I find the study flawed in a number of ways. I'll start with the Israeli part and then go to the Palestinian one.
Tool alert: I find the whole Israeli part about of the study to be flawed. The population that they asked was skewed towards what they expected and was akin to asking someone at a Hamas rally if they supported suicide bombings. Why didn't they ask someone from Tel Aviv? Because they knew it would not support their findings. And their findings was NOT about the willingness to become a suicide bomber, it was how a single persons actions were viewed. Actions that to this day are controversial. One side believes that Goldstein prevented a planned suicide attack while the other side thinks he was just a loon. Either way, his actions were wrong but asking people from only one side if they supported the actions is not a proper study. And the language used is also suspect. Suicide attacks by Israeli Jews not not just uncommon (to use their term), they are almost non-existent. If you can think of 5 I would be surprised. In addition, saying that they were using Jews from both the West Bank and Gaza is not true as there have been no Jews living in Gaza since 2005. Finally, the current usage of the term 'settlers' has negative connotations due to the current political climate. If they were testing willingness to kill for their religion, that would be one thing. Willingness to die for religion, but not in order to kill others is something else. Finally, having a positive view of a specific persons actions is something totally different than the first two. That being said, I find the Palestinian part of the study flawed as well. There was no understanding of suicide bombers or terrorist groups applied. Frequency of mosque attendance is positively correlated with attraction to suicide attacks because that's where recruiters hang out. That's where sermons extolling the virtues of suicide attacks are preached. That's where people becoming more religious go. Maybe its the other way around. Maybe they have the attraction to suicide attacks first and then they started going to mosque more frequently. The attraction may come from many factors including family. Bottom line is that the study is flawed by not restricting their variables enough nor even understanding the variables they're working with. On Fri, Feb 27, 2009 at 11:29 AM, Larry Lyons <[email protected]> wrote: > > http://idisk.mac.com/jeremyginges1-Public/suicideattacks.pdf > > Support for suicide boming appears more related to attending religious > services and not to religious devotion itself. It would seem that in this > case at least organized religion is dangerous to your health. > > -- > Religion and Support for Suicide Attacks > Jeremy Ginges, Ian Hansen, and Ara Norenzayan > Psychological Science, Volume 20âNumber 2, pp 224-230. > > ABSTRACT > In four studies carried out across different cultural, religious, and > political contexts, we investigated the association between religion and > popular support for suicide attacks. > > In two surveys of Palestinians and one cognitive priming experiment with > Israeli settlers, prayer to God, an index of religious devotion, was > unrelated to support for suicide attacks. Instead, attendance at religious > services, thought to enhance coalitional commitment, positively predicted > support for suicide attacks. > > In a survey of six religions in six nations, regular attendance at > religious services positively predicted a combination of willing martyrdom > and out-group hostility, but regular prayer did not. Implications for > understanding the role of religion in suicide attacks are discussed. > -- > > > > > ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Adobe® ColdFusion® 8 software 8 is the most important and dramatic release to date Get the Free Trial http://ad.doubleclick.net/clk;207172674;29440083;f Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/message.cfm/messageid:290041 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=11502.10531.5
