A new study from the University of Manchester, has shown that morality is not related to religion and moral values today is much less dependent on religion than thirty years ago. Dr. Ingrid Storm reviewed in Europe conducted surveys and determined that the decrease in religiosity does not lead to the decline of moral values.
“In recent years religion has lost its position in many European countries. Each new generation less religious previous, so I wondered, should we expect a drop in morality,” said Dr. Storm.
The results of the study suggest that religion is associated only with certain moral values, and this relationship is observed only in the religious countries where people do not trust the government.
The participants of the surveys, which were conducted in 48 European countries in the period from 1981 to 2008, were asked how often they were able to justify the various controversial behavior. Dr. Storm has classified this behavior in the two moral dimensions.
The first is when a person goes against tradition, for example, justifying abortion and homosexuality. The second relates more to the justification of unlawful conduct that can harm others, such as lying, cheating and stealing. Dr. Storm said:
“Today, more Europeans are ready to justify behavior that goes against the traditions, but the attitude to break the law and harm to others has not changed. With the decrease in religiosity in Europe has increased the acceptance of his own view of things related to sexuality and family. Each new generation increasingly liberal on these issues. At the same time there is no evidence that moral values have become more selfish or antisocial.”
The study also found that religious people are on average a little less greedy, but this is mainly due to their age. The average religious person older than the average non-religious person, but older people, wherever they were born, are less likely to justify greed.
According to the materials of Manchester University