Think religion makes society less violent? Think again..

[aliester]

If it were true that when belief in God weakens, societal well-being diminishes, then we should see abundant evidence for this. But we don't. In fact, we find just the opposite: Those societies today that are the most religious — where faith in God is strong and religious participation is high — tend to have the highest violent crime rates, while those societies in which faith and church attendance are the weakest — the most secular societies — tend to have the lowest.

We can start at the international level. The most secular societies today include Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Czech Republic, Estonia, Japan, Britain, France, the Netherlands, Germany, South Korea, New Zealand, Australia, Vietnam, Hungary, China and Belgium. The most religious societies include Nigeria, Uganda, the Philippines, Pakistan, Morocco, Egypt, Zimbabwe, Bangladesh, El Salvador, Colombia, Senegal, Malawi, Indonesia, Brazil, Peru, Jordan, Algeria, Ghana, Venezuela, Mexico and Sierra Leone.

It is the highly secularized countries that tend to fare the best in terms of crime rates, prosperity, equality, freedom, democracy, women's rights, human rights, educational attainment and life expectancy. (Although there are exceptions, such as Vietnam and China, which have famously poor human rights records.) And those nations with the highest rates of religiosity tend to be the most problem-ridden in terms of high violent crime rates, high infant mortality rates, high poverty rates and high rates of corruption.

Take homicide. According to the United Nations' 2011 Global Study on Homicide, of the 10 nations with the highest homicide rates, all are very religious, and many — such as Colombia, Mexico, El Salvador and Brazil — are among the most theistic nations in the world. Of the nations with the lowest homicide rates, nearly all are very secular, with seven ranking among the least theistic nations, such as Sweden, Japan, Norway and the Netherlands.

Now consider the flip side: peacefulness. According to the nonprofit organization Vision of Humanity, which publishes an annual Global Peace Index, each of the 10 safest and most peaceful nations in the world is also among the most secular, least God-believing in the world. Most of the least safe and peaceful nations, conversely, are extremely religious.

http://www.latimes.com/opinion/op-ed/la-oe-1101-zuckerman-violence-secularism-20151101-story.html

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[Stormer0628]

This is one of the most surprising conclusions from a series of studies conducted in the past. But this fact hardly reaches the people to whom this should matter most. Every government should make sure to have a poster on every street so this information becomes widespread enough and have people reflect on the deep reasons behind it.

Incidentally, there's also this: religion is most able to thrive in seriously dysfunctional societies. So much so that the church could boast during the Dark Ages, in the case of a cardinal addressing a king: "If you keep them poor I will keep them ignorant." Most of the Scandinavian countries and other advanced countries saw enough of the trick and booted the religious lot outside their countries and banned them forever from coming back like the plague that they are. A matter of national security those countries would say. Poverty is the handmaiden, the sidekick, the herald—take your pick—of religion.

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@ thrown [before delete]
^ now you see it.

yung ibang veterans bigla na lang din lumilitaw dito. minsan i or ryu (pre-family era ) would have a running convo with them and then poof, they're off to thin air again

 

[crotonbane52]

Yeah it's REALLY naive of them to think religion can actually help this country develop. No it won't. They've been saying that for god knows how many years and our country is still poor.

I can already tell that religious nuts will dismiss these countries as somehow having some sort of deal with the devil to achieve wealth and peace. I don't want to be really cynical but this country will never ever leave its current state. It will forever be known as a "developing" or "third world" country thanks to the people's ancient beliefs.

 

[Stormer0628]

Think of the bloody headlines today: suicide attacks there, terrorist bombings here, another twisted religious fanatic on one-man shooting rampage somewhere, planting the seeds of fear everywhere. Now religionists—theists—should ask themselves: is this the work of secularism or is it a carryover of centuries-old bigotry and hatred that is a hidden corollary of all belief systems? Why are these violent events absent in places where religions have been kicked out, after being found out for what they really are—instigators, triggers for some of the most inhuman episodes of history as it is also now?