The dark side of faith

[Crunchy Frog]

The dark side of faith
By ROSA BROOKS
IT'S OFFICIAL: Too much religion may be a dangerous thing.

This is the implication of a study reported in the current issue of the Journal of Religion and Society, a publication of Creighton University's Center for the Study of Religion. The study, by evolutionary scientist Gregory S. Paul, looks at the correlation between levels of "popular religiosity" and various "quantifiable societal health" indicators in 18 prosperous democracies, including the United States.

Paul ranked societies based on the percentage of their population expressing absolute belief in God, the frequency of prayer reported by their citizens and their frequency of attendance at religious services. He then correlated this with data on rates of homicide, sexually transmitted disease, teen pregnancy, abortion and child mortality.

He found that the most religious democracies exhibited substantially higher degrees of social dysfunction than societies with larger percentages of atheists and agnostics. Of the nations studied, the U.S. — which has by far the largest percentage of people who take the Bible literally and express absolute belief in God (and the lowest percentage of atheists and agnostics) — also has by far the highest levels of homicide, abortion, teen pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases. <snip>

Although correlation is not causation, Paul's study offers much food for thought. At a minimum, his findings suggest that contrary to popular belief, lack of religiosity does societies no particular harm. This should offer ammunition to those who maintain that religious belief is a purely private matter and that government should remain neutral, not only among religions but also between religion and lack of religion. It should also give a boost to critics of "faith-based" social services and abstinence-only disease and pregnancy prevention programs.

http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/opinion/la-oe-brooks1oct01,1,1240960.story?track=mostemailedlink

[wildhorses]

1. one sign of psychotic ism

is the state of being "overly religious"

[Why Syzygy]

2. Makes sense to me.

Ever been in a state mental hospital? Bibles galore and tv evangelists all day long.

Yes. Jesus saves. You the trouble of thinking.

[Island Blue]

3. Thanks for posting

Most of our founding fathers were Deists. If only we had grown in that direction rather than in the direction of fundaMENTALism we would surely be much better off as a nation.

[tocqueville]

4. religious fanatism has never been fought in the US

you see the results today

[Crunchy Frog]

5. Unfortunately, most of the original colonists

were the fundamentalists of their time, coming to America to escape from the oppression of the relative secularism of England. I think that there has always been a very strong fundamentalist tendency in our society originating from those times.

This country later got hit with the Enlightenment, which was the inspiration for most of our founding fathers, but alot of that just never penetrated to many layers in our society.

[tocqueville]

6. another factor is the lack of a social(ist) movement

unlike Europe (with some exceptions in the early XXth cent.) the US have never had a strong social movement : charity based services are still "the normal" when a secular solidarity welfare (originally organised by unions) is far less available.

[Poppyseedman]

8. Huh......

most of the original colonists.......were the fundamentalists of their time, coming to America to escape from the oppression of the relative secularism of England.

They didn't come to America to escape from the "relative secularism of England"

If you mean the pilgrims and Puritans They came to escape religious persecution.

If that was what you were taught in history class, you should ask for a refund

[Crunchy Frog]

12. Actually, what is in your post is what I was taught in history classes.

What I've wrote in mine is what I've concluded from my own readings. I will provide a more detailed post later, but what I've gleaned is that the Puritans essentially wanted to create a theocratic society and to escape what they regarded as the decadence of English society with it's music, plays, brightly colored clothing, holiday celebrations, and dirty poetry.

I will try to find some material to back up my claims.:)

[izzie]

7. This guy better be careful some Red stater will blow him up

Messenger with bad news for Red states are hardly safe to day.

[Demeter]

9. THIS IS NOT NEWS!

Anyone with a passing knowledge of history will have noted that time after time it is the fanatical religion that destroys the people. From East to Wast, North to South, from prehistorical times to the recent past, Religion is the cue for the Four Horsemen.

[Crunchy Frog]

11. It probably is news to most Americans.

It's at least ammunition that can be used against people who claim that all the immorality in our society is because of teaching evolution, lack of prayer in schools, and not putting the Ten Commandments in public buildings.

Those people are unfortunately rather influential in society right now.

[cassiepriam]

10. I hate to say it, but the sight of the cross and flag sicken me,

The neoCons have ruined symbols of faith and america.

[Dervill Crow]

13. You are not alone there.

One of my favorite bumperstickers is, "God is not a Republican . . . or a Democrat."

[cassiepriam]

14. The repugs are evil geniuses. Claim God as their own.

And the sheeple buy it.