The Good Samaritan Experiment
 

We True Christians mainly understand the parable of the Good Samaritan as an example of how Jesus takes great pains to point out to us that, stereotypically, all Samaritans are complete asswipes, and thus that racial profiling is not only useful but is to be encouraged. Nowadays, Samaria, where the Samaritans came from, is more or less Hamas territory but in 551 AD its main cities were destroyed by a Godly earthquake of Biblical proportions. Thus we can see how both Jesus and God agreed that the Samaritans were as bad as the Sodomites and deserved death, otherwise, God would not have sent the earthquake, would He?

I mention all this as in 1973 The Good Samaritan Experiment was set up by psychologists John Darley and C. Daniel Batson wanted to test if religion has any effect on helpful behaviour, something that completely misses the point of the parable.

Now we all know that psychologists are a type of godless pastor who ignore the message of the Bible and act as apologists for atheism.



Anyway, to the experiment:

The subjects were a group of seminary students. Half of the students were given the story of the Good Samaritan and asked to perform a sermon about it in another building. The other half were told to give a sermon about job opportunities in a seminary.

As an extra twist, subjects were given different times that they had to deliver the sermon so that some would be in a hurry and others not.

Then, on the way to the building, subjects would pass a person slumped in an alleyway, who looked to be in need of help.

The Result:
The people who had been studying the Good Samaritan story did not stop any more often than the ones preparing for a speech on job opportunities. The factor that really seemed to make a difference was how much of a hurry the students were in.

In fact, if pressed for time, only 10 percent would stop to give any aid, even when they were on their way to give a sermon about how awesome it is for people to stop and give aid.

Now most people take this to mean that God’s Word has no effect on people but that is a very facile interpretation. Let me suggest to you that those hurrying past were fooled into thinking that the man in the alley was merely God’s Work, and that to interfere would be to attempt to defeat God’s Purpose. If you are not a True Christian[tm] you may think this harsh or unlikely, but that is like most of the population, you only “imagine” what God wants.

I would ask you to cast your mind back to the Flood – Did Noah try to help anyone? No.
As Moses saw the Egyptian army drown as they tried to follow across the Red Sea, did he stop and organize a medical center? No.
Sodom and Gomorrah – was there any search for survivors or did angels drop food parcels? No.
When Herod ordered the Massacre of the Innocents, did an army of Cherubs slaughter the aggressors or punish Herod? No.
Did anyone of the many thousands that Jesus helped try to save him from the Cross? No.

And that is how God works.

Now back to the experiment. Ten percent stopped and assumed that God had nothing to do with the “injured man” in the alley – and 10% is about the number of confessing atheists (mostly immigrants and socialists) that slither and crawl among us spreading their doctrine of despair and insinuating their words of hate into the souls of men.

Re: The Good Samaritan Experiment
 

Amen Brother Bathfire, God has a plan and trying to interfere can have adverse consequences - which explains why so many of the doctors from Doctors Without Borders (Médecins Sans Frontières) are always getting killed.

Jesus didn't have anything good to say about the Samarians, and indeed advised against having anything to do with them - a cautionary parable about today's mooselimbs. Evidently a "Good Samaritan" was a statistical improbability.

Re: The Good Samaritan Experiment
 

This story just shows how selfish people are. I'm pretty sure we already knew that.

Re: The Good Samaritan Experiment
 

A Black man would always stop to help even if he only wanted to see what was in the pockets. White people only care about themselves and they would not stop to help.

Re: The Good Samaritan Experiment
 

I have gone on many trips to provide ministry to needy young men in Chicago, San Francisco, Port-Au-Prince, Miami, New York City and West Hollywood, and many times I've found that the young men slumped in doorways and alleyways, loitering at bus stops and near park restrooms do indeed need some aid from a sort of "Good Samaritan." But in the spirit of the sermons I've heard for many years at Landover Baptist, I rarely do more than perform a laying on of hands to elicit the Holy Spirit. It can be dangerous to be wandering the rough alleyways, dim streets, and lonely street corners of America's largest cities, but I feel the young men out on the street alone late at night and without a good friend NEED someone like me to provide a warming smile and a friendly shoulder to lean on.

Let me be clear-- I am always careful in these situations to make sure I do not provide any direct or immediate monetary exchange so as to not reward any sloth, greed, envy or avarice in the young man in need of assistance. It is also important to always ask the young man in need of help if they are a police officer, because 1) if you ask, they have to tell you and 2) many men of my age and financial profile have been targeted by corrupt police (some fine officers have been led astray by Democrats and extortionists) for coming to the aid of young men in need. It can sometimes be a filthy and disgusting job to provide comfort in these God-forsaken places, but I feel it is my calling to minister to these young men as they face trying times in their lives.