The submission got so much internet buzz that some real producers actually contacted Mr. Ryang.
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A recent study published in the Journal of Religion and Society brings doubt to the view that a godly society is necessarily a safe and healthy society:
Societies worse off 'when they have God on their side'
"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 article says. But the results of the study show a quite different trend.
“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.”
5 comments:
Now this is rich! I would love to see the origional journal article on this one.
Talk about politics being the driving force behind the scientific view. The funny thing about statistics is that oftentimes a person can make statistics say whatever they want just by changing the source, their definitions, or even just their viewpoint on it.
For instance, what makes a country a religious country or one that "has God on their side"?
Is it that the country teaches religious views in their schools? ...not us.
How about prayer? Is it one that allows it's students to pray out loud? ...not us.
Does going to church make us religious?
How about our morals? What about a nation that takes a religious view in their policies? Hmmm... Abortion is legalized and taxpayer dollars are used to pay for it even though it goes completely against most religious views. Homosexuals rights are being legislated from the bench when it goes completely against basic Christian morals. In fact, come to think many liberal, anti-religious views are being legislated from the bench. Hmmm... a religious country ...not us.
Hmmm... we reject God and His Word in our government on a daily basis . Our policies and educational system have rejected God almost entirely and yet "God is on our side"? Like i said, this is rich.
So how do they define a country that "has God on their side"? They define it as whether the individuals accept the government sponsored bias they call evolution. So if we don't accept evolution unconditionally we must be religious and not just refusing to accept what our government tries to force down our throats as true. Impressive logic.
Maybe we're religious because some people "agree that that their churchgoing nation is an exceptional, God-blessed, shining city on the hill that stands as an impressive example for an increasingly sceptical world". Interesting, we are a religious country because some people think we are. So i guess that that must be true. Some people also think that our country is egotistical, sadistic, and uncaring. So let's do a study and say that egotistical, sadistic, and uncaring nations must be more unhealthy. Sounds good!
Are we beginning to see some of the problems with this article? Believe me, i could go on, and on, and on, and on about this.
JC - Though there is a vocal minority of secularists. If you look at any recent poll from the last few years, religious issues and "moral" issues appear at the top of the list. Like in 2004 - what was the biggest issue? Not Iraq, not the Patriot Act, not Terrorism, not the economy - but gay marriage. That comes from the religious beliefs of the people in those areas. Believe me, I live it every day - you are the majority, whether you know it or not.
But I am also always skeptical of articles of this kind. What were the measures, what was the sample?
I do have to say, however, that the STD infection and pregnancy rates make sense to me. If you don't have proper (i.e. not fantasyland abstinence only) sex education, you will have teens who will not be properly informed about the risks they take when (not if, when) they experiment with sex. They will end up with more STDs and higher pregnancy rates than those who know about contraception, and safe sex.
As for the other stuff, I dunno. I'd like to see the data.
The Fresno March for Peace is a program in which the Fresno Police and the Churches of the area come together to help the criminals of the area find a new outlet/response to their actions. As a result of the effort over the last two years the crime rate in Fresno California has dropped by almost 30%.
This goes directly against what the journal articles attempts to prove with it's broadly / inappropriately defined concepts.
Believe me, I live it every day - you are the majority, whether you know it or not.
Whether i am the majority or not is definitely debatable. There are plenty of people that claim to be Christian, who have no idea what that term means. Being Christian is more than just saying that you believe in a god, going to church, or holding "conservative" views.
Yes, a majority of people claim to be Christian or of a similar religion, but not everything in the ocean is a fish.
"There are plenty of people that claim to be Christian"
I'll agree with you on that one for sure. ;) It's the "Do as I say not as I do" Christians that piss me off on a daily basis.
As for education, I have a friend who's working on a Harm Reduction model for drug education (as opposed to the DARE program that isn't working) and I think the same needs to be done with Sex Ed. Don't do it, but if you do - you need to know some things...
JC and Laura,
I'd have to agree on the fact that this article didn't do a good job of documenting where the data came from. And I knew that when I posted it. But I thought it'd be a decent conversation starter. And you two have not disappointed. :-)
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