In broad terms the hypothesis that popular religiosity is socially beneficial holds that high rates of belief in a creator, as well as worship, prayer and other aspects of religious practice, correlate with lowering rates of lethal violence, suicide, non-monogamous sexual activity, and abortion, as well as improved physical health. Such faith-based, virtuous “cultures of life” are supposedly attainable if people believe that God created them for a special purpose, and follow the strict moral dictates imposed by religion.
Dale Ashberry sent me a link to this
Societies worse off 'when they have God on their side'
By Ruth Gledhill, Religion Correspondent
RELIGIOUS belief can cause damage to a society, contributing towards high murder rates, abortion, sexual promiscuity and suicide, according to research published today.
According to the study, belief in and worship of God are not only unnecessary for a healthy society but may actually contribute to social problems.
I've seen it make the rounds, and my instant reaction was there are likely correlaion vs. causation issues here. Reading the study itself shows any such error is in the reports.
[2] This study is a first, brief look at an important subject that has been almost entirely neglected by social scientists. The primary intent is to present basic correlations of the elemental data. Some conclusions that can be gleaned from the plots are outlined. This is not an attempt to present a definitive study that establishes cause versus effect between religiosity, secularism and societal health. It is hoped that these original correlations and results will spark future research and debate on the issue.
On the other hand...
Japan, Scandinavia, and France are the most secular nations in the west, the United States is the only prosperous first world nation to retain rates of religiosity otherwise limited to the second and third worlds (Bishop; PEW). Prosperous democracies where religiosity is low (which excludes the U.S.) are referred to below as secular developing democracies
...A few hundred years ago rates of homicide were astronomical in Christian Europe and the American colonies (Beeghley; R. Lane). In all secular developing democracies a centuries long-term trend has seen homicide rates drop to historical lows...Despite a significant decline from a recent peak in the 1980s (Rosenfeld), the U.S. is the only prosperous democracy that retains high homicide rates, making it a strong outlier in this regard (Beeghley; Doyle, 2000). Similarly, theistic Portugal also has rates of homicides well above the secular developing democracy norm
...Increasing adolescent abortion rates show positive correlation with increasing belief and worship of a creator, and negative correlation with increasing non-theism and acceptance of evolution; again rates are uniquely high in the U.S. (Figure 8). Claims that secular cultures aggravate abortion rates (John Paul II) are therefore contradicted by the quantitative data. Early adolescent pregnancy and birth have dropped in the developing democracies (Abma et al.; Singh and Darroch), but rates are two to dozens of times higher in the U.S. where the decline has been more modest (Figure 9). Broad correlations between decreasing theism and increasing pregnancy and birth are present, with Austria and especially Ireland being partial exceptions.
...the correlations are deep.
Having just gone through The Legacy of Lynching and Southern Homicide, and having found this
According to Bowers, however, the potential killer may instead experience “villain identification.” A person with whom the potential killer has a grievance becomes identified with the executed, and through such association, the potential killer “sees that death is what his [or her] despised offender deserves” (1984:274). The more likely personal identification for the potential killer, Bowers suggests, is with the state as executioner. Rather than fostering deterrence, such identification will “justify and reinforce his [or her] desire for lethal vengeance” (p. 274). The results of the research on the brutalization effects of legal executions have been mixed. Some studies find evidence supporting the brutalization hypothesis (Bailey 1998; Cochran, Chamlin, and Seth 1994; Stack 1994), while others do not (Bailey 1990; King 1978). There is good reason to expect, however, that the basic processes associated with the brutalization thesis would be even more likely to accompany the phenomenon of lynching than capital punishment.
I wonder how likely it would be that someone identifying with an all-powerful being that punished with death and eternal torment for the violation of his smallest edict might experience a similar, if possibly more subtle, brutalization effect. If there's a mechanism that explains the lynching-to-current murder rate correlation, it would likely apply here.
Interesting.
