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Honestly, I'm a little baffled. Is this a polemic
against religion/religious belief or a news report?
Undoubtedly, there are a lot of assertions in this
piece that can be taken to tasks regarding veracity.
I definitely will look to read the original article by
Mr. Gregory St. Paul. Of particular interest are the
assumptions (if any) that frame his study.
If time permits, I will do that before heading for the
Christmas break.
- Wilmot
--- Aggo Akyea <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> The Dark Side of Faith
>
> by Rosa Brooks
> Saturday, October 1, 2005
> Los Angeles Times
>
> It's official: Too much religion may be a
> dangerous thing.
>
> This is the implication of a study reported in the
> current issue of the Journal of Religion and
> Society, a publication of Creighton University's
> Center for the Study of Religion. The study, by
> evolutionary scientist Gregory S. Paul, looks at the
> correlation between levels of "popular religiosity"
> and various "quantifiable societal health"
> indicators in 18 prosperous democracies, including
> the United States.
> [http://moses.creighton.edu/JRS/2005/2005-11.html]
>
> Paul ranked societies based on the percentage of
> their population expressing absolute belief in God,
> the frequency of prayer reported by their citizens
> and their frequency of attendance at religious
> services. He then correlated this with data on
> rates of homicide, sexually transmitted disease,
> teen pregnancy, abortion and child mortality.
>
> He found that the most religious democracies
> exhibited substantially higher degrees of social
> dysfunction than societies with larger percentages
> of atheists and agnostics. Of the nations studied,
> the U.S. — which has by far the largest percentage
> of people who take the Bible literally and express
> absolute belief in God (and the lowest percentage
> of atheists and agnostics) — also has by far the
> highest levels of homicide, abortion, teen
> pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases.
>
> This conclusion will come as no surprise to those
> who have long gnashed their teeth in frustration
> while listening to right-wing evangelical claims
> that secular liberals are weak on "values." Paul's
> study confirms globally what is already evident in
> the U.S.: When it comes to "values," if you look at
> facts rather than mere rhetoric, the substantially
> more secular blue states routinely leave the Bible
> Belt red states in the dust.
>
> Murder rates? Six of the seven states with the
> highest 2003 homicide rates were "red" in the 2004
> elections (Louisiana, Mississippi, Nevada, Arizona,
> Georgia, South Carolina), while the deep blue
> Northeastern states had murder rates well below the
> national average. Infant mortality rates? Highest
> in the South and Southwest; lowest in New England.
> Divorce rates? Marriages break up far more in red
> states than in blue. Teen pregnancy rates? The
> same.
>
> Of course, the red/blue divide is only an
> imperfect proxy for levels of religiosity. And
> while Paul's study found that the correlation
> between high degrees of religiosity and high
> degrees of social dysfunction appears robust, it
> could be that high levels of social dysfunction fuel
> religiosity, rather than the other way around.
>
> Although correlation is not causation, Paul's
> study offers much food for thought. At a minimum,
> his findings suggest that contrary to popular
> belief, lack of religiosity does societies no
> particular harm. This should offer ammunition to
> those who maintain that religious belief is a
> purely private matter and that government should
> remain neutral, not only among religions but also
> between religion and lack of religion. It should
> also give a boost to critics of "faith-based"
> social services and abstinence-only disease and
> pregnancy prevention programs.
>
> We shouldn't shy away from the possibility that
> too much religiosity may be socially dangerous.
> Secular, rationalist approaches to problem-solving
> emphasize uncertainty, evidence and perpetual
> reevaluation. Religious faith is inherently
> nonrational.
>
> This in itself does not make religion worthless or
> dangerous. All humans hold nonrational beliefs, and
> some of these may have both individual and societal
> value. But historically, societies run into trouble
> when powerful religions become imperial and
> absolutist.
>
> The claim that religion can have a dark side
> should not be news. Does anyone doubt that Islamic
> extremism is linked to the recent rise in
> international terrorism? And since the history of
> Christianity is every bit as blood-drenched as the
> history of Islam, why should we doubt that
> extremist forms of modern American Christianity have
> their own pernicious and measurable effects on
> national health and well-being?
>
> Arguably, Paul's study invites us to conclude that
> the most serious threat humanity faces today is
> religious extremism: nonrational, absolutist belief
> systems that refuse to tolerate difference and
> dissent.
>
> My prediction is that right-wing evangelicals will
> do their best to discredit Paul's substantive
> findings. But when they fail, they'll just shrug:
> So what if highly religious societies have more
> murders and disease than less religious societies?
> Remember the trials of Job? God likes to test the
> faithful.
>
> To the truly nonrational, even evidence that on
> its face undermines your beliefs can be twisted to
> support them. Absolutism means never having to say
> you're sorry.
>
> And that, of course, is what makes it so very
> dangerous.
>
> © Copyright 2005 Los Angeles Times
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> Aggo Akyea
> http://www.tribalpages.com/tribes/akyea
>
> "Instead of studying how to make it worth men's
> while to buy my baskets,
> I studied rather how to avoid the necessity of
> selling them."
> WALDEN by Henry David Thoreau – 1854
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
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