Für den Soziologen Émile Durkheim lebte das christliche Erbe Europas vor allem im modernen Individualismus weiter, der auch eine soziale Dimension hat. Praktisch scheint sich das zu bestätigen, wie Forscher der Universität Berkeley herausgefunden zu haben glauben:
In the study, the link between compassion and generosity was found to be stronger for those who identified as being non-religious or less religious.
“Overall, we find that for less religious people, the strength of their emotional connection to another person is critical to whether they will help that person or not,” said UC Berkeley social psychologist Robb Willer, a co-author of the study. “The more religious, on the other hand, may ground their generosity less in emotion, and more in other factors such as doctrine, a communal identity, or reputational concerns.”
Kein geringerer als der schottische Ökonom (und Moralphilosoph) Adam Smith hatte den Zusammenhang von sozialem Handeln und Religion auf eine Weise definiert, die sich mit diesen Erkenntnissen gut vertragen dürfte.
Nicht der Glaube nämlich führt für Smith zu sozialem Handeln, sondern das soziale Handeln macht den einzelnen erst dann glücklich, wenn er es auf Gott zurückführt.[1] Diese Entscheidung freilich muss jeder für sich allein treffen.
- ”It is the effect of the sympathy which we feel with the misery and resentment of those other innocent and sensible beings whose happiness is disturbed by its malice. This universal benevolence, how noble and generous soever, can be the source of no solid happiness to any man who is not thoroughly convinced that all the inhabitants of the universe, the meanest as well as the greatest, are under the immediate care and protection of that great, benevolent, and all-wise Being, who directs all the movements of nature, and who is determined, by his own unalterable perfections, to maintain it at all times the greatest possible quantity of happiness.” Adam Smith, The Theory of Moral Sentiments or An Essay Towards an Analysis of the Principles by Which Men Naturally Judge Concerning the Conduct and Character, First of Their Neighbours, and Afterwards of Themselves, London [1759] 1853, new ed., repr. New York 1966, 345. ⇧