Earlier this year, a study of faith, sex and violence
was published in the Journal of Religion and Society. Comparing eighteen
rich democracies from the US to New Zealand, author Gregory S. Paul
showed that secular societies are less violent and nave lower rates
of teenage pregnancy than societies where belief in God is widespread.
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Top of the class, in both atheism and good behavior,
come the Japanese. Over eighty percent accept evolution and fewer
than ten percent are certain that God exists. Despite its size - over
a hundred million people - Japan is one of the least crime-prone countries
in the world. It also has the lowest rates of teenage pregnancy of
any developed nation. |
Next in line are the Norwegians, British, Germans and
Dutch. At least sixty percent accept evolution as a fact and fewer
than one in three are convinced that there is a god. There is little
teenage pregnancy, although the Brits with over 40 pregnancies per
1,000 girls a year, do twice as badly as the others. Homicide rates
are also low - around 1-2 victims per 100,000 people a year.
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At the wrong end to the scale comes America. Over fifty
percent of Americans believe in God, and only 40 percent accept some
form of evolution - and many of those believe God gave it a helping
hand. Yet despite their strong faith, Americans have the highest rate
of teenage pregnancy in the industrialized world and homicide rates
five times that of Europe and ten times higher than Japan.
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Doesn't Christianity preach sexual abstinence and non-violence?
What's gone wrong? Three things. The first is that faith makes people
less likely to respect law and social customs. Second, they are less
likely to respect other people. Third is a weakened ability to reason.
And last, irresponsible sexual behavior. |
First, less respect for the law. God holds believers
responsible for their actions, but he also offers forgiveness. Believers
who are convinced that they answer to a "higher power" have
less motivation to respect secular law or mainstream opinion. Extremists
such as Muslim terrorists use God to justify mass murder.
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Secondly, reduced respect for other people. Many believers
are convinced that their faith sets them above others who do not share
their beliefs. Only their vision of the world is valid and other viewpoints
are condemned of ignored. |
Thirdly, ignorance. Those who are convinced that only
Bible offers "truth" lose their intellectual curiosity and
thief ability to reason. Ideas such as evolution are rejected because
they are difficult concepts which don't fit into a simplistic Biblical
viewpoint. The universe that fundamentalists create is absurd bit
it survives because it never questions its own assumptions.
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Finally, irresponsible sexual behavior. In other countries,
sex education includes contraception because young people have the
right to make their own choices. In America faith-driven abstinence
programs are founded on the principle "As a Christian I will
only help you if you do what I say." Depriving young people of
the information they need leads to sky high rates of unwanted pregnancy
and sexually transmitted infections. |