Study Suggests Religious Belief Undermines Positive Social Behavior

The Journal of Religion and Society published an article by Gregory S. Paul this month, that suggests belief in God and creationism increases social dysfunction in developed countries. Or as the freelance paleontologist and writer put it, “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.” This calls into question faith-based everything.

Handicapped with a title, “Cross-National Correlations of Quantifiable Societal Health with Popular Religiosity and Secularism in the Prosperous Democracies: A First Look,” the article isn’t going to be widely read, but it should be. A minority of people may argue that religion is about man’s relationship with God and has nothing to do with the ills of society. For a great many, though, religion in society is about how humans treat each other as much as it is about how humans and God get along. Or more bluntly, if one’s religious belief doesn’t make the world better, it isn’t much of a religion.

Benjamin Franklin stated that “religion will be a powerful regulator of our actions, give us peace and tranquility within our minds, and render us benevolent, useful and beneficial to others.” But Mr. Paul says the data in the study suggest “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 in the prosperous democracies.” Data for the other nations of the world are harder to come by, so there is more work to be done here.

Mr. Paul also said, “The non-religious, pro-evolution democracies contradict the dictum that a society cannot enjoy good conditions unless most citizens ardently believe in a moral creator. The widely held fear that a Godless citizenry must experience societal disaster is therefore refuted.” However, one cannot make the leap of logic to say that religious belief is counterproductive, that it encourages the negative behaviors – although one does have the option of leaving quite a bit in God’s lap rather than taking it on oneself.

Instead, the problem is with belief (genuine or nor) that is divorced from action. A “Christian” can believe the Easter story as per Matthew, Mark, Luke, and/or John, but unless he or she follows the commandment “Love your enemies,” society doesn’t get much out of it. Perhaps, Mr. Paul should have measured the proportion of self-avowed, religious people who actually practice what they preach. Of course, that might have been too small a group to have been statistically significant. On the other hand, the extremely human response of the American people (and not their government) to Hurricane Katrina’s victims runs counter to that suggestion. The data show that God still works in mysterious ways

© Copyright 2005 by The Kensington Review, J. Myhre, Editor. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written consent.
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