The God Delusion, Data
Posted on: June 29, 2011 - 4:13am
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The God Delusion, Data
I'm not sure if this is the appropriate forum for this, but I didn't see one that seemed more likely. Here goes.
In The God Delusion, Richard Dawkins presented data from one or more studies on the correlation between religious belief and various societal health indicators (such as violence, teenage pregnancy, etc.) I'm having trouble locating my copy of the book to find out more about this study/these studies, and Google is just turning up sales figures when I search for data from the book. Does anyone know what study or studies were being referenced, or where I might be able to find out?
Religion is a virus.
Fight the infection.
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There is a standard article on this by Gregory S Paul, published in the Journal of Religion and Society.
The original article is http://moses.creighton.edu/JRS/2005/2005-11.html
This article was also discussed elsewhere - here is a good start:
http://www.skeptic.com/reading_room/religious-belief-and-societal-health/
Favorite oxymorons: Gospel Truth, Rational Supernaturalist, Business Ethics, Christian Morality
"Theology is now little more than a branch of human ignorance. Indeed, it is ignorance with wings." - Sam Harris
The path to Truth lies via careful study of reality, not the dreams of our fallible minds - me
From the sublime to the ridiculous: Science -> Philosophy -> Theology
Excellent! Thank you, Bob.
I heard that there are studies correlating atheism and stupidity.
I could probably use this website as a baseline.
Because you're allowed to post on it?
"I do this real moron thing, and it's called thinking. And apparently I'm not a very good American because I like to form my own opinions."
— George Carlin
So, what was the point of this post?
Religion is a virus.
Fight the infection.
Mr_M,
There certainly are studies correlating atheism with high accomplishment and status in science, which certainly requires intelligence, and also studies correlating less-religious societies with higher indexes of social well-being and lower crime-levels than similarly 'advanced' nations and societies with higher indices of religious observance.
The now well-known study by Gregory S Paul showed negative correlation between positive social measures and levels of religious observance.
So you may have mis-heard, or perhaps just wishful thinking, ie, you would like to believe that.
Favorite oxymorons: Gospel Truth, Rational Supernaturalist, Business Ethics, Christian Morality
"Theology is now little more than a branch of human ignorance. Indeed, it is ignorance with wings." - Sam Harris
The path to Truth lies via careful study of reality, not the dreams of our fallible minds - me
From the sublime to the ridiculous: Science -> Philosophy -> Theology