Buddhism – Religion and Self-control
27-May-10
“Thinking about the oneness of humanity and the unity of nature doesn’t seem to be related to self-control,” Dr McCullough said. “The self-control effect seems to come from being engaged in religious institutions and behaviours.”Does this mean that non-believers like me should start going to church? Even if you don’t believe in a supernatural god, you could try improving your self-control by at least going along with the rituals of organised religion.
But that probably wouldn’t work either, Dr McCullough told me, because personality studies have identified a difference between true believers and others who attend services for extrinsic reasons, like wanting to impress people or make social connections. The intrinsically religious people have higher self-control, but the extrinsically religious do not.
So what’s a heathen to do in 2009? Dr McCullough’s advice is to try replicating some of the religious mechanisms that seem to improve self-control, like private meditation or public involvement with an organisation that has strong ideals.
Religious people, he pointed out, are self-controlled not simply because they fear God’s wrath, but because they have absorbed the ideals of their religion into their own system of values, and have thereby given their personal goals an aura of sacredness. Dr McCullough suggested that non-believers try a secular version of that strategy.
“People can have sacred values that aren’t religious values,” he said. “Self-reliance might be a sacred value to you that’s relevant to saving money. Concern for others might be a sacred value that’s relevant to taking time to do volunteer work. You can spend time thinking about what values are sacred to you and making New Year resolutions that are consistent with them.”
Posted via web from crasch’s posterous
