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New study on religion

WordInterrupted

WordInterrupted

Troll Kingdom Ambassador
“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.â€

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.
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http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2-1798944,00.html

I guess religious faith isn't the cornerstone of Western Civilization after all!
 
Odd. The article mentions nothing of the strong correlation of race to the above mentioned afflictions.
 
There are obvious historical explanations for why they may correlate with race. What makes this study interesting is that it's not so easy to understand why they correlate with religion.
 
Perhaps, but casting a blanket such as the belief in Creationism over this when there are other things to take into consideration makes as much sense to me as asking if it's a question of living in the correct hemisphere.
 
I think they're interested in beleif in creationism as an indicator of religious fundamentalism, not as the single cause of all social problems.
 
WordInterrupted said:
I think they're interested in beleif in creationism as an indicator of religious fundamentalism, not as the single cause of all social problems.
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"Many liberal Christians and believers of other faiths hold that religious belief is socially beneficial, believing that it helps to lower rates of violent crime, murder, suicide, sexual promiscuity and abortion. The benefits of religious belief to a society have been described as its “spiritual capitalâ€. But the study claims that the devotion of many in the US may actually contribute to its ills."

“The non-religious, proevolution democracies contradict the dictum that a society cannot enjoy good conditions unless most citizens ardently believe in a moral creator.

“The widely held fear that a Godless citizenry must experience societal disaster is therefore refuted.â€
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These are only the opinions of Mr. Paul, derived from the "wrong hemisphere" POV and expertly woven into the article to make them factual.



Societies worse off 'when they have God on their side'
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RELIGIOUS belief can cause damage to a society, contributing towards high murder rates, abortion, sexual promiscuity and suicide, according to research published today.
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They fail to mention how it is a contributor.
 
and now I have a baby brother, and he's the new savior of the world...he's always telling me to be good. DAMN YOU JESUS!
 
They fail to mention how it is a contributor.
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Of course they don't. This article demonstrates correlation, not causation. Discussion of causation in the absence of further research would be completely irresponsible. Anyone with rudimentary training in social science appreciates the importance of this distinction.
 
Of course they don't. This article demonstrates correlation, not causation.
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What correlation? I can state that civilization of European origin has strong roots to Creationism due to it's proximity to the northern magnetic pole, and as everyone knows, God and Heaven are Up and North, and therefore, Europeans heard God's voice louder than other peoples.

While this article is not nearly as outrageous as that claim, it's still based on the same way of thinking.

Anyone with rudimentary training in social science appreciates the importance of this distinction.
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Very subtle poisoning of the well. There is no need for this. I'm sure you're well read and intelligent. Let your arguments speak for themselves.
 
While this article is not nearly as outrageous as that claim, it's still based on the same way of thinking.
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It's based on statistical evidence. If you have a problem with the way statistical evidence was used, please present your objection.

Very subtle poisoning of the well. There is no need for this. I'm sure you're well read and intelligent. Let your arguments speak for themselves.
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Oh boo hoo. If you make ignorant, uninformed claims, I have no qualms about bonking you on the nose.
 
WordInterrupted said:
It's based on statistical evidence. If you have a problem with the way statistical evidence was used, please present your objection
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I already have.

Oh boo hoo. If you make ignorant, uninformed claims, I have no qualms about bonking you on the nose.
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Taking the easy way out? Please refute my comparison of the assertion of this article to my belief that God lives with Santa in the North Pole, and Europeans have historically been able to hear him better than other peoples.
 
Taking the easy way out? Please refute my comparison of the assertion of this article to my belief that God lives with Santa in the North Pole, and Europeans have historically been able to hear him better than other peoples.
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I don't need to refute it. It's not even an argument. This study uses statistical regression to find correlations between data indicating religious devotion and data describing social trends. They found a correlation between high levels of devotion and undesirable social trends. Their reasoning has no relationship to claims about where god lives.
 
WordInterrupted said:
I don't need to refute it. It's not even an argument. This study uses statistical regression to find correlations between data indicating religious devotion and data describing social trends. They found a correlation between high levels of devotion and undesirable social trends.
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If this discussion is going to morph back forth and is currently about religious devotion correlating with undesirable social trends, then I'm sure we can assume that Muslim Fundamentalism and Orthodox Judiasm suffer from the same social trends.

Their reasoning has no relationship to claims about where god lives.
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I disagree. I can look in an atlas and compile the data in such a way so as to show that European civilization was based in the northern continent of Europe, close to the north pole, historically worshipped Christ, and pull the ridiculous conclusion out of my ass that God must live with the penguins in the North Pole and totally ignore the fact that God may not exist and that Christianity did not originate in Europe, as this article did.

I don't know about you, but I think we're touching on too many topics at once and that this discussion is becoming a bit convoluted.
 
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