Most peaceful countries in the world: The numbers

Cpt_pineapple
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Most peaceful countries in the world: The numbers

Thanks to Hamby for posting this link

 

http://www.visionofhumanity.org/gpi/results/rankings.php

 

 

I will take the top 25 [As Hamby did in his topic]

 

Seeing as I am lazy:

 

The European countries %Theist will come from

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Religion_in_Europe#Eurobarometer_poll_2005

 

While non-European countries will come from their respective "Religion in..." articles.

 

CountryPeace Index% Theist
New Zealand1.20262
Denmark1.21731
Norway1.21732
Iceland 1.22538
Austria1.25254
Sweden1.26923
Japan1.27216*
Canada1.31177
Finland1.32241
Slovenia1.32237
Czech Republic1.32819
Ireland1.33373
Luxembourg1.34144
Portugal1.34881
Belgium1.35943
Germany1.39247
Qatar1.39298
Switzerland1.39348
 Australia1.47687
 Chile1.48192
Oman1.52080
Netherlands1.53134
Singapore1.53342**
Slovakia1.53961
Uruguay1.55788

 

* Japan is predominitly Shinto, which is still a religion.

** Religion in Singapore is mainly Buddist, and is unknown whether their form of buddism entails a God or not.

 

Expected value for % Theism

 

E[T]=54%

 

Epected value for Peace Index

 

E[P]=1.365

 

 

Coveriance

 

Cov[T,P]

1.209

 

We might as well stop right there, seeing as the correlation will be POSITIVE. I don't think it will be positive by a terribly large amount, however, it still will be positive.

 

Seeing as it took me quite a while to do the calculations and it's late, I'll do the correlation later, or somebody else can do it.

 

 

 

See? This is what I mean by numbers. Smiling

 

 

 

 


Cpt_pineapple
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/facepalm I

/facepalm

 

I wrote:

Coveriance

 

I mean *Covariance

 

 

 

 

 

 


Hambydammit
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 So... 7 out of the top 10

 So... 7 out of the top 10 coming in below 50%... not impressed?

 

Oh, and Pineapple, did you also include the degree to which theism is incorporated into daily life?  That's an important number, and you'd be doing your numbers a disservice if you simply took all theism as equal.  Clearly "social catholics" are not going to be as influenced by religion as devout Muslims or Baptists.

 

 

Atheism isn't a lot like religion at all. Unless by "religion" you mean "not religion". --Ciarin

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Hambydammit wrote: So... 7

Hambydammit wrote:

 So... 7 out of the top 10 coming in below 50%... not impressed?

 

Considering my calculations and your claims, not really.

 

 

 

Hambydammit wrote:

Oh, and Pineapple, did you also include the degree to which theism is incorporated into daily life?  

 

My psychic powers could not penetrate their mind barriers. So either we have a bunch of Theists or a bunch of liars

 

Are to taking into consideration, that I only mention THEISM, whereas, for example, 49% of Danes, 47% of Norwiegns, 48% of Iclanders, 34% of Austrians, 53% of Swedes, 41% of Fins, 46% of Slaovians  believe in a spirit or life force?

 

Those are in your top 10.

 

[edit]

Also Japan [also in the top 10] has massive amounts of Shinto/Buddist influence in their culture.

 [/edit]

 

 

Hambydammit wrote:

 

That's an important number, and you'd be doing your numbers a disservice if you simply took all theism as equal.  Clearly "social catholics" are not going to be as influenced by religion as devout Muslims or Baptists.

 

 

Hamby, your position is that BELIEF IN GOD [ie, as you put it taking things on faith] amplifies the bad [Remember the whole "muddy water" thing?]

 

 

This seems to go against it.

 

 

 


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Cap, what's the range of the

Cap, what's the range of the peace index, and which of the
endpoints of the range indicates most peaceful, and least.

Also, I'm curious if you know what crit4eria and time frame was used to measure a peace index, as well as, when the study was published. Tx.


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treat2 wrote:Cap, what's the

treat2 wrote:
Cap, what's the range of the peace index, and which of the endpoints of the range indicates most peaceful, and least.

 

From the link

 

Quote:

A lower score indicates a more peaceful country

 

 

treat2 wrote:

Also, I'm curious if you know what crit4eria and time frame was used to measure a peace index, as well as, when the study was published. Tx.

 

 

I have no idea, I was not the first one to post the link

 

 

 

 

 


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A slight boo-boo on my

A slight boo-boo on my part.

 

I mis-read the Uruguay article [I mis-read read it as 12% atheist, when it's 17% athest], and the % Theists is acutally 83%. Since this is still above the E[T], I don't see how this will change anything significantly.

 

 

 


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Whoops! I just thought of

{EDIT}

 

Disregard, Will work on calculations

{/EDIT}

 

 

 

 

 

 


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:o

Cpt_pineapple wrote:

{EDIT}

 

Disregard, Will work on calculations

{/EDIT}

 

I don't understand what you are trying to prove with this? This peace index doesn't show if religion is beneficial or not. The only conclusion you MIGHT be able to draw from it is about the country's military and political climate (both foreign policy and internal).  I don't see any linking factor from that to theism or atheism...just the elected government by that population. You could have a high peace rating by having a stable government, strong military in your area, and having no aggressive neighbor.

 

Hamby's post shows that the areas where there are a high number of atheists, there are also much more stable conditions. Keep in mind that the determinant doesn't show how good these places are, just the peace. A place with sharia religious law can be considered peaceful when they stone people to death for sodomy if the system is accepted by the people as legitimate, the military is strong, and the neighboring nations are peaceful. The US for example borders Mexico and Canada, two nations very unlikely to go to war with us, and who have relatively stable governments. 

 

From the site: -------------------------------------

 

Indicators consisting of quantitative data such as military expenditure or jailed population have been measured on the basis of the distribution of values across all countries between the maximum and minimum values (we assume that the 144 countries measured for the Global Peace Index are a representative sample of all countries). Each of the indicator’s data set has been divided into ten bands based on the full range of the data set and a country’s corresponding score results in its position in the distribution. Each indicator’s range between the maximum and minimum values has now been anchored in time based on data collected for the 2008 Global Peace Index. This is a change to the measurement methodology used in previous versions of the GPI and a description is provided below. In order to make comparable and fair assessments over time, the 2009 methodology has been used to recalculate GPI 2008. All ranking and score changes between the 2009 GPI and 2008 GPI are on the basis of these enhanced measuring techniques. A detailed explanation of the scoring criteria used for each indicator is available in the Results Report.

Measures of ongoing domestic and international conflict

The Global Peace Index is intended as a review of the state of peace in nations over the past year, although many indicators are based on available data from the last two years. The panel of experts decided against including data reflecting a country’s longer-term historical experience of domestic and international conflict on the grounds that the GPI uses authoritative statistics on ongoing civil and trans-national wars collated by institutes such as the Uppsala Conflict Data Program and the International Peace Research Institute, Oslo. These, combined with two indicators scored by the Economist Intelligence Unit’s analysts, comprise five of the 23 indicators:

  • Number of external and internal conflicts fought: 2002-07
  • Estimated number of deaths from organized conflict (external)
  • Number of deaths from organized conflict (internal)
  • Level of organized conflict (internal)
  • Relations with neighbouring countries

Measures of societal safety and security

Ten of the indicators assess the levels of safety and security in a society (country), ranging from the perception of criminality in society, to the level of respect for human rights and the rate of homicides and violent crimes. Crime data is from the UN Office of Drugs and Crime. Five of these indicators have been scored by the Economist Intelligence Unit’s team of country analysts:

 

  • Perceptions of criminality in society
  • Number of displaced people as a percentage of the population
  • Political instability
  • Level of disrespect for human rights (Political Terror Scale)
  • Potential for terrorist acts
  • Number of homicides per 100,000 people
  • Level of violent crime
  • Likelihood of violent demonstrations
  • Number of jailed population per 100,000 people
  • Number of internal security officers and police per 100,000 people

Measures of militarization

Eight of the indicators are related to a country’s military build-up - reflecting the assertion that the level of militarization and access to weapons is directly linked to how at peace a country feels internationally. Comparable data are readily available from sources such as the International Institute of Strategic Studies (IISS):

 

  • Military expenditure as a percentage of GDP
  • Number of armed services personnel per 100,000 people
  • Volume of transfers (imports) of major conventional weapons per 100,000 people
  • Volume of transfers (exports) of major conventional weapons per 100,000 people
  • Funding for UN peacekeeping missions: outstanding contributions versus annual assessment to the budget of the current peacekeeping missions
  • Aggregate number of heavy weapons per 100,000 people
  • Ease of access to small arms and light weapons
  • Military capability/sophistication

Weighting the index

The panel of experts apportioned scores based on the relative importance of each of the indicators on a 1-5 scale. The consensus scores for each indicator are presented in the results report.

 

Two sub-component weighted indices were then calculated from the GPI group of indicators:

 

  1. a measure of how at peace internally a country is;
  2. a measure of how at peace externally a country is (its state of peace beyond its borders).

The overall composite score and index was then formulated by applying a weight of 60% to the measure of internal peace and 40% for external peace. The heavier weight applied to internal peace was agreed within the panel of experts, following robust debate. The decision was based on the innovative notion that a greater level of internal peace is likely to lead to, or at least correlate with, lower external conflict.

Theism is why we can't have nice things.


Tapey
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ClockCat wrote:The overall

ClockCat wrote:

The overall composite score and index was then formulated by applying a weight of 60% to the measure of internal peace and 40% for external peace. The heavier weight applied to internal peace was agreed within the panel of experts, following robust debate. The decision was based on the innovative notion that a greater level of internal peace is likely to lead to, or at least correlate with, lower external conflict.

A mistake in my opinion. Because internal violence does not lead to external violence. Im not sure that internal peace leads to external peace, but i can see that it may be the case. The result countries that go around starting wars get a better ranking than those that have a crime problem.

Whatever goes upon two legs is an enemy.
Whatever goes upon four legs, or has wings, is a friend.
No animal shall wear clothes.
No animal shall sleep in a bed.
No animal shall drink alcohol.
No animal shall kill any other animal.
All animals are equal.


ClockCat
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Tapey wrote:ClockCat

Tapey wrote:

ClockCat wrote:

The overall composite score and index was then formulated by applying a weight of 60% to the measure of internal peace and 40% for external peace. The heavier weight applied to internal peace was agreed within the panel of experts, following robust debate. The decision was based on the innovative notion that a greater level of internal peace is likely to lead to, or at least correlate with, lower external conflict.

A mistake in my opinion. Because internal violence does not lead to external violence. Im not sure that internal peace leads to external peace, but i can see that it may be the case. The result countries that go around starting wars get a better ranking than those that have a crime problem.

 

Also, what "crime" is changes dramatically from country to country. Being stoned to death by sharia law for disgracing your family for example. In addition, they don't actually judge by number of crimes..rather the perception of it.

 

If you look at most of the more religious areas that have a higher peace index, you will notice either they are next to nations that follow the same belief system, or they are extremely isolated to where they have little to no bordering countries.

 

I would say this is because religion is a topic for contention, and what starts as a holy war for conversion frequently turns into actual war over differences in beliefs of how the world is in their minds. Isolated they do okay believing that, but put them up against contradicting beliefs and things start getting violent. It may not start as all-out war, but conflicts will surely come up from it, and a series of conflicts is enough to trigger almost anything. It usually doesn't stop until everyone is following one religion. Then it is only a matter of time before that religion splinters, and it would happen again...or another religion starts up.

 

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Religious_war

 

Theism is why we can't have nice things.


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:3

Also, I am curious about these things:

 

1. How much of a population are atheists of the bottom 25?

2. Out of the nations listed, where do the ones with larger populations of atheists curve out on average?

3. What is the same quesiton as #2 for countries with larger populations of theists?

Theism is why we can't have nice things.


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:o


ClockCat
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(No subject)


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:3


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:3

These were 2008 results from Gallup. Feel free to speculate!


Cpt_pineapple
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Due to Hamby's complaints, I

Due to Hamby's complaints, I am attempting to hunt down polls that indicate Religiousity such as the one Clockcat linked to.

 

And through the magic of Microsoft excel, I no longer have to do the calculations by hand and can hence increase my sample size

 

ClockCat wrote:

Also, I am curious about these things:

 

1. How much of a population are atheists of the bottom 25?

2. Out of the nations listed, where do the ones with larger populations of atheists curve out on average?

3. What is the same quesiton as #2 for countries with larger populations of theists?

 

 

I don't know the Theism/atheism % of the bottom 25

 

The other 2 I will try to find it out.

 

 

 


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IMO, these polls only show

IMO, these polls only show how irrelevant religion is.  With a large or small percetage of religious people, we seem to get a decent society in many areas that respect human rights (Read: learned the lessons of the Enlightenment and the Age of Reason), whereas it takes religion to really screw things up.

 

Lets see the numbers for the Hell-holes on Earth.  Do you think they are predominately secular or religious?

 

As it is said, it take a good person to good things, a bad person to do bad things, and only religion can make a good person do bad things...

Imagine the people who believe such things and who are not ashamed to ignore, totally, all the patient findings of thinking minds through all the centuries since the Bible was written. And it is these ignorant people, the most uneducated, the most unimaginative, the most unthinking among us, who would make themselves the guides and leaders of us all; who would force their feeble and childish beliefs on us; who would invade our schools and libraries and homes. I personally resent it bitterly.
Isaac Asimov


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Quote:See? This is what I

Quote:
See? This is what I mean by numbers. Smiling

Ruh roh.

Alison, run the numbers on number of murders per year (approximately) in our Solar System for planets with a stratospheric ozone layer vs planets with no stratospheric ozone layer. I think you'll find the relation between planets with an ozone layer and their murder rate to be nigh undeniable.

 

Damned ozone. It'll be the doom of us all.

Quote:
"Natasha has just come up to the window from the courtyard and opened it wider so that the air may enter more freely into my room. I can see the bright green strip of grass beneath the wall, and the clear blue sky above the wall, and sunlight everywhere. Life is beautiful. Let the future generations cleanse it of all evil, oppression and violence, and enjoy it to the full."

- Leon Trotsky, Last Will & Testament
February 27, 1940


Cpt_pineapple
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Results: Once again due to

Results:

 

Once again due to Hamby's complaints, I am stucking with European countries due to the fact they outright said whether or not they believe in God, where as in other countries it doesn't distinguish between:

 

1] People who merely put Islam/Christianity etc... on the census but do not practice

2] In category "Non-religious" it doesn't seperate the atheists from the Deists/Pantheists non-practicing Theists etc....

 

So I took PI and calculated it with

 

Belief in God

 

Belief in Spirit/life force

 

Belief in Neither God nor Spirit/Life force

 

Police per capita [to take into account one of the many factors that could contribute. When was the last time somebody robbed a donut shop? ]

 

I made a boo-boo, since PI decreases with Peace[who the fuck came up with that idea anyway? Shouldn't it be the NON-peace index then?], a positive correlation means the opposite.

 

I will simply put high/moderate/low [they were all moderate] and whether positive (+) or negative (-)

With 31 countries For religion [For some reason Malta, has dissappeared from the PI]:

and 29 countries for Police [Couldn't find Greece or Bulgaria Police per capita]

 

 

Between PI

 

God: Moderate +0.48

 

Spirit/Life force: Moderate -0.49

 

Neither: Moderate -0.37

 

Police: Moderate -0.47

 

 

 

Correlation between Police

 

God: Moderate -0.37

 

Spirit/Life Force: Moderate 0.47

 

None: Low 0.1


 

 

So technically if you want a peace full society/more police, grab a yoga mat and get in touch with your inner life force.*

 

But anyway, since these are moderate, it could be that religion does play a role, but it must be distinguished as to whether or not the social ills cause the religion or vice versa, and it's likely that other factors. [For example the police per capita is NEGATIVELY correlated with Belief God, so those countries that have a high belief in God have less police.]

 

 

 

*Cpt_Pineapple does not necessarily endorse life/spirit force and is not responsible for bruised knees from kneeling on the mat all day.

 

 

 


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?

So wait, you are saying that disbelief in god helps peace in Europe in a roundabout way?

 

Okay.

 

Since belief in spirit/lifeforce is listed as atheist/agnostic on the page you pulled it from.

Theism is why we can't have nice things.


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Alrighty; annually, about

Alrighty; annually, about 1.6 million human beings are violently killed on Earth each year. By comparison, zero people were killed on Venus, Mars, Mercury, Saturn, Jupiter, Uranus, Neptune or Sol. Earth is the only one of these bodies that has a stratospheric ozone layer. Therefore, ozone must be what is making people violent.

 

 

The above non sequitor is essentially the equivalent of Alison's argument.

Quote:
"Natasha has just come up to the window from the courtyard and opened it wider so that the air may enter more freely into my room. I can see the bright green strip of grass beneath the wall, and the clear blue sky above the wall, and sunlight everywhere. Life is beautiful. Let the future generations cleanse it of all evil, oppression and violence, and enjoy it to the full."

- Leon Trotsky, Last Will & Testament
February 27, 1940


Cpt_pineapple
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 Disregard the police 

 

Disregard the police  correlation. I can't seem to pin down reliable sources.

 

 

Kevin R Brown wrote:

Quote:
See? This is what I mean by numbers. Smiling

Ruh roh.

Alison, run the numbers on number of murders per year (approximately) in our Solar System for planets with a stratospheric ozone layer vs planets with no stratospheric ozone layer. I think you'll find the relation between planets with an ozone layer and their murder rate to be nigh undeniable.

 

Damned ozone. It'll be the doom of us all.

 

 

You didn't take into account the ratio of Carbon/Silicon in the minerals.

 

 

Clockcat wrote:

 

So wait, you are saying that disbelief in god helps peace in Europe in a roundabout way?

 

Okay.

 

Since belief in spirit/lifeforce is listed as atheist/agnostic on the page you pulled it from.

 

 

 

Not really

 

 

 

 

Now my head hurts from crunching all these numbers Sad

 

 


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A valient, if misdirected,

A valient, if misdirected, attempt, Captain.

 

Why not just see if the majority of criminals are Theists or not?  You might also see that if prison populations are low in violent countries, if there is a connection between the amount of violence with the amount of Theists/Atheists on the street?

 

I know, I know, it doesn't really work - and I know there is a larger percentage of criminals in prison than the general population....

 

Maybe see which country consumes the most Twinkies?

Imagine the people who believe such things and who are not ashamed to ignore, totally, all the patient findings of thinking minds through all the centuries since the Bible was written. And it is these ignorant people, the most uneducated, the most unimaginative, the most unthinking among us, who would make themselves the guides and leaders of us all; who would force their feeble and childish beliefs on us; who would invade our schools and libraries and homes. I personally resent it bitterly.
Isaac Asimov


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daedalus wrote: Maybe see

daedalus wrote:

 

Maybe see which country consumes the most Twinkies?

 

Actually I found a wikipedia article of beer consumption per capita, so I might have fun with that later Smiling

 

 [EDIT]

 

As for the prison population I doubt I would get accurate results.

 

It is unknown whether or not they are saying their Christian as it will help with the parole board for example.

 

[/EDIT]

 

 


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ClockCat wrote:FTW.

ClockCat wrote:

FTW.


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ClockCat wrote:Also

ClockCat wrote:

Also interesting that 5 of the 6 states that recognize gay marriage are also in the top 10 least religious.

Nobody I know was brainwashed into being an atheist.

Why Believe?


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Cpt_pineapple wrote:Thanks

Cpt_pineapple wrote:

Thanks to Hamby for posting this link

 

http://www.visionofhumanity.org/gpi/results/rankings.php

 

 

I will take the top 25 [As Hamby did in his topic]

 

Seeing as I am lazy:

 

The European countries %Theist will come from

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Religion_in_Europe#Eurobarometer_poll_2005

 

While non-European countries will come from their respective "Religion in..." articles.

 

CountryPeace Index% Theist
New Zealand1.20262
Denmark1.21731
Norway1.21732
Iceland 1.22538
Austria1.25254
Sweden1.26923
Japan1.27216*
Canada1.31177
Finland1.32241
Slovenia1.32237
Czech Republic1.32819
Ireland1.33373
Luxembourg1.34144
Portugal1.34881
Belgium1.35943
Germany1.39247
Qatar1.39298
Switzerland1.39348
 Australia1.47687
 Chile1.48192
Oman1.52080
Netherlands1.53134
Singapore1.53342**
Slovakia1.53961
Uruguay1.55788

 

* Japan is predominitly Shinto, which is still a religion.

** Religion in Singapore is mainly Buddist, and is unknown whether their form of buddism entails a God or not.

 

Expected value for % Theism

 

E[T]=54%

 

Epected value for Peace Index

 

E[P]=1.365

 

 

Coveriance

 

Cov[T,P]

1.209

 

We might as well stop right there, seeing as the correlation will be POSITIVE. I don't think it will be positive by a terribly large amount, however, it still will be positive.

 

Seeing as it took me quite a while to do the calculations and it's late, I'll do the correlation later, or somebody else can do it.

 

 

 

See? This is what I mean by numbers. Smiling

 

 

 

 

From what we all know of the CIA, it would seem reasonable
for to conclude that the CIA gathers their stats and subsequently poses naive questions such as the one above, and then using their stats they come to moronic conclusions which then are sold to the President by the
President's closest moronic "advisors."


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:3

geirj wrote:

ClockCat wrote:

Also interesting that 5 of the 6 states that recognize gay marriage are also in the top 10 least religious.

 

Also interesting that I wouldn't be caught alone in the most religious states BECAUSE I am gay, for fear of my safety.

Theism is why we can't have nice things.