Study Raises Questions About Religion and Criminal Behavior

[Thumpalumpacus]

I'm not sure how that is different from white Christians.  Is the race important to your point?

It really isn't different from young white Christians either. I'm just making an observation about the black community speaking as a black male.

Fair enough, I just thought the extra detail odd, coming as I am from an old white fogey's PoV.  :)

[ApostateLois]

It's interesting that the fear of eternal damnation isn't a deterrent at all though. If they really believed, then wouldn't that make the opposite of this study true?

It's probably the same reason why capital punishment isn't much of a deterrent. NOBODY believes they will be the ones to end up on death row, so of course the threat doesn't mean anything to them. Christians might believe in hell, they might believe that other people are going there because of the sins they have committed, but rarely do they believe that THEY will go there for committing the same sins. What does it matter if a guy kills a family of four just to rob their liquor cabinet and steal ten bucks from the mom's purse? All he has to do apologize to Jesus and he'll be forgiven and be let into heaven when he dies. That's basically how Christianity is supposed to work. I am not at all surprised by that study's findings, and I'm betting that a larger study, involving many more prisons in different parts of the country over a longer period of time, will yield similar results.