NationStates Jolt Archive

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.


http://moses.creighton.edu/JRS/2005/2005-11.html


The article's obviously very geoamerican, but some important conclusions are made. And there are a few interesting (although spartan) diagrams at the bottom of the article. Norway (+ the Scandinavian nations for that matter) and New Zealand doing well, as usual.
The mortality rate comparison was a bit silly IMHO.

can you not see it!? satan's influence!! well I won't be blinded!

I'm an atheist, however, I think that there are waaaay too many factors involved in why America has greater societal disfunction to be able to pin it on "religiosity." I think our faith in hyper-capitalism would have more to do with it, as opposed to far more socialized Europe. But, even this would be oversimplifying the problem, IMO. There's just too many things to take into account.

I'm an atheist, however, I think that there are waaaay too many factors involved in why America has greater societal disfunction to be able to pin it on "religiosity." I think our faith in hyper-capitalism would have more to do with it, as opposed to far more socialized Europe. But, even this would be oversimplifying the problem, IMO. There's just too many things to take into account.
yeah.. you really ought to question the whole motive behind the research.. or better still, question the motives of everyone! careful.. that path leads to paranoia.. it's all kinda ridiculus.. would it be safe to assume that those who wrote that had their minds already made up? of course religion probably needs to be stomped out but you can't blame it for everything..

Can anyone say biased?

The 'religious' strength in the US is the right-wingers. In other countries, where it exists it is often far more liberal (we allow condoms for example, it's probably halved the rate of unwanted pregnancy at a stroke).