Friday, September 30, 2005

Good Book = Bad influence

An American Social Scientist, Gregory Paul, has conducted a large scale survey (as reported in The Times) which he claims refutes "the widely held fear that a Godless citizenry must experience societal disaster."

Mr Paul used data from the International Social Survey Programme, Gallup and other research bodies to reach the conclusion that belief in and worship of God are not only unnecessary for a healthy society but may actually contribute to social problems. Apparently, the more devout a society is, the more likely it is to suffer from crime, suicide and social dysfunction --- not to mention gonorrhea and syphilis.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

But does he hypothesize on what aspects of religion, exactly, contribute to this?

Sam Jordison said...

As far as I can tell from the articles I've read, he doesn't. However, his point seems to be not so much that The Bible causes the problems but that Christian claims that rejecting faith leads to "sin", crime, etc. are easily refutable... America's high percentage of 'believers' and well-known social problems being a case in point.

The root cause of these problems is a whole other matter...

Anonymous said...

Stoners, students, poets and people just more inclined to take a long hard (and frequently naive, but we'll give them that) look at society have been saying this for years. "Yeah man, ban all religions and the world would be a better place - less intolerance, less bigotry, less war".

Tis amazing though that the world's biggest economy regularly gets cited as an example of a place where so many social ills run riot and basic ethics are frequently bypassed.

Samuel Luke Johnston said...

You are stoking your own hellfire.

I shan't even waste time arguing with this nonsense. You'll pay enough yourself for defaming the Lord's Word.

Anonymous said...

Typical, Samuel.
Where is Christ's love in your words? People like you are the reason that more an more people turn away from Religion.