Marx was wrong - religion is the WEED of the masses

[_honorentheos]

Thinking about God

Interesting.

[_honorentheos]

In summary - the study I link to above is about the impacts of "God-thoughts" on two aspects of self-regulation. The first is motivation and the second is resistance to temptation. Minus the munchies, thinking about God seems to have similar effects on a person as smoking weed.

I think this quote is suggestive as to why many Mormons appear motivated despite the findings of the report -

To be sure, reminders of God may activate certain morality- or
religion-based goals, such as honesty. For instance, reminding a
sticky-fingered electronics store customer of God may lead her to
activate an honesty goal and thus construe theft as a “temptation”
or “misbehavior” and avoid shoplifting the DVD of the latest
Adam Sandler movie because shoplifting is immoral. However, we
propose that if that same customer also has an active goal to
practice playing piano in the evenings, and therefore construes the
latest Adam Sandler movie itself as a “temptation” that needs to be
avoided, then reminding her of God will also encourage her to
resist the temptation of purchasing this mindless distraction.

In otherwords, removing one's shoulder from the wheel can be construed as a temptation to be resisted. I suspect this makes satisfaction from goal achievement less appreciative, though. It's a lot more satisfying to accomplish something than it is to not do something wrong.