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From today's Times Online:
Societies worse off 'when they have God on their side'
RELIGIOUS belief can cause damage to a society, contributing towards high murder rates, abortion, sexual promiscuity and suicide, according to research published today.
According to the study, belief in and worship of God are not only unnecessary for a healthy society but may actually contribute to social problems.
The study counters the view of believers that religion is necessary to provide the moral and ethical foundations of a healthy society.
I found that to be a surprising conclusion. I was curious how they arrived at it.
[The study] compares the social peformance of relatively secular countries, such as Britain, with the US, where the majority believes in a creator rather than the theory of evolution.
...Gregory Paul, the author of the study and a social scientist, used data from the International Social Survey Programme, Gallup and other research bodies to reach his conclusions.
...The study concluded that the US was the world’s only prosperous democracy where murder rates were still high, and that the least devout nations were the least dysfunctional.
...He said that the disparity was even greater when the US was compared with other countries, including France, Japan and the Scandinavian countries. These nations had been the most successful in reducing murder rates, early mortality, sexually transmitted diseases and abortion, he added.
The flaw in the study is that America is by far the most religious democracy in it -- for that matter, in the world -- so any differences between America and other nations would appear to correlate with religion. If they correlated per capita income, personal wealth, size of houses, number of cars, or anything else America has more of per capita, it would all appear to correlate with religion. They could just as easily have concluded, more of these things correlate with countries named, "America."
Note that their opposition of a belief in God to a belief in evolution is a false opposition. Many people believe in both. Documentation is found in this Pew study.
Perhaps there is more to the study than is described in the Times Online article. Based on the article, the study appears to be deeply flawed.
