From the
Times in Great Britain
RELIGIOUS belief can cause damage to a society, contributing towards high murder rates, abortion, sexual promiscuity and suicide, according to research published today.
According to the study, belief in and worship of God are not only unnecessary for a healthy society but may actually contribute to social problems.
More below the fold...
Lately, I've been increasingly thinking about the irony of the religious right-wing bible thumpers who use Jesus' name but not his words to further their agendas. We've commented on it here before: those who invoke the name of Jesus the most are also most reluctant to put his words into play. I was browsing RedState the other day, and was astounded at the cruelty some of these supposedly "Godly" people displayed. Also coming to mind are the sick words of Barbara Bush in the Astrodome and the "God took care of the housing problem" sick comments.
I was shocked to read about this study, which confirms my gut feelings: religion kills. It kills freedom, health, mental well-being, sexual health and all aspects of society.
Here's some more info from the study:
The study counters the view of believers that religion is necessary to provide the moral and ethical foundations of a healthy society.
It compares the social peformance of relatively secular countries, such as Britain, with the US, where the majority believes in a creator rather than the theory of evolution. Many conservative evangelicals in the US consider Darwinism to be a social evil, believing that it inspires atheism and amorality.
Many liberal Christians and believers of other faiths hold that religious belief is socially beneficial, believing that it helps to lower rates of violent crime, murder, suicide, sexual promiscuity and abortion. The benefits of religious belief to a society have been described as its "spiritual capital". But the study claims that the devotion of many in the US may actually contribute to its ills.
...
"In general, higher rates of belief in and worship of a creator correlate with higher rates of homicide, juvenile and early adult mortality, STD infection rates, teen pregnancy and abortion in the prosperous democracies.
"The United States is almost always the most dysfunctional of the developing democracies, sometimes spectacularly so."
...
Gregory Paul ... compared social indicators such as murder rates, abortion, suicide and teenage pregnancy.
The study concluded that the US was the world's only prosperous democracy where murder rates were still high, and that the least devout nations were the least dysfunctional. Mr Paul said that rates of gonorrhoea in adolescents in the US were up to 300 times higher than in less devout democratic countries. The US also suffered from " uniquely high" adolescent and adult syphilis infection rates, and adolescent abortion rates, the study suggested.
"The widely held fear that a Godless citizenry must experience societal disaster is therefore refuted."
It's official: the main right-wing "talking point" of the "moral values" of religiously-minded people has been blown to bits.
What will we do with this information?