Majority supports torture, religion increases support
As we ponder the spectacle of America legaizing torture, some wonder why the religious community doesn’t come out gung ho against torture. Well, a survey by the Pew Research Center last October [and reported in the National Catholic Reporter in March] gives a hint. It seems that the majoity of Americans (63%) support torture in some cases. Further, Secular people have the lowest rate of support (51%), followed by White Protestants (65%) [with no real differences between Evangelical and Protestants as a whole], and Catholics with the highest rate of support (72%). Here is the detailed table:
Survey by Pew Research Center for the People & the Press Oct. 12-24,
2005; nationwide survey conducted among 2,006 adultsDo you think the use of torture against suspected terrorists in order to gain important information can often be justified, sometimes be justified, rarely be justified, or never be justified?
Total public
Total Catholic
Often
Sometimes
Rarely
Never
Don’t know/refused15%
31%
17%
32%
5%21%
35%
16%
26%
4%White Protestant
White evangelical
Often
Sometimes
Rarely
Never
Don’t know/refused15%
34%
16%
31%
4%13%
36%
16%
31%
4%Secular
Often
Sometimes
Rarely
Never
Don’t
know/refused10%
25%
16%
41%
4%
One might hypothesize from these data that religion fosters barbarism and that Secualism fosters humanism. Of course, a psychoanalyst might wonder if religion, rather, was a defense against one’s barbarous tendencies. If so, the people attracted to religion may have more brutal impulses evan than are here suggested.
Another possibility is that religious people are more likely to trust authority, such that they believe the authorities know what they are doing when they torture. If this view is true, one might conclude that religion is antithetical to democracy.
At a minimum, the survey certainly gives us no reason to believe that the world would be a better place if people were more religious. But, given the state of the world, I can’t imagine anyone seriously arguing that, anyway. Can you?
[Thanks to Richard Cranium at Daily Kos for pointing to this and to Valtin for calling my attention to it.]
Add comment September 27th, 2006