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September 28, 2005
Academic Proves Religion Makes America Inferior
In a truly astounding display of bigotry and arrogance, The Times relates the findings of a study that started with the irrefutable (for some) premises that (a) America is excessively religious and (b) America is a horrible place, and arrived at the conclusion that religious belief causes damage to society.
Religion is held accountable for increasing the rates of murder, abortion, sexual promiscuity, and suicide. I'm not kidding, and apparently neither is The Times. If the lie is outrageous enough, people just might believe it — especially if they want to believe it, which Times readers presumably do for such an appalling piece of garbage to make it into their publication.
The study, which appeared in the American academic journal Journal of Religion and Society, wears hatred of America on its sleeve. "Many Americans agree that their churchgoing nation is an exceptional, God-blessed, shining city on the hill that stands as an impressive example for an increasingly sceptical world," the author Gregory Paul curls his lip to sneer, before gloatingly declaring that "the United States is almost always the most dysfunctional of the developing democracies, sometimes spectacularly so."
Paul's clever research was able to discover that "the least devout nations were the least dysfunctional." Due to an alleged high incidence of syphilis, gonorrhea, and abortion in the USA, Paul couldn't avoid the logical conclusion that these problems are caused by faith. After all, according to Paul, "The study shows that England, despite the social ills it has, is actually performing a good deal better than the USA in most indicators, even though it is now a much less religious nation than America." Paul found the disparity even greater when comparing the "dysfunctional" US with dreamy places like France.
"I suspect that Europeans are increasingly repelled by the poor societal performance of the Christian states," Paul sniffed. "The Christian states" in this context means the United States.
Personally I suspect that decent people, religious and otherwise, are increasingly repelled by pompous moonbats who try to pass off their bigotry as science.
Hat tip: Drudge Report.
Cross-posted at The Wide Awakes.
Posted by Van Helsing at September 28, 2005 6:45 AM
Comments
I'm speechless! This is just too dumb to even contemplate. And, let's keep in mind that I'm a non-religious person. The Times thinking, and that of the people who did this so called "study", is just plain dangerous.
Posted by: Debris Trail at September 28, 2005 11:26 AM
He has his facts backwards, anyway. The most politically secularised states in western europe are also the least economically viable. France is an agarian society pretending to be technological, Italy - despite the presence of the Vatican - is an economic basket-case and Germany is quietly imploding. Of course this is most likely due to the influence of the, I guess you could call it, Secular Humanist socialism of the European Union, which is increasingly resembling the USSR in its behaviour, especially toward the US.
Posted by: Archonix at September 28, 2005 11:47 AM
'"I suspect that Europeans are increasingly repelled by the poor societal performance of the Christian states,"' That must explain their disinclination to reproduce. Oh wait it's because their countries suck? Go figure.
Posted by: Jack T at September 28, 2005 12:44 PM
Religion is responsible for high incidents of abortion? I see. So the fact that it is so easily accessible and so "acceptable" and so legal - not to mention actually "celebrated" by some - has nothing to do with it?
What the hell was *I* thinking?
Posted by: Oyster at September 28, 2005 2:40 PM
So, by this reasoning, the people I sit in church with every Sunday have more STD's, abortions, and drug problems among them than... say... a random sample of ravers at the Zentrum in Stuttgardt. Color me dubious.
Posted by: V the K at September 28, 2005 5:26 PM
