Chuck Bryant

All religions talk extensively about forgiveness.

And when they do studies these days, usually like questionnaires and stuff, depending on the studies you look at, you would think religiosity does play a role in that people who describe themselves as religious are.

supposedly in some studies are two and a half times more likely to say that others should be forgiven unconditionally.

But I know you found some studies that found that religiosity does not play as big a role as a lot of people think it does.

And that sometimes religious people may be more inclined to say that they are forgiving when they aren't because it's the right thing to do.

Yeah, the study found that when you ask—basically when you survey them, people who are religious tend to come off as more forgiving.

They self-report as forgiving.

Right.

But then if you ask them other certain questions, I guess in real-world situations, they're no more forgiving than other people.

Right.

But—so that would be an interpretation, that they think they're more forgiving or tell people they're more forgiving than they actually are.

But there is a—

Another way to look at it too, and they went back and followed up on that study, and they found that over a longer term, people who are religious actually do tend to be more forgiving in their lives.

It wasn't like the most set in stone study, but I found it interesting that they had it harder.

The religious people in this study had more difficulty in relating grudges that they're carrying around compared to the control group of people who weren't religious.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Makes sense.

Sure.

There was some redemption there.