From my rapidly expanding anger toward religion, something to which I will aggressively apply future endeavors, I am offering this post as my opening salvo against hate-filled, destructive, evil cults.  By cult I mean all religions, since big congregations like to use that word to describe little congregations, but I prefer to use it according to its proper definition: a religion and/or religious group.

A new study was released today (or, at least, came to my attention today) that dispels all arguments against what I have said and maintained for quite some time: that religion is the cause of evil in society, and it fails to accomplish anything positive in that regard.  To wit:

It is commonly held that religion makes people more just, compassionate, and moral, but a new study suggests that the data belie that assumption. In fact, at first glance it would seem, religion has the opposite effect. The extensive study, “Cross-National Correlations of Quantifiable Societal Health with Popular Religi-osity and Secularism in the Prosperous Demo-cracies,” published in the Journal of Religion and Society (http://moses.creighton.edu/JRS/2005/2005-11.html) examines statistics from eighteen of the most developed democratic nations. It reveals clear correlations between various indicators of social strife and religiosity, showing that whether religion causes social strife or not, it certainly does not prevent it.

Before anyone gets a wild hair up their ass about this bashing religion, let me do just that with the scientifically provable, undeniable, clear fact that:

…the study does show a direct correlation between religiosity and dysfunctionality, which if nothing else, disproves the widespread belief that religiosity is beneficial, that secularism is detrimental, and that widespread acceptance of evolution is harmful.

And before anyone points their partisan little digits at the other guy as the cause of this, instead sit your uneducated ass down, shut your trap, and listen:

To this day, the belief that religiosity is socially beneficial is widespread in America, especially amongst politicians, as [Gregory S.] Paul [, the author of the study] notes: “The current [at that time] House majority leader T. DeLay contends that high crime rates and tragedies like the Columbine assault will continue as long schools teach children ‘that they are nothing but glorified apes who have evolutionized [sic] out of some primordial soup of mud.'” But this view is not exclusively Republican, Paul explains, or even conservative: “presidential candidate Al Gore supported teaching both creationism and evolution, his running mate Joe Lieberman asserted that belief in a creator is instrumental to ‘secure the moral future of our nation, and raise the quality of life for all our people,’ and presidential candidate John Kerry emphasized his religious values in the latter part of his campaign.” Surveys show that many Americans agree “their church-going nation is an exceptional, God blessed, ‘shining city on the hill’ that stands as an impressive example for an increasingly skeptical world.” This assumption flies in the face of the actual statistical evidence that Paul examined.

No political ideology is safe from the abnormal and destructive religious beliefs that so permeate the weak of mind and shallow of heart.  Unable simply to be good people because that is the human and humane thing to do, brainwashing at an early age coupled with widespread stupidity among faith-based denizens shows the version of “goodness” practiced by the religious has absolutely the opposite effect on civilized societies.  Instead, these charlatans lead us astray and either ignore or induce strife, incivility, social war, hatred, injustice, bigotry, intolerance, and all manner of evil, the very evil they claim to abhor and fight.

But the study is a bit vague, is it not, Jason?

I can hear the disbelief already.  It amazes me that so much of it comes from those who readily hand over their life to some god they’ve never seen, a deity they have never heard from directly, a totalitarian mythology figure that can not be proved in even the smallest and most inconsequential way, a vacuous element of psychosis that must be accepted on pure and unadulterated faith.  Whatever.

These are the same people who demand proof for anything contrary to their mental incapacitation in this regard.  Their god is real because they believe it.  Their god is good despite all evidence to the contrary, all of which is found in their own sacred texts.  Challenge those assumptions and you better have more than faith to back up your claims.  Of course it’s a double standard.  That’s what religion is about.

The study required that certain elements be defined.  Here is how that worked:

For this study’s purpose, “dysfunctionality” is defined by such indicators of poor societal health as homicide, suicide, low life expectancy, STD infection, abortion, early pregnancy, and high childhood mortality (under five-years old). Religiosity is measured by biblical literalism, frequency of prayer and service attendance, as well as absolute belief in a creator in terms of ardency, conservatism, and activities.

How bad is the evil perpetrated by religion?

…[The study] shows a positive correlation between religiosity and homicide rates.

Let’s just stick with that for a moment.  Religion causes murder.  There it is.  That’s the salvation followers claim to bring to the table.  It is confirmation of the premise that you are either a believer or worthy of death at the hands of your fellow humans.

Where does that leave our little pocket of the universe, the United States, the so-called stronghold of some arbitrary god’s love and devotion?

The United States is a strong exception, experiencing far higher rates of homicide than even (strongly theistic) Portugal, while Portugal itself is beset by much more homicide than the secular developed democracies. Hardly a “shining city on a hill” to the rest of the world, Paul writes that, “The most theistic prosperous democracy, the U.S., is exceptional, but not in the manner [Benjamin] Franklin predicted. The United States is almost always the most dysfunctional of the developed democracies, sometimes spectacularly so, and almost always scores poorly.” This deviates immensely from what most Americans consider to be common wisdom: that religion is beneficial. “But in the other developed democracies religiosity continues to decline precipitously and avowed atheists often win high office, even as clergies warn about adverse societal consequences if a revival of creator belief does not occur.”

Warn and condemn and disavow all you want.  Here’s the truth of what you bring to society:

Despite the best efforts of “pro-life” Americans, abortion rates are much higher in our Christian nation, and lowest in relatively secular ones such as Japan, France, and the Scandinavian countries…

The true sign of a moral victory is not to legislate such activities, but to diminish them through example, alternative, and opportunity.  The faithful have provided no such promise in our country despite their claims to the contrary.

But how bad can it be?  If you’re a believer, it’s pretty bad.

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…

While the study fails to provide causative proof of dysfunctionality as opposed to religion,

[t]he question is one of causation, and there is no clear answer. Whether religion leads directly to dysfunctionality, or religions merely flourish in dysfunctional societies, neither conclusion from this study flatters religion. The first tells us that religion is a hindrance to the development of moral character, and the second that religion hinders progress by distracting us from our troubles (with imaginary solutions to real problems).

Let me conclude this anti-religion volley with what we can easily and correctly ascertain from the information in this study.

…[W]e can at least conclude, contrary to popular belief in this country, that it is not a given that religious societies are better, healthier, or more moral. What we can be clear about from this study is that highly religious societies can be dysfunctional, whereas by comparison secular [non-religious] societies in which evolution is largely accepted display real social cohesion and societal well-being.

Where is your false god now?

[and I’m not done yet; on the contrary, I’m just getting started]