Fear of Vengeful Gods

I ran across this article from a science journal.  They make an attempt to explain how it seemed to benefit the "evolution" of mankind when men believed there was a vengeful God who was watching them and willing to punish them.

Belief in an all-seeing punitive god motivates people to be more charitable towards strangers outside their own family and community, particularly to those of similar beliefs, researchers have found.

A study, published Wednesday in Nature, suggests religiosity may contribute to greater cooperation and collaboration despite geographic separation.

“People may trust in, cooperate with and interact fairly within wider social circles, partly because they believe that knowing gods will punish them if they do not,” the study’s authors wrote.

“Moreover, the social radius within which people are willing to engage in behaviors that benefit others at a cost to themselves may enlarge as gods’ powers to monitor and punish increase.”

To explore these ideas, researchers studied 591 people from eight diverse communities in Brazil, Mauritius, Siberia, Tanzania, Fiji and Vanuatu.

People in these communities adhere to a wide array of religions such as Christianity, Hinduism and Buddhism as well as local traditions such as animism and ancestor worship.

The participants played a game in which they were given the option to exercise financial favoritism towards themselves and their local community, or to be completely impartial by obeying the roll of a die, which could mean giving money to a distant person of the same religion.

In an accompanying commentary, Dominic D P Johnson from the University of Oxford pointed out the study did not explore whether the influence of an all-seeing powerful punisher on fairness would extend to individuals from different or no religious persuasion.

However, he said, the results offered “the most explicit evidence yet that belief in supernatural punishment has been instrumental in boosting cooperation in human societies."

Here;  http://news.discovery.com/history/religion/fear-of-vengeful-gods-may-have-helped-societies-expand-160211.htm

Funny!  Our Creator did tell us to love our neighbors as ourselves.  He did tell us to take care of the stranger.  He did tell us not to murder anyone, not to steal any one's spouse, not to lie, cheat or steal anything!

He also told us that He loved us so much that he was willing to send His Son to make atonement for us because He knew what a MISERABLE  job we would do keeping His commands!

And yes, He did warn us that if we rejected His Son, there would be NO OTHER WAY to enter eternal life and live with Him forever.

Thank you Jesus for saving a wretch like me!!