Hi,

im watching the ACA tv show and Matt sometimes says that there is scientific evidence that religion has a negative impact on society. I did a few searches on google and didn't really come up with much material that supports that claim, more to the contrary. Could anybody point me to sources for this?

Thanks,

Moritz

This is one study:

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

That one disproves the myth that religion is needed for a healthy society.

Here's another:

http://www.epjournal.net/filestore/EP07398441_c.pdf

There are also studies showing that secular nations are healthier and happier on various measures.

That was fast, thank you very much Don.

"healthier and happier"? Please tell HOW you can have such a concept as "happiness" or "health" in atheism asa philosophical system of thought? Atheism interprets the world through a purely "atomistic" lens, proposing that all that is breaks down to an infinite amount of subatomic particles banging against each other obeying random "laws" (which, by the the way, "laws" as science describes them cannot exist in a atheistic interpretation of the world) of physics. It is beyond ironic that atheism which seeks to "better" the world by destroying religious ideology, in fact, fosters an ideology of morals where "anything goes." Without God, there can be no morality. That is not to say that atheist are not moral, it is to say though that there is NO REASON to be moral from the atheistic interpretation of the world? WHY SHOULD atheist be moral if there is no God to judge us after we die? Please tell.

Atheist don't spend their time worrying about whether their perpetual orgasm is in jeopardy when they dare to think for themselves. We don't spend all our time worrying about controlling others' reproduction, etc. We are free to be happy and productive without the ball and chain of iron age nonsense.

As an atheist, I have a BETTER morality than most Christians/Muslims/etc. I'm not molesting children. I'm not suppressing scientific research. I'm not killing Jews. I'm not forcing women to bear children they don't want. I'm not sabotaging others' families. But Christians are.

When I bring up the fact that Christians have actively murdered Jews for 1400 years, I have yet to hear any feel any sense of responsibility for that. The irony is that Christians mostly killed Jews because they equated real Jews living centuries after their story book was writteYet Christians claim that Jesus died for their sins, so they get a free pass to perpetual orgasm land. n with the "Jews" supposed to have killed Jesus in their fictional story book. I can think of no better example of the immorality of Christianity.

The whole concept of substitutive sacrifice is morally repugnant. Are you willing to go to jail for a crime I commit? I doubt it, yet Christians buy into the idea that Jesus being killed somehow "pays" for something they did. What amazing nonsense.

The idea that somebody would be tortured for all eternity for not believing in nonsense is morally repugnant.

The idea of being raptured up to heaven so you can watch as Jesus brutally murders non-believers is nothing more than snuff porn for complete morons.

Islam worships the same god as Christians. They have the idea that dying as a martyr will earn you a trip to heaven, complete with 72 regenerating virgins for the eternal plucking. Why, if it's the same god, do Muslims get different "deals"? The answer is that it's all bullshit. The allegedly perfect Author of morality is completely incapable of communicating it.

Who will judge me. I will. My moral standards are much higher than the fictional murderous thug you follow. I can also judge the behaviors of believers and come to the conclusion that the religion is inherently immoral.

If there is no god judging you, you would go around and kill people because its fun? Thats immoral in my eyes.

What i find immoral is doing all kinds of atrocities in the name of God, whether he exists or not. The fact that people need, or think they need some imaginary friend to be afraid of, in order to be "good humans" is rather pathetic.. again shows what religions do to decent humans.. turn them into brainless tools and submissive morons. It is not really surprising to see that actually the religious brain is the one which is pron to violence and crimes rather than atheists.. The forbidden fruit is always the sweetest one. What i mean is.. if you think about doing something "bad", you might try it or dismiss it right away, but if you are told that it is forbidden.. you might do it out of spite.. over and over again. It does sound childish, and most certainly is, but then again imaginary friends are also childish and irrational and illogical thinking is also said to be more likely to come from kids, but due to religions they are not unique to children.

Just because an atheist doesnt believe in any god doesnt mean we dont have feelings for other beings. I dont know why non-atheists like to think we have no morals.

Michael

Sorry about spelling and semantics - struggling Dane

WHY SHOULD atheist be moral if there is no God to judge us after we die?

In my Danish context your question would be considered rather meaningless or just not interesting. I have never heard anybody here argue, that the opponent's opinion on moral behavior was less valid because of her lack of fear???

In DK Nationalistic Conservative Christians and other nationalists are often accusing atheist (the term kulturradikal or humanist is mostly used in DK) of being too "morally correct" on issues like refugees, Muslim immigrants etc. and Conservative Christians are blamed by humanist not to follow the moral demands of their own religion. We do expect the other part to be moral: Conservative Christians too little and humanist too much.

Nationalistic Conservative Christians have been claiming for years that Muslim citizen's in general, are a threat to society and the moral values represented in our legislation. Islam is not considered morally compatible with Danish society.. Especially a group of priest insists on referring to citizens in terms of their beliefs, "us" Christians or "them" Muslims - claiming to defend "our" Christian way of life from "theirs" Islam and Sharia. Freedom of speech, gender equality, freedom of beliefs, minority protection, protection of homosexuals, social security system, justice system… - Danish values in general.

The accusations' in the debate are: Humanists/Kulturradikale too moral, Christians too little moral and Muslims immoral.

The killing on utøya in Norway, done by a self-proclaimed Christian conservative nationalist, who felt inspired by the Danish "Islam-criticism" has had an impact on the perception of religion and society. This has made some of us leave the state church. I never cared about being a member or not, but now I feel it is necessary to focus a bit more on religion as a threat to the general moral behavior in society. I would really feel stupid if I was not paying attention - and suddenly found me self living in gods uncivilized nation.

Why is it so hard for Christians to have high moral standards and behave civilized towards other people?