C'mon, you already knew it deep down

[miriam_e]

A new study which checks out a whole range of indicators in about 20 western countries proves that religion damages society, and not just slightly -- it directly correlates with everything from murder and shorter lifespan to teen pregnancy, abortion, and broken marriages. All the things religion says it helps, it actually worsens. The more religious a society is, the more socially dysfunctional it is.

http://www.abc.net.au/rn/talks/lnl/

Gregory Paul, who presents his findings, says that he is surprised that nobody had put the figures together before. They are all there, readily available, for anybody to see.

The good news is that religion is declining worldwide. This has been evident for some time. As people become smarter and more knowledgeable it becomes more difficult to use superstition to control them.

Religion masquerades extremely effectively as good morality, but it is clearly a very bad thing. Let's hope its claws are extracted from humanity's psyche soon enough to avoid the next round of religious wars.

[additional: link to a short piece about it in the Times in UK: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2-1798944,00.html ]

Comments

[erev-lacri.livejournal.com]

well yeah..i agree with you that this does happen with highly organized religions, but I don't think there will be a decline in paganism son...if fact, that's rising. Yay!

[slave-driver.livejournal.com]

I was raised as a Roman Catholic, and while I don't follow the faith anymore, or any faith for that matter, I have to say that one of the things I've discovered to be true in my 40 years on this planet is that nothing is all good, and nothing is all bad. I recieved a fantastic education in a Catholic school, and I'm not ashamed to admit it. I even tell people the church gave me such a good education that they actually helped me develope the inellectual tools I needed to doubt my faith. The church has also done a lot of good work with the poor. My mom couldn't really afford to send us to catholic school, but they let her do some work serving lunches and let me get my education anyway. I also saw how they helped many other poor people who were struggling as well, and at least with the catholics(I can't say the same for some of the other religions)the help was freely given, they didn't try to convert those they were helping.

In the long run, I do agree with you that as we become more educated, we really don't need religous doctrine. It's very true that religion has been the cause for more wars than any thing else. A lot of terrible harm has been the result of religion. You may even argue that more harm than good has been done as result of religion, but there has been some good that has come from it too.