Psychologists have known for a long time that certain socio-economic factors such as the place of birth, the education, religion, or interactions with others can shape an individual's perceptions of the most important things in life. But the correlations between religion and torture have never been analyzed from this perspective, and, so, that has been the goal of a new scientific research, conducted by the PEW Research Center on 742 adults in the United States. The results have found that religious beliefs are tightly correlated with supporting or dismissing torture, and also that Evangelical Protestants have a higher tendency to accept torture than other religious groups.

In the surveys, the PEW group asked people if they would agree to the statement that torture was justified on terrorist suspects, even if no certainties existed as to their guilt. On average, 15 percent of the entire study group said that torture could often be justified by its returns, 34 percent told that the practice could only be justified at times, whereas 25 percent strongly opposed the idea of their country engaging in such practices in the name of freedom.

“Party and ideology are much better predictors of views on torture than are religion and most other demographic factors. [However], religion itself is known to be a strong factor shaping individuals' partisanship and political ideology,” the PEW authors say in their paper. Among white Evangelical Protestants, of which 174 were interviewed in the study, a whopping 44 percent shared that torture could be sometimes justified, whereas only 16 percent pinpointed that they didn't approve of it. An additional 18 percent stated that the practice could often be justified.

The view of Evangelicals has also come under increased attacks from other religious majorities or minorities in the United States, whose representatives say that these people have a very peculiar way of interpreting the Bible, taking heed only to the passages they are comfortable with, and shunning those that tell that all life, even that of enemies, is sacred and a gift from God. Otherwise, there is no explanation as to why they would endorse such a cruel behavior on other human beings, LiveScience reports.

Conversely, people who reported never attending religious services, or only doing so at large time intervals, showed the most humane behavior, with only 12 percent of them considering that torture could often be justified. Approximately 30 percent of them admitted that torture might be necessary at times, but 26 percent said that they did not condone such actions from their government or anyone else.