[Mb-civic] Societies worse off 'when they have God on their side'

[jefbek at mindspring.com]

From: Jef Bek <jefbek at mindspring.com>
To: Civic List <mb-civic at islandlists.com>
Message-ID: <BF5F70DD.106D%jefbek at mindspring.com>
Mime-version: 1.0
Content-type: text/plain; charset="ISO-8859-1"
Content-transfer-encoding: quoted-printable

September 27, 2005=20

 The Times Of London

Societies worse off 'when they have God on their side'

By Ruth Gledhill, Religion Correspondent


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.

 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 performance of relatively secular countries, such a=
s
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
=B3spiritual capital=B2. But the study claims that the devotion of many in the
US may actually contribute to its ills.

 The paper, published in the Journal of Religion and Society, a US academic
journal, reports: =B3Many Americans agree that their churchgoing nation is an
exceptional, God-blessed, shining city on the hill that stands as an
impressive example for an increasingly skeptical world.

 =B3In 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.

 =B3The United States is almost always the most dysfunctional of the
developing democracies, sometimes spectacularly so.=B2

 Gregory Paul, the author of the study and a social scientist, used data
from the International Social Survey Programme, Gallup and other research
bodies to reach his conclusions.

 He compared social indicators such as murder rates, abortion, suicide and
teenage pregnancy.

 The study concluded that the US was the world=B9s 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 =B3 uniquely high=B2 adolescent
and adult syphilis infection rates, and adolescent abortion rates, the stud=
y
suggested.

 Mr Paul said: =B3The study shows that England, despite the social ills it
has, is actually performing a good deal better than the USA in most
indicators, even though it is now a much less religious nation than
America.=B2

 He said that the disparity was even greater when the US was compared with
other countries, including France, Japan and the Scandinavian countries.
These nations had been the most successful in reducing murder rates, early
mortality, sexually transmitted diseases and abortion, he added.

 Mr Paul delayed releasing the study until now because of Hurricane Katrina=
.
He said that the evidence accumulated by a number of different studies
suggested that religion might actually contribute to social ills. =B3I suspec=
t
that Europeans are increasingly repelled by the poor societal performance o=
f
the Christian states,=B2 he added.

 He said that most Western nations would become more religious only if the
theory of evolution could be overturned and the existence of God
scientifically proven. Likewise, the theory of evolution would not enjoy
majority support in the US unless there was a marked decline in religious
belief, Mr. Paul said.

 =B3The non-religious, pro-evolution democracies contradict the dictum that a
society cannot enjoy good conditions unless most citizens ardently believe
in a moral creator.

 =B3The widely held fear that a Godless citizenry must experience societal
disaster is therefore refuted.=B2