NEWS: Religion Contributes to Society's Ills

CULTURE: Religion Contributes to Society's Ills

A new study in the Journal of Religion and Society contends that religious societies have a higher rates of murder, suicide, teenage pregnancy, STDs and abortion.

While the article doesn't offer specific data and numbers, it doesn't seem like such a stretch. How many wars are fought in the name of God? And how many times have I heard kids say that oral sex isn't really sex, so their church approves?

May I be the first to say, duh.

No surprise.

Getting people to lie to themselves does usually end up badly, yes.

God's gonna be so pissed when he finds out about this.

I think religion is there for people who can't make rational and logical decisions on their own

I don't even know where to begin. I just read the original journal article and it falls VERY short of good academic scholarship. Just look at some of the tables, if you remove the United States (an OBVIOUS outlier) the correlations completely disappear. The author performed none of the standard statistical tests. The journal is a small, internet only affair published by "Creighton University: A Catholic Jesuit University in Omaha Nebraska since 1878." LOTS of very good sociological research has been done linking church attendance to lower rates of morbidity and mortality within the United States. Just visit www.JSTOR.org and search for religion and health. The author cites none of this work, and even says such work has not been done. I am one of the least religious people I know, so don't write me off on that issue. I am, however, a graduate student in sociology. As far as I can tell, this is just plain bad science. Sorry for the tirade.

The article.

The journal.

I'm not clear why this is significant. I can see that outliers bias the statistics, and should be removed from means and so on. But it seems quite reasonable to ask why they're outliers, which is part of the point of the study. Or am I missing the point?

I give up, how many? With the exception of the war that is being waged by Islamists, I can't think of any right now. These days wars seem to be fought over stupid tribal/ethnic stuff.

England isn't religious? I'd say that a majority of English also believe in a creator.

i don't see them turning it into a political issue, though, i might not be looking hard enough.

The Crusades come to mind. And I would include other "wars" in the count, not just wars fought with guns or swords. I can hardly go half a week walking on my college campus without getting bombarded with pamphlets describing The Great Flood or whatever the topic of the week is. I fight a little psycological war every time someone tries to convert me.

Finally the truth!

NEWS: Human beings contribute to all of society's ills.

why is god such a dick?

We have in the US a president who believes God has chosen him to be president. Things aren't going well. God should be ashamed.

Maybe so, but the numbers who attend services are small (and shrinking, IIRC).

God sucks.

I agree that religion causes a lot of horrible things, but would anyone mind clarifying a religious society? I can't seem to think of anywhere on this earth where there is a place with no religion.

At times like this I'm happy I don't go to church.

If you take as a defining aspect of religion an "us and them" world view then I'm not sure those studies really contradict to premise at all. Those who actually are religious will tend to prosper, but there may be ramifications for the rest.

The death penalty would be one example. It seems to be most popular in the more Christian areas, despite it being very un-Christian (it's hard to imagine Jesus flipping the switch on anyone). Instead it's the idea that those who have "sinned" to that degree are "them", making their death not only palatable but desirable. This mind set would also suggest a tendency to judge anyone in need to determine just how worthy they were of getting aid, to test if they are closer to "us" than "them".

The policy of celibacy is another example. It's a near perfect precaution if you actually follow the plan, but for anyone not so inclined the suppression of other approaches would have negative implications.

Actual Christians, by definition, would be some of the worlds most delightful, charitable and non-judgmental people in the world, but I wonder if some of the "culturally Christian" people are really more "us and them" tribal types.

Human beings wrote the Bible, ergo...

Two words: Spanish inquisition?
Oh, & Pedo priests?

I could go on but why? I think we get the picture & we all know that this is true & has been so for way to long. Still, so many people run out & sign their lives away everyday. We forget that there are so many people out there that love being told what to do, when to do it & why. Some of the fastest growing religions in the world are some of the most oppressive & strange.

It is beyond me why you wouldn't want to be ultimately responsible for your own destiny & life but that is much of what people, especially in this country fear more than anything. Personal responsibility is powerful & a lot of work. Oh, & daunting. But for most of these folks, what Bill O'Reilly & the 700 club said is fine with them. Sigh.

I believe it. Look at Japan. No religion and they have 0 crime!

The time when religion ruled the earth was called the dark ages!

[Edited on Sep 27, 2005 7:34PM]