Texas Faith is a weekly discussion that poses questions about religion, politics and culture to a panel of religious leaders.

This week's question ties science, morality and faith: Recent research indicates that religious people tend to be more self-disciplined than people who have weak faith or no faith at all. If this is true, the implication is that formal religion can be personally helpful in inculcating habits of mind that lead to worldly success. Is this good or bad news for religion – and why?

Here are excerpts from some of this week's answers:

•George Mason, senior pastor, Wilshire Baptist Church: "Religion is good when it leads to a good life, not a successful life in worldly terms. Someone will always try to turn religion into a ticket to prosperity. This co-opting of religion for a person's personal agenda fails the test of true religion because it sets the terms for religion instead of the other way around. True religion is demonstrated by a concern for holiness before God and a corresponding concern for the well-being of the most vulnerable in society."

•Matthew Wilson, associate professor of political science, Southern Methodist University: "Paradoxically, these findings are good news for people of faith only if they don't really pay much attention to them. A utilitarian view of religious practice is toxic to real faith and, ironically, seems to negate the very tangible benefits at which it aims. For any truly religious person, the core 'benefits' of religious faith transcend anything measurable in these studies."

•Deal Hudson, president, Morley Publishing Group, and director, InsideCatholic.com: "Any habit is strengthened by repetition. The daily exercise of faith suggests a person is capable of forming and maintaining other, presumably good, habits. That good habits can lead to 'worldly success' rings no alarm bells for me. Success in the world is a good thing, and like any attainment in life presents its temptations. ... Good habits are the foundation of a good character, and, as they say, 'Character is destiny.'"

•Lillian Pinkus, community activist, Dallas Anti-Defamation League: "When the intersection of religious discipline and worldly success become a good thing for all, is when religion finds a way to successfully transmit basic human values that are required for any civilized society and the message that we are all God's children, and each faith is to be respected, not one above any other."

•Daniel Kanter, pastor, First Unitarian Church of Dallas: "Words like 'weak faith' or 'no faith' pitted against 'people of faith' in studies such as this are troubling. We are all people of faith, just not the same faith. We all trust something. We all believe something. We all are loyal to something. And we all see the world through a lens that works for us. This language points out the hegemony of 'organized religion' that often has done more harm than good and creates simplistic conclusions such as 'people of faith' will be better prepared to meet the world's challenges than 'nonbelievers.' "

•Cynthia Rigby, professor, Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary: "Imagine a world in which all creatures habitually rest and are renewed. A world in which there is no killing, or lying, or jealousy, or dishonoring. To laugh and cry and live in the world with the discipline of a life-respecting, other-worldly perspective is, ideally, also to know ourselves as creative agents who work with God to bring God's Kingdom to earth as it is in heaven. When the disciplines of religion awaken our imaginations and inspire us to live differently, we may not have worldly success. But we might very well change the world."

To read more responses and to post your own comments, go to dallasnews.com/texasfaith.