God would be an atheist: Why can't we all be Japanese?

This is an excellent article about a study on how religious belief impacts societies well being.

A quote:
"At first glance that is a preposterous suggestion, given that religions preach non-violence and sexual restraint. However, close inspection reveals a different story. Faith tends to weaken rather than strengthen people’s ability to participate in society. That makes it less likely they will respect social customs and laws.

All believers learn that God holds them responsible for their actions. So far so good, but for many, belief absolves them of all other responsibilities. Consciously or subconsciously, those who are "born again" or "chosen" have diminished respect for others who do not share their sect or their faith. Convinced that only the Bible offers "truth", they lose their intellectual curiosity and their ability to reason. Their priority becomes not the world they live in but themselves."

I found both this article and the original article about the study incredibly interesting. I mean, you always hear people talking about how wars are started in gods name, blah blah etc, but I've never really stopped to wonder if society would be better off as a whole if less people believe in god. well, I guess this article answers that.

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