Are religious people selfish?

[Thumpalumpacus]

I do not know how many atheist do this and would be interested to know how many here do but, visiting people in nursing homes mean so mush to them, people would be amazed.

I don't have much money, so I donate time instead. But yeah.

[Mr Greene]

In my experience it isn't so much that religious people tend to be selfish more frequently than non-religious people, however it appears that when a selfish person is religious it acts as a magnifier as they more self-absorbed than others. Which I hypothesize is due to a lack of negative feedback.

[Edwardo Piet]

Yes religious people are selfish.

But so are non-religious people

[Astonished]

Let me ask this:

You are given the chance to rid the world of children dying of treatable diseases because of their parents' beliefs about prayer.
You are given the chance also to end the practice of circumcising young boys and the clitoral infibulation of young girls, both of which are done without the consent of these children.
In addition you are given the chance to spare millions if not billions of children the wrenching guilt and fear of hell that comes with childhood indoctrination.
Naturally the chance to bankrupt those who fleece the gullible on television and in other media and such outlets for making false promises comes along.
The chance to end segregation based on which version of a fairy tale someone believes in that is the primary if not sole source of discord in nations round the world.
The chance to make birth control so ubiquitous not a single unwanted pregnancy ever occurs because not only will young people be taught not to be frightened of sex but also how to be responsible with it and take these lessons with them into adulthood, thus reducing instances of abortion to virtually nil.
The chance to liberate women who would otherwise continue to tolerate abusive relationships because they've been taught to be submissive to the men in their household because the man has an innate superiority due to a divine coin flip.

If you were asked to give up your religion if it meant all of that could be accomplished, would you? I mean, forget whether or not it's feasible (sure as hell isn't as long as religion is around), but if you had the power to do all that good by erasing religion from the planet with the push of a button, would you? And remember that there is zero good that a religion has a monopoly on, there is nothing a religion can do that is good that a secular humanist cannot do, in many cases better because it will not contain any religious caveats.

To say 'no' to this seems to me to be the height of selfishness. Literally the most selfish thing conceivable. I defy anyone to come up with anything more selfish.

[ComradeMeow]

I cannot say that the religious are more selfish. As a former Muslim the worldview was that man was just a slave of Allah and not worthy of anything. It heavily denigrates the role of man to be akin to disposable trash. You can't take Christian theology and lump it with all religion since Christianity and its various flavors drastically differ in approach. I can't fathom a selfish Muslim on the basis of his religion nor can I fathom historical Muslims as being uninterested in the world considering their contribution of creating Algebra as we know it along with modern astronomy.

[robvalue]

I think religion generally represents selfishness. It usually states, under all the bullshit, that your fate is determined by your actions during this life. It's a means to an end. It may be that the things you're expected to do are sometimes good and "unselfish" things, but the motivation is still selfish. However, in reality, the religion is just a mirror for how the person thinks they should act anyway, with any inconvenient parts of the dogma edited out. (Assuming they are in a free-ish country.)

Of course, all behavior can be analysed and reduced to being ultimately selfish anyway. We act the way we do because the outcomes are what we think they should be, in some way or another.

Generally I'd say that if you gave me one random religious person and one non-religious, I wouldn't make any assumptions about who is more selfish.

[Mr Greene]

 I can't fathom a selfish Muslim on the basis of his religion nor can I fathom historical Muslims as being uninterested in the world considering their contribution of creating Algebra as we know it along with modern astronomy.

Algebra has roots going back to Babylonians with strong influences of the Greeks; eg.  Diophantus.

[Astonished]

I cannot say that the religious are more selfish. As a former Muslim the worldview was that man was just a slave of Allah and not worthy of anything. It heavily denigrates the role of man to be akin to disposable trash. You can't take Christian theology and lump it with all religion since Christianity and its various flavors drastically differ in approach. I can't fathom a selfish Muslim on the basis of his religion nor can I fathom historical Muslims as being uninterested in the world considering their contribution of creating Algebra as we know it along with modern astronomy.

When the statement that the ones who becomes terrorists "love death more than we love life" loses its credibility, maybe. I do recognize there is a lot about charity in it but I would prefer someone helping because it's the right thing to do and not because some cosmic bully demands it.

[brewer]

Yes. They are all barnacles.

[WinterHold]

Believe me; some of them care.
Believe me more; most are humans just like me and you.

Forget about religion and look at humans: the word "human" itself means selfishness. We have one mouth; after all.
Each have a single heart, single stomach,

Actually our bodies are so selfish! there is no "natural wireless food"; like in "the food WI-FI: one food; many mouths; too much satisfaction".

Short answer: do whatever you can do; but seeking a meal "entering that one mouth; to get digested in that one stomach; to be distributed over that one body" is such a selfish human trait.

But in so many cases, it is only religion that makes the one-mouthed human take the bite of food from their mouth; to give a hungry child.

But EW; dry the bite. It's better if it wasn't chewed !