Christianity does not lead to a more moral population
One of the "arguments" many theists use to justify the need for religion is that without religion there would be no need for morality, therefore without religion people would commit more crime. While there's probably many ways to look at this issue, I think one of the best would be to look at crime statistics. Let's start with the United States. Roughly 75% of the US population is made up of Christians while the prison population is made up of over 80% Christians (83.75% according to the poll I found). I guess the argument could be made that this is a statistical anomaly, until you look at the atheist numbers. Atheists make up about 10% of the US population and yet only account for .2% of the prison population, that's not two percent, that's point two percent. That is beyond a statistical anomaly.
We can also look at the prison population by country. The top 5 least religious countries are:
1) Sweden
2) Vietnam
3) Denmark
4) Norway
5) Japan
The United States ranks 44th and yet has the highest prison population by far. The US has 5 percent of the world's population, but accounts for nearly 1/4 of the prisoner population. On the other hand, the countries listed above rank 174, 121, 169, 170, and 193, respectively. In addition, a Pitzer survey concluded, "high levels of organic atheism are strongly correlated with high levels of societal health, such as low homicide rates, low poverty rates, low infant mortality rates, and low illiteracy rates, as well as high levels of educational attainment, per capita income, and gender equality. Most nations characterized by high degrees of individual and societal security have the highest rates of organic atheism, and conversely, nations characterized by low degrees of individual and societal security have the lowest rates of organic atheism. In some societies, particularly Europe, atheism is growing. However, throughout much of the world -- particularly nations with high birth rates -- atheism is barely discernible."
We can also look at the prison population by country. The top 5 least religious countries are:
1) Sweden
2) Vietnam
3) Denmark
4) Norway
5) Japan
The United States ranks 44th and yet has the highest prison population by far. The US has 5 percent of the world's population, but accounts for nearly 1/4 of the prisoner population. On the other hand, the countries listed above rank 174, 121, 169, 170, and 193, respectively. In addition, a Pitzer survey concluded, "high levels of organic atheism are strongly correlated with high levels of societal health, such as low homicide rates, low poverty rates, low infant mortality rates, and low illiteracy rates, as well as high levels of educational attainment, per capita income, and gender equality. Most nations characterized by high degrees of individual and societal security have the highest rates of organic atheism, and conversely, nations characterized by low degrees of individual and societal security have the lowest rates of organic atheism. In some societies, particularly Europe, atheism is growing. However, throughout much of the world -- particularly nations with high birth rates -- atheism is barely discernible."
posted by Existentialist at 3:46 PM
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