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Are believers less likely to sin?

Are believers less likely to sin?

  • Yes

    Votes: 7 24.1%
  • No

    Votes: 22 75.9%

  • Total voters
    29

an anarchist

Your local anarchist.
In another thread, someone shared their opinion to me.

A "believer" is less likely to r*** / assault his wife was the opinion.

Tell me your opinion. In general, is a believer less likely to "sin" or act immorally?
 

idea

Question Everything
In another thread, someone shared their opinion to me.

A "believer" is less likely to r*** / assault his wife was the opinion.

Tell me your opinion. In general, is a believer less likely to "sin" or act immorally?

Elephant in the room.

Don't eat that cookie, don't think about the cookie, don't look at it, confess if you touched it

Vs.

It's no big deal, just don't make a pig of yourself...

Which of the above obsesses?
 

lewisnotmiller

Grand Hat
Staff member
Premium Member
In another thread, someone shared their opinion to me.

A "believer" is less likely to r*** / assault his wife was the opinion.

Tell me your opinion. In general, is a believer less likely to "sin" or act immorally?

Nope. People are people.

Now, what they see as a sin...or even a 'sin'...is going to differ, and that might impact.
You'll also run into some level of No True Scotsmen fallacy, I'll guarantee it.
 

Exaltist Ethan

Bridging the Gap Between Believers and Skeptics
I consider myself a believer of my own faith.

Am I less likely to sin? I assume you are referring to not sinning due to my religious faith.

I must be honest I haven't thought too much about ethics in my faith. There's a huge degree of theology imbedded in my ideas but my beliefs are focused on pantheism and not focused on a personal God who somehow cares about what I've done. And the term sin implies that I believe in a God who believes I can sin, which isn't implied in my faith.

In fact, when I was researching religion as a young kid I somewhat adopted the ethics of Confucianism and never really had a problem with drugs or alcohol. A few times I did rebel against my parents but I have learned to respect them. Filial piety. Of course, I don't really believe that Confucius was the one to set me straight, but I've learned that the more I get along with my parents the better my life is.

This question is not about me however, it's about all believers. My knee-jerk reaction is to say no. That atheists, agnostics, humanists are in equal footing of morality as the Christian, Muslim or Jew. The thing is, the before group doesn't even believe in sin either. So answering this question doesn't really make sense from their perception at all, in fact, it would be easier to just ask me, "Are believers less likely to do bad things?"

Which I think what's important on what is right from wrong is more important if they have certain conditions. For example, if one has had generosity given to them, they will more likely be generous themselves. For example, growing up I had my parents cable/satellite. Now I share my YouTube TV with my parents. If someone treats you with respect, you are more likely going to treat other people with respect. I am not saying that I believe in some cosmic karma, but at the same time I know everything is somewhat connected to each other.

So, if we were to apply my idea that like attracts like, dislike attracts dislike, are believers less likely to sin as a result of this?

I think I actually want to say yes to this. This is because they recognize a God that observes the sin. If they are able to understand what a sin is in their faith, even if by modern standards they've done nothing wrong - I think they are less likely to do it, especially if their religion isn't Christianity and they don't have to simply believe in Christ to go to Heaven.

TLDR Version:
Are believers less likely to sin? Yes. Are believers less likely to be bad people? No. There is already enough social conditioning and reinforcement, like "canceling" people that already does this.
 

Truth in love

Well-Known Member
In another thread, someone shared their opinion to me.

A "believer" is less likely to r*** / assault his wife was the opinion.

Tell me your opinion. In general, is a believer less likely to "sin" or act immorally?

Yes, while far from being sinless a believer is going to be making an effort to avoid a lot of sin that a non believer is going to be normalizing.
E.g. Muslims don’t do a lot of drinking.
 

PureX

Veteran Member
It depends on what one "believes", of course. But in the end one's "belief" doesn't matter much. It won't really stop anyone from "sinning" because "sin" is in the desire, not the act. Wanting to cheat on your wife is a sin whether you cheat on your wife or not. And what you "believe" about it doesn't change that fact, or stop that sinful desire.
 

Kenny

Face to face with my Father
Premium Member
In another thread, someone shared their opinion to me.

A "believer" is less likely to r*** / assault his wife was the opinion.

Tell me your opinion. In general, is a believer less likely to "sin" or act immorally?
From my personal experience, it isn't that we don't sin but I certainly have exponentially reduced it :D Assuming I am normal and eliminating the outlying anomalies, probably "yes". (No statistical support for my viewpoint other than "me")
 

Sand Dancer

Crazy Cat Lady
Yes, while far from being sinless a believer is going to be making an effort to avoid a lot of sin that a non believer is going to be normalizing.
E.g. Muslims don’t do a lot of drinking.

I appreciate that the LDS faith sees certain behaviors at unhealthy, as opposed to immoral. They may be the latter but the former is way more useful and motivating, IMO.
 

Left Coast

This Is Water
Staff member
Premium Member
In another thread, someone shared their opinion to me.

A "believer" is less likely to r*** / assault his wife was the opinion.

Tell me your opinion. In general, is a believer less likely to "sin" or act immorally?

It depends what one considers a sin or who "believers" are. In a church where drinking is considered a sin, yeah those people are probably less likely to drink.

If we're talking about immoral acts that are widely agreed by society to be immoral (rape, murder, etc.) then no, believers are no less likely to commit them than nonbelievers. As I recall someone actually pulled the stats on that in a similar thread a while back.
 

Altfish

Veteran Member
In another thread, someone shared their opinion to me.

A "believer" is less likely to r*** / assault his wife was the opinion.

Tell me your opinion. In general, is a believer less likely to "sin" or act immorally?
Definitely not because they believe they can sin and then 'repent' and be absolved of their misdemeanors. Whereas non-believers have their wrongdoing on their conscience.
 
Last edited:

lewisnotmiller

Grand Hat
Staff member
Premium Member
I consider myself a believer of my own faith.

Am I less likely to sin? I assume you are referring to not sinning due to my religious faith.

I must be honest I haven't thought too much about ethics in my faith. There's a huge degree of theology imbedded in my ideas but my beliefs are focused on pantheism and not focused on a personal God who somehow cares about what I've done. And the term sin implies that I believe in a God who believes I can sin, which isn't implied in my faith.

In fact, when I was researching religion as a young kid I somewhat adopted the ethics of Confucianism and never really had a problem with drugs or alcohol. A few times I did rebel against my parents but I have learned to respect them. Filial piety. Of course, I don't really believe that Confucius was the one to set me straight, but I've learned that the more I get along with my parents the better my life is.

This question is not about me however, it's about all believers. My knee-jerk reaction is to say no. That atheists, agnostics, humanists are in equal footing of morality as the Christian, Muslim or Jew. The thing is, the before group doesn't even believe in sin either. So answering this question doesn't really make sense from their perception at all, in fact, it would be easier to just ask me, "Are believers less likely to do bad things?"

Which I think what's important on what is right from wrong is more important if they have certain conditions. For example, if one has had generosity given to them, they will more likely be generous themselves. For example, growing up I had my parents cable/satellite. Now I share my YouTube TV with my parents. If someone treats you with respect, you are more likely going to treat other people with respect. I am not saying that I believe in some cosmic karma, but at the same time I know everything is somewhat connected to each other.

So, if we were to apply my idea that like attracts like, dislike attracts dislike, are believers less likely to sin as a result of this?

I think I actually want to say yes to this. This is because they recognize a God that observes the sin. If they are able to understand what a sin is in their faith, even if by modern standards they've done nothing wrong - I think they are less likely to do it, especially if their religion isn't Christianity and they don't have to simply believe in Christ to go to Heaven.

TLDR Version:
Are believers less likely to sin? Yes. Are believers less likely to be bad people? No. There is already enough social conditioning and reinforcement, like "canceling" people that already does this.

I found that a pretty thoughtful post.
It wasn't TLDR at all. Kudos.
 

lewisnotmiller

Grand Hat
Staff member
Premium Member
From my personal experience, it isn't that we don't sin but I certainly have exponentially reduced it :D Assuming I am normal and eliminating the outlying anomalies, probably "yes". (No statistical support for my viewpoint other than "me")

I get that it made a difference for you, and I definitely think on an individual level it can be very impactful (for better and worse, but this thread is really just about the 'better' part).

I think it might also impact on what is considered negative behaviour.
I'm fine with working on the Sabbath, but some religions would see that as a transgression. I had sex outside of marriage too.

But looking at those two things in another light...
I work hard, provide for my family, etc.
I have only ever slept with one woman.

Some religions would see those as admirable or noteworthy qualities.

So I think it gets hard to give a simple answer to whether religious people sin more. I suspect they sin less by the tenets of their own faith, but I'm not sure if that is meaningful, and I'd definitely push back on that making them 'better people'.

(Which I know wasn't your point, I'm just freelancing here...lol)
 

Kenny

Face to face with my Father
Premium Member
I get that it made a difference for you, and I definitely think on an individual level it can be very impactful (for better and worse, but this thread is really just about the 'better' part).

I think it might also impact on what is considered negative behaviour.
I'm fine with working on the Sabbath, but some religions would see that as a transgression. I had sex outside of marriage too.

That is a good point... what may be a sin for one may not be a sin for another. I wasn't exactly thinking along those lines.

But looking at those two things in another light...
I work hard, provide for my family, etc.
I have only ever slept with one woman.

Some religions would see those as admirable or noteworthy qualities.

Those are very admirable qualities. That's why I said removing outliers.

I was just thinking of myself. The things that I did before as a non-believer and the things I stopped doing as a believe.

:) As I said, no empirical evidence

So I think it gets hard to give a simple answer to whether religious people sin more. I suspect they sin less by the tenets of their own faith, but I'm not sure if that is meaningful, and I'd definitely push back on that making them 'better people'.

Amen brother! :)
 

9-10ths_Penguin

1/10 Subway Stalinist
Premium Member
In another thread, someone shared their opinion to me.

A "believer" is less likely to r*** / assault his wife was the opinion.

Tell me your opinion. In general, is a believer less likely to "sin" or act immorally?
No.

And on the issue of intimate partner violence, I'd say that believers are less likely to recognize what they're doing as wrong.

Abusers may employ religious texts and values to harm the survivor. This can be done by selectively quoting religious texts or interpreting religious values as a means to assert male entitlement and privilege or otherwise provide justification for the abuse. Often, this dynamic manifests as an abuser telling the survivor that they are not living up to the ideals of what a partner should look like according to their religion [1]. Abusers belonging to faiths that emphasize marriage may manipulate the esteem for a religious union to pressure the victim into staying in the relationship in order to preserve the respect of the religious community. An abuser may also use teachings about dating, sexual relationships, gender roles, or reproductive choices to pressure an individual into not seeking help. If the abuser is a religious leader or has a position of respect within the faith community, the survivor may feel additional pressure to remain silent.
Domestic Violence and Faith - NNEDV
 
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