At the end of the video I posted here in regards to why the US has such a poor uptake of the understanding of Evolution, a study was mentioned that called the US the most dysfunctional society in the West, and correlated that with belief in God.
I decided to look into the report, and it's quite interesting to say the least.
The study, published 2005, compared the US with other, predominantly secular societies like the UK, and found that in all instances of what you might consider a dysfunctional society, the US came out far worse.
Not only does it seem that religion is unnecessary for a country to function, but it's actually detrimental to creating a harmonious society.
From the Times: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article571206.ece
It seems that the key factor in this is the acceptance of Evolutionary Theory, or lack thereof, in the case of the US:
So the question is, why maintain an institution/tradition that purports to increase the moral standing of a nation, when in fact the exact opposite is true?
I decided to look into the report, and it's quite interesting to say the least.
The study, published 2005, compared the US with other, predominantly secular societies like the UK, and found that in all instances of what you might consider a dysfunctional society, the US came out far worse.
Not only does it seem that religion is unnecessary for a country to function, but it's actually detrimental to creating a harmonious society.
From the Times: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article571206.ece
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, 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’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.
It seems that the key factor in this is the acceptance of Evolutionary Theory, or lack thereof, in the case of the US:
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.
"The non-religious, proevolution democracies contradict the dictum that a society cannot enjoy good conditions unless most citizens ardently believe in a moral creator."
"The widely held fear that a Godless citizenry must experience societal disaster is therefore refuted."
So the question is, why maintain an institution/tradition that purports to increase the moral standing of a nation, when in fact the exact opposite is true?