Based on the article, the researchers asked 1252 adults of religious and political backgrounds in the U.S. and Canada to record good and bad deeds they experienced in different capacities for the day. The outcome was relatively the same for both religious participants and their non-religious counterparts. Again science is just now catching up with timeless truths revealed in the Bible, which illustrate that human nature is inherently flawed. It is only after we trade our nature with the infallible nature of God that we have the ability to experience true righteousness. This doesn’t mean behavioral perfection. It means excellence…being better today than yesterday.
It’s About Relationship, Not Religion: Religion Deals With Acts, Relationship Deals With The Heart
A relationship with God means spiritual sensitivity to deeds that harm that intimacy. Walking with God daily reinforces right behavior. It’s a byproduct of an active prayer life, repentance and an ongoing hunger and thirst for righteousness. The truth is religion doesn’t make people more moral. This is what Jesus Christ more than two thousand years ago said about the Pharisees and Sadducees (religious leaders) of His day, “these people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me.” Religion can exist on the surface, it can masquerade at church functions, pray lofty pious prayers in public, but only relationship demonstrates the sincere walk of a person truly following God. Outside of this component, all you have are the traditions of mankind…which over time become the blind leading the blind (Matthew 15:14).
If we want to take an honest look at morality, we should use the nature of God as the measurement. Are the fruits of the Spirit being produced: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control? Look at the lives of those who are contending for the glory of The Most High, who are walking in His Spirit. Human nature by itself will always produce the same outcome, whether it’s dressed-up in religion or not.
