"I would kill in God's name:" role of sex, weekly church attendance, report of a religious experience, and limbic lability.
Persinger MA.
Department of Psychology, Laurentian University, Sudbury, Ontario, Canada.
Data collected during the last 15 years for the Personal Philosophy Inventory from 1.48 thousand university men (n = 629) and women (n = 853) were analyzed to discern the response characteristics of individuals who stated "yes" to Item 136 "If God told me to kill, I would do it in His name." The percentage (7%, range between 2% and 8% per year) of affirmative responses did not change significantly over time. The odds ratio for men: women for an affirmative response was 1.4:1. As predicted a four-way interaction for sex, weekly church attendance, history of a religious experience, and elevated complex partial epileptic-like signs was statistically significant. Of the men who reported a religious experience, attended church weekly, and displayed elevated complex partial epileptic like signs (5.7% of all males), 44% stated they would kill another person if God told them to do so.
PMID: 9293569 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]