.
Modern I-E scales are set up so that I and E are thought of as separate constructs where individuals score along two separate dimensions (i.e., low E
to high E and low I to high I). Research has identified many negative correlates of high E (e.g., narcissism, guilt, fear of death, aggression,
etc.).
Current work in the psychology of religion is characterized by the assumption that measuring religiosity as a unitary construct produces misleading
results. Instead, the field has been influenced by the separation of religiosity into E and I orientations. The practical implication is that most of
what we think of as the negative correlates of religious belief have been supported for extrinsic religiosity but not intrinsic religiosity. It is
also noteworthy that extrinsic religiosity is much more highly correlated with measures of religious fundamentalism than is intrinsic religiosity.
Here's the Wiki article on the Psychology of Religion
en.wikipedia.org...
Here's an interesting article on INTRINSIC VS EXTRENSIC AND DEPRESSION:
www.questia.com...
RELIGION, INTRINSIC-EXTRINSIC ORIENTATION, AND
DEPRESSION
Vicky Genia Dale G. Shaw The American University University of Northern Colorado
running out of characters. Continued in next post.
Oh, The indiscrimminantly anti-religious
ARE BY FAR THE
!MOST! prejudiced, bigoted, abusive!
By a wide margin the INTRINSICally religioius are the LEAST bigoted, ....
