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People (1880) Religion (1142) Fear (1126) Violence (936) God (874) Murder (317) Religion And Values (223) Evangelical (201) Statistics (141) Religion And Spirituality (107) Religion Other (59) Atheism (52) Atheism (35) Religion None (32) Theism (13)
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Group(s): Confronting Religious HegemonyAdd to My Group
The third and final study is perhaps the most comprehensive. Phil Zuckerman analyzed levels of organic (not coercive) atheism and how the countries scored on the "Human Development Index," which rates countries on various indicators of societal health such as homicide rates, gender equality, poverty, literacy, and infant mortality. Not surprisingly, higher levels of atheism have a positive correlation to better levels of societal health as measured by these statistics. The top 25 countries all have very high levels of non-believers with the exception of Ireland. There was an increase in suicide rates among some of the atheistic countries, but the author notes that all of those countries were formerly parts of the USSR and are still suffering from the effects of that. (nb: The link to the study itself is gone, but it is available in the Cambridge Companion to Atheism) So, due to the insistence of numerous people, I have been working on a more official thesis on theism as a mind disorder, but getting the actual studies often requires expensive memberships or trips to the library. Don't worry-it's coming. Even if you disagree on that point, I think that there's enough data here to support the claim that religion has deleterious effects on society. One should use caution while using religion until one is certain of its effects.
www.rationalresponders.com Kelly O'Connor of the Rational Response Squad, co-creators of the infamous Blasphemy Challenge, will be writing to address theist talking heads in the media. Kelly is a psychology major, co-host of the Rational Response Squad Radio show, and has been featured on ABC's Nightline twice, along with other media sources.
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