Why are least religious countries much better than religious ones? (Muslims, gospel)
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The comparison is generally made on things like crime statistics, education standards, charity per capita, and tolerance of "the other". And yes quite often these statistics look much better in secular countries than religiously obsessed countries.
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Originally Posted by bulmabriefs144
Sweden has a rape problem due to a certain immigrant issue.
So your rebuttal of the concept that less religious countries are better is to point out that a less religious country is having trouble SINCE importing people from a MORE religious country.
Comedy. Gold.
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Originally Posted by bulmabriefs144
Germany recovered from Nazi history only to lose its national identity to EU and its regulation.
I live in Germany and I can tell you that every German I know would simply laugh in your face if you told them they had lost their National Identify. You have simply pulled that one out of an orifice not normally associated with communication I expect.
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Originally Posted by bulmabriefs144
Religion (most of it) produces social stability, family structure, work ethic, and moral values.
Does it? That is quite the list of assertions. Care to back any of them up?
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Originally Posted by bulmabriefs144
Ireland is religious and I felt better visiting than UK
Actually religion has almost no impact on Irish Society at all these days, save for their involvement in the education system. Churches are emptier than ever, vocations to places like Maynooth are at an all time low, some priests are taking second jobs to make ends meet, and Church backed campaigns such as the Anti Homosexual Marriage campaign are failing spectacularly.
So it is not clear AT ALL what you think you mean by "Ireland is religious". Did you actually visit it? What was so religious about it specifically? Again you appear to be making it up.
The USA is not a Christian country, and it is certainly more secular than it used to be and its biggest churches denominations have reported declines in numbers.
The USA is not a Christian country, and it is certainly more secular than it used to be and its biggest churches denominations have reported declines in numbers.
Matad I live in Australia.
Thanks for confirming via your link, exactely what we are saying... that religion thrives in countries were poverty and poor education are the norm.
The USA is a country where more than 80% of the population claim to be 'Christian'. So would you care to answer the question? Do the things that you lay at the door of secular countries not happen in religious countries?
Thanks for confirming via your link, exactely what we are saying... that religion thrives in countries were poverty and poor education are the norm.
The USA is a country where more than 80% of the population claim to be 'Christian'. So would you care to answer the question? Do the things that you lay at the door of secular countries not happen in religious countries?
Christianity does thrive in areas of persecution and among the fastest growing areas of Christianity is Iran and China. Christianity will even likely to grow in the west if persecution happens against people of that faith.
Loneliness exists in developing countries this is especially common in developed societies: Here is from a BBC article on this:
Of the 16%, 28% are aged between 35-54 years old, but one study suggests people of working age who live alone increase their risk of depression by up to 80% compared with people living in families.
Social networking websites have also come under fire for reducing face-to-face contact and making people more isolated,Is modern life making us lonely? - BBC News
If betterment of society can result in more social isolation, then that is not real betterment of society. With this issue of social isolation, people can find ways to fill in the in the void and can compel them to turn to a religious faith.
For me without my faith in Christianity, my life would even be much more empty. Jesus Christ does fill in the void for me.
And yet the world is replete and punctuated with people devoid of any religious faith who's lives are anything but empty. So it would seem your comment is more related to the quality of your life (or indeed the lack of it) and nothing whatsoever to do with religion. But it does, if nothing else, show the foundation of your biases.
So perhaps the thread title is exactly backwards. Maybe it is not that less religious countries are better, but BETTER COUNTRIES lead to less people requiring to fill the empty voids in their life with unsubstantiated nonsense and false promises.
If your life is so empty and pointless and meaningless that you need to invent narratives to infuse it with something.... then I can do little but extend my sympathies.
For me without my faith in Christianity, my life would even be much more empty. Jesus Christ does fill in the void for me.
Mine is full and active...without superstition. As Nozz pointed out, there are many millions of people throughout the world who's lives are fulfilled without the need for religion. Try throwing away your crutches and standing on your own two feet. It's very enlightening!
...and you still haven't answered the question. You appear to be implying that loneliness, divorce, abandonment of the elderly, dependence on technology etc are worse in more secular countries. Yet all these things also happen in countries like the USA, where more than 80% of the population claim to be 'Christian'. I'd wager that they are also prevalent in the 10 countries mentioned in your link too.
The word 'better' is vague. But there are plenty of metrics to be compared. Take violent crime rates. Which of the four major regions of the United States - the Northeast, the Midwest, the South, the West - has the highest violent crime rate? The South. By far. https://ucr.fbi.gov/crime-in-the-u.s...tables/table-4
Poverty rate? Access to quality health care? Education systems? Unemployment rate? Teen pregnancy rate? I won't continue to link but you can and see that the South performs the worst in all of these categories, and many more.
And guess which part of the United States has the highest rates of professed belief, the highest rates of church attendance, and is the region where religion most permeates society? That's right. The South.
Back to the violent crime rate. Compare the United States to Canada. Again, lower religious belief correlates with lower violent crime rates. Compare the United States to Europe. Or Western Europe to Eastern Europe. Or Northern Europe to Southern Europe. Consistently, people are raping and killing and otherwise harming each other at greater rates in the same places where they most obsess over a deity.
And these are the same people who will tell you until they're blue in the face that, absent the dictated morality of religion, people are incapable of behaving themselves.
Because, as you may have noticed, many so called religious people are as crazy as bed bugs. It's a pond for every sort of lunatic to fish in for followers, and there are no shortages of gullible idiots that will give their time and life savings to charismatic sociopaths posing as spiritual. The more one becomes involved w/ religions the worse they look.
It is important to recall that Christ was not a Christian and Buddha was not a Buddhist. Each went their own way. Jesus went on his spiritual quest completely alone for 40 days according to legend, and Siddhartha sat under a tree for 6 days or 6 years depending on what you wish to believe until he reached enlightenment. No books, no scriptures, no teachers.
You have to shed delusions and unfounded beliefs before you can live a life of clarity and truth. Unfortunately, most religions keep people mired in just that. Remember, the guru (priest, rabbi, teacher, whatever) is always right, and you are always wrong. This is how religions control people. The Learned One at the top of the mountain, the poor seeker at the bottom. No one ever graduates or gets to the top w/o the Master's approval, and we are always left an inch away. The oldest game in the world. People that realize this are naturally more sane, are more proficient because they are more sane, and live lives that are more sane. So it's just cause and effect.
Poor people have more need for God then rich people , as Jesus said ``It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle then a rich person to enter into heaven ``....................... See rich people have no need for God , as they have riches to make to them satisfied
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