Religion is Linked to Immoral Behavior in New Study

[Mr Danksworth]

For all of those who think religion is the end all and be all of morality....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w-E-FaeVVsw

[Queen K]

Or if YouTube is not your bag, try God is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything by Christopher Hitchens.

[Phoenix Within]

I think I've seen that book. How was it anyway?

[rookie314]

So what does it poison? Does it poison the food delivered to the homeless shelter? Does it poison the clothing that is donated to the Single mother familes? Does it poison the palitive care that is given by a preacher of a person of faith over a dying senior? Does it poison the money being raised right now by churchs in Kelowna to help out the burned our womens shelter on Bernard? Does it poison the mission work done by Kelowna Christian High School students who travel to Mexico for 6 weeks of living with the impoverished, building a school or maybe a new roof on an orphanage? If that is poison you folks have a definite issue with reality or should I say you are intoxicated by the flavour of the month, bashing Christianity.

[Queen K]

The God is Not Great is sitting right in front of me, but I haven't decided to read it yet.

Are you saying good works can only come through God?

[rookie314]

Of course not, however it is the core of Christian values and why would anyone call that poison?

[Mr Danksworth]

So what does it poison? Does it poison the food delivered to the homeless shelter? Does it poison the clothing that is donated to the Single mother familes? Does it poison the palitive care that is given by a preacher of a person of faith over a dying senior? Does it poison the money being raised right now by churchs in Kelowna to help out the burned our womens shelter on Bernard? Does it poison the mission work done by Kelowna Christian High School students who travel to Mexico for 6 weeks of living with the impoverished, building a school or maybe a new roof on an orphanage? If that is poison you folks have a definite issue with reality or should I say you are intoxicated by the flavour of the month, bashing Christianity.

If you listen to the report you'll hear what it poisons. Homicide, suicide, rape, teen pregnancy, std's....social ill's in general, all more prominent the more 'faithful' one is. Did you even watch it before you got your self-righteous persecution complex all fired up? I have no qualms with the 'good' work that some churches do, but what cost does society at large have to pay for the negative aspects? Did you ever think that maybe religion actually causes some of the problems they claim to be helping?

[rookie314]

and my point is, its a crock. Your trying to tell me that people of faith are more likely to murder, rape, rob, lie, cheat, steal. That is beyond laughable. As for what it poisons, that is my point, with more people living as the faith promotes we would poison murder, robbery, rape, insest, pick your favouite moral violation. Also I was responding to the comment that religion poisons everything.

[Mr Danksworth]

It's all in the numbers baby! I think it's because the more 'faithful', as a whole, are usually poor, undereducated, and raised in ignorance.

[zzontar]

It's all in the numbers baby! I think it's because the more 'faithful', as a whole, are usually poor, undereducated, and raised in ignorance.

This must be related to the study that says something like 97%? (soulra would have the numbers handy) of all criminals in jail are religious. Again, talk is cheap... saying you're religious might lessen your sentence when before a jury or judge.

Soulra, I guess you think the faithful posters on here live under bridges and can't spell, but you're proof in this case that ignorance is no stranger to an atheist.

[Glacier]

For all of those who think religion is the end all and be all of morality....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w-E-FaeVVsw

That is funny because UBC just published a study that says the opposite (kind of).

Psychology experiments show that thoughts of an omniscient, morally concerned God reduce levels of cheating and selfish behaviour

http://www.physorg.com/news142174482.html

Full article found here.
http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/322/5898/58

[Queen K]

and my point is, its a crock. Your trying to tell me that people of faith are more likely to murder, rape, rob, lie, cheat, steal. That is beyond laughable. As for what it poisons, that is my point, with more people living as the faith promotes we would poison murder, robbery, rape, insest, pick your favouite moral violation. Also I was responding to the comment that religion poisons everything.

I did not make so much as a "comment" as merely offered a book title as an alternative reading to a Youtube posting. Again, the title of a BOOK is "God is not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything," by Christopher Hitchens. How is this a comment? And because this is a title of a book, it does not imply that anyone is trying to tell anyone anything. Unless you read the contents of such book and accept the author's argument as worthy of further discussion, you have nothing on which to base an argument.

[Mr Danksworth]

It's all in the numbers baby! I think it's because the more 'faithful', as a whole, are usually poor, undereducated, and raised in ignorance.

This must be related to the study that says something like 97%? (soulra would have the numbers handy) of all criminals in jail are religious. Again, talk is cheap... saying you're religious might lessen your sentence when before a jury or judge.

Soulra, I guess you think the faithful posters on here live under bridges and can't spell, but you're proof in this case that ignorance is no stranger to an atheist.

Nice ad hominem attack, Zzontard. Here's some more evil numbers. It's a long read, so I won't copy it all here.....

Cross-National Correlations of Quantifiable Societal Health with Popular Religiosity and Secularism in the Prosperous Democracies
http://www.ffrf.org/timely/Religion&Society.pdf
Large-scale surveys show dramatic declines in religiosity in favor of secularization in the
developed democracies. Popular acceptance of evolutionary science correlates negatively with
levels of religiosity, and the United States is the only prosperous nation where the majority
absolutely believes in a creator and evolutionary science is unpopular. Abundant data is available
on rates of societal dysfunction and health in the first world. Cross-national comparisons of highly
differing rates of religiosity and societal conditions form a mass epidemiological experiment that
can be used to test whether high rates of belief in and worship of a creator are necessary for high
levels of social health. Data correlations show that in almost all regards the highly secular
democracies consistently enjoy low rates of societal dysfunction, while pro-religious and anti-
evolution America performs poorly.

[Big ned]

This whole study is a crock. Of course the number of religious in jail is higher.. could be for many reasons, but statistcally... because 80 + percent of america claims to be religious, all you are getting is the same number percapita.

Of course, generalizations are dangerous, because (an again, I prefer to speak for myself rather than all religion) in a study quoted by wikipedia... through some areas and religions the lower education level holds true, but the study holds out lds as an example of where it doesn't.

"Studies of Mormons in the US also display a high positive correlation between education levels and religiosity. Survey research indicated that 41% of Mormons with only elementary school education attend church regularly. By contrast, 76% of Mormon college graduates attend church regularly and 78% of Mormons who went beyond their college degrees to do graduate study attend church regularly.[17] Again, the researchers do not equate this educational level with intelligence. This study did not control for age or track apostasy over time."

And soulra, is it really necessary to thrown in personal attacks at zontar...This doesn't really assist in your claims that this study puts forward. Edit to add, missed the attack by zontar... come on guys.. let's try to keep it clean and have civil discussions.

[Mr Danksworth]

This whole study is a crock.

It's been peer reviewed. I'm not surprised by your answer though. What you are experiencing is a gut reaction to a fact that doesn't fit your view of reality.