Monday 2 May 2011

Good without God?

As if there was some sort of higher power at work, a report was written in The Washington Post about theists view of atheists and the validity of said views, it just so happens to be relevant to recent discussions.

"On numerous respected measures of societal success — rates of poverty, teenage pregnancy, abortion, sexually transmitted diseases, obesity, drug use and crime, as well as economics — high levels of secularity are consistently correlated with positive outcomes in first-world nations."


They also show that atheists tend to be more ethical, intelligent and capable of showing higher levels of altruism.


" Oliner and Oliner (1988) and Varese and Yaish (2000), in their studies of heroic altruism during the
Holocaust, found that the more secular people were, the more likely they were to rescue
and help persecuted Jew"


I think to see a study as to exactly why this happens. I expect that, as the study states, a lot of this scorn comes from the history of the religion; but I also think there are more complex psychological issues going on here. 

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