Comments on: God, WhyHaven’t Thou Forsaken Us?

by: ryan a

Wed, 05 Oct 2005 02:37:36 +0000

Robby, I agree with you. It would be nice though. The article is definitely pretty weak. Religion may occur at a higher rate here in the US, but this article doesn’t really provide evidence for a strong correlation between religous belief and murder, abortion, suicide, and suicide. They all may occur in the same society, but that doesnt automatically mean that religion is the cause.

by: Robby Simpson

Fri, 30 Sep 2005 21:05:51 +0000

While I dig the implications of this study, the article is less than convincing. America is religious yet socially ill, while Britain is secular yet socially well? That’s an interesting phenomenon, but correlation is not causation. Did the study account for urban sprawl, which is arguably much higher in the States than Europe (and would provide a more plausible explanation of higher STD rates)? Maybe the study itself is conclusive, but the journalist just seemed to take the scientists’ word at face value.

(Side note: anyone else noticed a weird fetishization of evolutionary theory exhibited by the quoted scientist? As if evolution and religiosity are these diametrically opposed entities between which there can be no resolution.)

by: Trevor Bradley

Thu, 29 Sep 2005 20:30:33 +0000

My wife pointed out that this might be a problem with the fallicy of “correlation = causality”. It may be that the underprivileged, or socieities in trauma are drawn to religion, whereas a society that has more might shy away from religion.

Try this thought experiment. Take America and split it in two. In one half, give everyone free health care and education (and raise taxes). In the other half, ban religion. Which half would have the lower homicide, abortion and STD rates after a decade?

(For the record, I’m an agnostic, a secular humanist, and a Math+Stats major. My first reaction was “Wow, cool. Burn.”, but after a bit of thought the article didn’t hold as much weight.)