God and Society

An interesting story from Britain on Societies with God on their side. The abstract is here

Large-scale surveys show dramatic declines in religiosity in favor of secularization in the developed democracies. Popular acceptance of evolutionary science correlates negatively with levels of religiosity, and the United States is the only prosperous nation where the majority absolutely believes in a creator and evolutionary science is unpopular. Abundant data is available on rates of societal dysfunction and health in the first world. Cross-national comparisons of highly differing rates of religiosity and societal conditions form a mass epidemiological experiment that can be used to test whether high rates of belief in and worship of a creator are necessary for high levels of social health. Data correlations show that in almost all regards the highly secular democracies consistently enjoy low rates of societal dysfunction, while pro-religious and anti-evolution America performs poorly.

and the article is here.

My take on it? Sigh ... well, as a guy who grew up in a very sheltered religious household, who is still reeling from the effects of it, I can attest to leaving that shelter confused, curious, unprepared, and a bit betrayed. I still feel a lot of guilt about natural behaviors, and feel a lot of hyporcrisy and a huge lack of common sense in the rules I was taught to live by. That said, I feel lucky to report that I don't have syphilis or gonorrhoea -- dodged that bullet.

I guess the best I can do is pray for America -- to be saved from its religious zealots.