Here’s one that ought to stir the pot:  a study shows that
religious belief may detrimentally impact a number of societal
indicators, including murder, STD rates, teen pregnancy and all manner
of other factors.  In short, a country that claims it has God on
its side is probably just messed up.  As reported in the Times Online:

The paper, published in the Journal of Religion and Society,
a US academic journal, reports: “Many Americans agree 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.


“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.”


Gregory Paul, the author of the study and a social scientist,
used data from the International Social Survey Programme, Gallup and
other research bodies to reach his conclusions.


He compared social indicators such as murder rates, abortion, suicide and teenage pregnancy.


The study concluded that the US was the world’s only prosperous
democracy where murder rates were still high, and that the least devout
nations were the least dysfunctional. Mr Paul said that rates of
gonorrhoea in adolescents in the US were up to 300 times higher than in
less devout democratic countries. The US also suffered from “ uniquely
high” adolescent and adult syphilis infection rates, and adolescent
abortion rates, the study suggested.


Mr Paul said: “The study shows that England, despite the
social ills it has, is actually performing a good deal better than the
USA in most indicators, even though it is now a much less religious
nation than America.”

Well!  Now, keep in mind that I myself am of a spiritual
bent.  That said, I am no fan of organized religion and I am
especially no fan of the idea that a religion is somehow a cure-all or
an opiate that can keep the populace subdued.  In my view,
spiritual belief should be a challenge, not a band-aid.  Still, I
think it’s only fair to establish that caveat, and admit that I do not
find enjoyable the idea that a belief in Something Up There is actually
bad for society.

So what does this mean for us, here in the US?

If it’s right, it means we’re fucked.  Of course, we already knew that. (more…)