Changes: Can Decline in religious belief improve society?

Latest revision as of 08:06, 21 May 2016

Percent of people who are irreligious — The percentage of people per country who are irreligious.

Can Decline in religious belief improve society?
Secular nations like Sweden and Denmark are happier than the United States which is overall more religious. Further the United States Bible Belt suffers from many social problems that are less severe in more liberal and more secular parts of the United States. So the answer could be yes. ^[1]

Happiness map — A map of world happiness. From happiest to least happy, the colors are: green, blue, purple, orange, red.

Getting scientific proof in the social sciences is generally much harder than it is in the physical sciences so more careful analysis is needed before we can say anything definitive. Preliminary research suggests that religion may actually be bad for society. ^[2] One individual study isn't conclusive but when a wide range of publications all come up with the same result, that religious do worse than more secular orientated societies that becomes significant. What hasn't been shown is whether more liberal belief systems, notably Liberal Christianity are also harmful. Altheratively these less extreme religious types may not be doing enough to compensate for the harm that Fundamentalist Christians and Fundamentalistsfrom other Faiths do.

United States of America

For one thing social problems in the US Bible Belt date back to the Civil War in the 19th Century and to the times of slavery before that. Sorting out how far the poisonous Christian fundamentalism is a cause of social problems and how far social problems cause Christian fundamentalism would require extensive research. If any American graduates reading this are considering doing a PhD you could discuss this project with your supervisor. Intuitively the following looks likely.

Social problems exacerbate Christian fundamentalism in the US Bible Belt.
Christian fundamentalism exacerbates social problems in the US Bible Belt.

External links

Secular Americans: Freethinkers in a Free Market of Religion
Atheism on the upswing in America
Is religion good for society? And the USA won't do worse if religion declines.

France and the USA compared

In France there is a principle of laïcité which is hard to define but seems to mean that the state is separate from religion. Theoretically this applies in the USA as well but religion was taught there till the Madalyn Murray O'Hair brought a defining court case. Intelligent Design is taught in many US states and there are continual complaints about unconstitutional religious activity in US public schools. By contrast in France laïcité is respected and French public schools (state schools in UK English) teach school students to evaluate other cultural belief systems as well as their own. ^[3]

There is a good and a a bad side to Christianity, see the category page

Footnotes and references

↑ This article is about secularism rather than atheism because in practice agnostics freethinkers generally, even deists are likely to frame government in secular terms and follow political ideologies that are similar to what atheists choose.
↑ Cross-National Correlations of Quantifiable Societal Health with Popular Religiosity and Secularism in the Prosperous Democracies This long document doesn't prove conclusively that religion worsens society but suggests religion might be harmful.
↑ What is French "Laïcité" (laicity)?

Can secularism improve society? Link which will work
Can secularism improve society? Permanent link to the article as it was at 6.30 pm UK time 29th Aug 2012

The links below deal with Scandinavia, I plan to write about that later’’

Society without God: What the Least Religious Nations Can Tell Us About Contentment

External links

We hope you like the external links we've found for you though we know links won't always suit everybody. If you like our links please return to Atheism Wiki later when you've got everything you want from our links. If our links don't suit you you can come back to Atheism Wiki and look for something that suits you better.

Religion Does No Harm, Bill Maher reflects Hilarious video

[1] This article is about secularism rather than atheism because in practice agnostics freethinkers generally, even deists are likely to frame government in secular terms and follow political ideologies that are similar to what atheists choose.

[2] Cross-National Correlations of Quantifiable Societal Health with Popular Religiosity and Secularism in the Prosperous Democracies This long document doesn't prove conclusively that religion worsens society but suggests religion might be harmful.

[3] What is French "Laïcité" (laicity)?

[1]

[2]

[3]

@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
+[[File:Percent_of_people_who_are_irreligious.png|thumb|400px|The percentage of people per country who are irreligious.]]
-'''Can Decling in religious belief improve society?'''<br>
+'''Can Decline in religious belief improve society?'''<br />
-Secular nations like Sweden and Denmark are happier than the United States which is overall more religious.  Further the United States [[Bible Belt]] suffers from many social problems that are less severe in more liberal and more secular parts of the United States.  So the answer could be yes. <ref>This article is about [[secularism]] rather than [[atheism]] because in practise [[agnosticism|agnostics]] [[freethought|freethinkers]] generally, even [[deism|deists]] are likely to frame government in secular terms and follow political ideologies that are similar to what atheists choose.</ref>
+Secular nations like Sweden and Denmark are happier than the United States which is overall more religious. Further the United States [[Bible Belt]] suffers from many social problems that are less severe in more liberal and more secular parts of the United States. So the answer could be yes. <ref>This article is about [[secularism]] rather than [[atheism]] because in practice [[agnosticism|agnostics]] [[freethought|freethinkers]] generally, even [[deism|deists]] are likely to frame government in secular terms and follow political ideologies that are similar to what atheists choose.</ref>
-Getting [[Scientific method|scientific proof]] in the social sciences is generally much harder than it is in the physical sciences so more careful analysis is needed before we can say anything definitive.  Preliminary research suggests that religion may actually be bad for society. <ref>[https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&q=cache:36YayjKr-1gJ:onegoodmove.org/1gm/documents/ReligionAndSociety.pdf+Cross-National+Correlations+of+Quantifiable+Societal+Health+with+Popular+Religiosity+and+Secularism+in+the+Prosperous+Democracies&hl=en&gl=uk&pid=bl&srcid=ADGEEShcQZYJBvOj8AmhxefuQigGclcf8XkgMZuhyX9QMdLxT3njhHHSytHMe-hCLP0_-W0xiTw7TsBfbM3VhwLPvL1BXyYd4ddIMZeogz-0-u7swf9H8Xymc-cyeeARD0S34vhhG_8P&sig=AHIEtbQ6IesW71Ge-7KRMvWektMqw9MQVA Cross-National Correlations of Quantifiable Societal Health with Popular Religiosity and Secularism in the Prosperous Democracies] This long document doesn't prove conclusively that religion worsens society but suggests religion might be harmful. </ref>
+[[File:Happiness_map.jpg|thumb|400px|A map of world happiness.  From happiest to least happy, the colors are: green, blue, purple, orange, red.]]Getting [[Scientific method|scientific proof]] in the social sciences is generally much harder than it is in the physical sciences so more careful analysis is needed before we can say anything definitive. Preliminary research suggests that religion may actually be bad for society. <ref>[https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&q=cache:36YayjKr-1gJ:onegoodmove.org/1gm/documents/ReligionAndSociety.pdf+Cross-National+Correlations+of+Quantifiable+Societal+Health+with+Popular+Religiosity+and+Secularism+in+the+Prosperous+Democracies&hl=en&gl=uk&pid=bl&srcid=ADGEEShcQZYJBvOj8AmhxefuQigGclcf8XkgMZuhyX9QMdLxT3njhHHSytHMe-hCLP0_-W0xiTw7TsBfbM3VhwLPvL1BXyYd4ddIMZeogz-0-u7swf9H8Xymc-cyeeARD0S34vhhG_8P&sig=AHIEtbQ6IesW71Ge-7KRMvWektMqw9MQVA Cross-National Correlations of Quantifiable Societal Health with Popular Religiosity and Secularism in the Prosperous Democracies] This long document doesn't prove conclusively that religion worsens society but suggests religion might be harmful. </ref> One individual study isn't conclusive but when a wide range of publications all come up with the same result, that religious do worse than more secular orientated societies that becomes significant. What hasn't been shown is whether more liberal belief systems, notably [[Liberal Christianity]] are also harmful. Altheratively these less extreme religious types may not be doing enough to compensate for the harm that [[Fundamentalist Christians]] and [[Fundamentalist]]sfrom other [[Faith]]s do.
 ==United States of America==
-For one thing social problems in the US Bible Belt date back to the Civil War in the 19th Century and to the times of slavery before that.  Sorting out how far the poisonous [[Christian fundamentalism]] is a cause of social problems and how far social problems cause Christian fundamentalism would require extensive research.  If any American graduates reading this are considering doing a PhD you could discuss this project with your supervisor.  Intuitively the following looks likely.
+For one thing social problems in the US Bible Belt date back to the Civil War in the 19th Century and to the times of slavery before that. Sorting out how far the poisonous [[Christian fundamentalism]] is a cause of social problems and how far social problems cause Christian fundamentalism would require extensive research. If any American graduates reading this are considering doing a PhD you could discuss this project with your supervisor. Intuitively the following looks likely.
 #Social problems exacerbate Christian fundamentalism in the US Bible Belt.
 #Christian fundamentalism exacerbates social problems in the US Bible Belt.
@@ Line 15: / Line 16: @@
 ==France and the USA compared==
-In France there is a principle of laïcité which is hard to define but seems to mean that the state is separate from religion.  Theoretically this applies in the USA as well but religion was taught there till the [[Madalyn Murray O'Hair]] brought a defining court case.  [[Intelligent Design]] is taught in many US states and there are continual complaints about unconstitutional religious activity in US public schools.  By contrast in France laïcité is respected and French public schools (state schools in UK English) teach school students to evaluate other cultural belief systems as well as their own.  <ref>[http://frenchwindows.hautetfort.com/archive/2008/01/02/what-is-laicite.html What is French "Laïcité" (laicity)?]</ref>
+In France there is a principle of laïcité which is hard to define but seems to mean that the state is separate from religion. Theoretically this applies in the USA as well but religion was taught there till the [[Madalyn Murray O'Hair]] brought a defining court case. [[Intelligent Design]] is taught in many US states and there are continual complaints about unconstitutional religious activity in US public schools. By contrast in France laïcité is respected and French public schools (state schools in UK English) teach school students to evaluate other cultural belief systems as well as their own. <ref>[http://frenchwindows.hautetfort.com/archive/2008/01/02/what-is-laicite.html What is French "Laïcité" (laicity)?]</ref>
+{{Good and bad Christianity}}
 ==Footnotes and references==
 <references/>
 *[http://rationalwiki.org/w/index.php?title=RationalWiki:Saloon_bar&diff=prev&oldid=1073912 Can secularism improve society?] Link which will work
 *[http://rationalwiki.org/w/index.php?title=RationalWiki:Saloon_bar&oldid=1073968#Can_secularism_improve_society.3F Can secularism improve society?] Permanent link to the article as it was at 6.30 pm UK time 29th Aug 2012
-<small>''The links below deal with Scandinavia, I plan to write about that later’’</small>
+<small>''The links below deal with Scandinavia, I plan to write about that later’’''</small>
 *[http://www.trincoll.edu/depts/csrpl/rinvol9no2/insert/Denmark.htm Secularism:The Case in Denmark]
 *[http://commonsenseatheism.com/?p=3189 Society without God]
 *[http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/28/us/28beliefs.html?pagewanted=all Scandinavian Nonbelievers, Which Is Not to Say Atheists]
 *[http://www.amazon.com/dp/0814797148/ref=nosim?tag=lukeprogcom-20 Society without God: What the Least Religious Nations Can Tell Us About Contentment]
+==External links==
+{{External links}}
+*[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HyHhAoxTXKI Religion Does No Harm, Bill Maher reflects] Hilarious video
 [[Category:Atheism]]