Exhibits, Shows and Displays

Christians, are you aware of the statistics showing religiosity has a destructive effect on us?

Whether you're right or wrong what do you honestly think of these? Do they even matter to you? The statistics of this test show that those of religious backgrounds averagely have a lower IQ. This is one of many tests on society. http://hypnosis.home.netcom.com/iq_vs_religiosity.htm "In general, higher rates of belief and worship of a creator correlate with higher rates of homicide, juvenile and early adult mortality, STD infection rates, teen pregnancy and abortion in the prosperous democracies." http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article571206.ece This is very interesting too, would like to hear some opinions on this. Comparing Religiosity with wealth, concluding that Poor Nations are more religious, and Wealthy Nations are drastically less. With the exception of America, which doesn't seem to sit with the correlation at all. http://pewglobal.org/reports/display.php?ReportID=167 This isn't cherry picking, I've looked for any evidence showing that faith is in fact good for a society with no luck, and those arguing that Atheism is destructive seems to be simply opinion from a religious stand point. Thanks. Sorry, this is towards all religions, but here on yahoo answers, seems pretty more Christian than anything. Especially when this is mostly American, Christians have a a majority when it comes to America.

Public Comments

1. Jesus is Allah's prophet to lead the jews at that time to worship the one & only god Allah & Muhammad peace be upon him is the last prophet & islam is the true religion Allah created the universe as we know it Stars,Planets, galaxies & so on who made the earth revolve around itself to make day & night who created the sun to make life supported on earth Allah is so big to create these things & manage every soul & creation in the same time that's called god allah is so big that we humans with our weak brains can't realize it !! only people feel Allah influence in their lives Allah directs us in every way !! allah protects you all the way Allah sent prophets all over history to let you know him & worship him can't you see every thing all around you !! who created teeth for us to chew food to make easy to the stomach to digest who created eyes to let us see the world around us ??? do you think that a god who created life to Re-tribute every soul for it's behave & whether it follows it's prophet or denies the one & only god & wreaks havoc on earth ...can this god sends a son to die for our sins ??? it is so illogical mind discards this by all means my friend learn about islam you won't lose anything consider it general knowledge
2. Oh goody! A staple for you! *dispenses staple*
3. Yes
4. I am sure religion does have a negative effect. But Jesus has had a positive effect on me.
5. What I don't understand is why this question has been directed at Christians only...I thought this was about religion in general.
6. Religion tends stifle intellectual pursuit by teaching people not to doubt and to accept the dogma without question. America is wealthy in SPITE of its religious make-up; simply because the nation has had access to almost unlimited natural resources for more than 200 years and because its founders were careful to exclude religion from the governmental process.
7. Why ask just Christians? These surveys were conducted as a cross section encompassing all religions.
8. Well, to be a little fair... you'll find that, in this country at least, the very religious tend to be the poorer people. And therefore, you're going to get lower IQ, higher crime, and the other bad things you named.
9. I'm reminded of the fact that correlation does not imply causation. There are multiple factors at play here and it is wrong to focus strictly on religion.
10. Wow, that study on IQ versus country is the most idiotic POS I have seen in awhile. Those people should be ashamed to call themselves professionals. You should be ashamed to admit that you hold with their obviously racist viewpoints. IQ can be easily miscalculated and made to appear lower for those who are poor or not of the mentality of those creating the IQ test. The fact that they are showing whole countries to be less intelligent should lead one to believe that the study is worthless. Are you trying to suggest that African are less intelligent? An ethiopian I work with has a PhD in Statistics, I think he would beg to differ. I also KNOW that he would tell you that the study is wrong and biased. Further the whole premise of the argument is wrong. In fact many have said that there are no atheists in foxholes. Showing that poorer nations tend to hold to religious viewpoints does not mean that religious viewpoint tend to make people poor. For example, it would be truly assinine to believe that the problems that the African nations have had with imperialism of the Europe and dictators was caused by their own religious beliefs. The same can be said of most of South America. In general studies like these are stupid and do not take into account the history of the nations, which is much more important in determining their economic status or national ills.
11. When disaster occurs it's no understanding of the commandments & Satan's doing, not religion. God bless you.
12. IQ is inherited through DNA, and has nothing to do with believing in religion or reading a science book.. Arabs & Jews have the highest IQ's.. Western europeans and asians are not far behind. Seeing that atheism these days, has become a religion for some, and even has organisations, campaigns, writers, and Icon celebrities,, it can also be destructive. Atheists feel threatened by a phenomena that they loathe to understand. Most atheists do not understand science. Most atheists parrot their logic from what they see in the media.
13. I wonder how your first survey would be affected if it had been the west who had been colonised by Eastern or African culture and the resulting impact on Economy e.g. the grossly discriminatory exchange rates and plumbing of any available resources had been tipped against Europe and America rather than for. Note again that another simple legacy such as the fact that English is the primary international language wreaks devastating negative consequences for non English speaking regions in all aspects of their development. Your survey also fails to identify what it is about Religiosity that seems to dumb down individuals and why this does not seem to affect the Religious in western countries. Take for example the Catholic Church in Rome, the majority of early scientists up to about 50 years ago, and the millions of successful religious across the developed nations all seem to put the lie to these distorted statistics. Might this not have something more to do with corruption (also primarily designed to benefit the west and those in power), or the state (and/or lack) of education in these poor countries? Will you not give due consideration to the disempowerment and miseducation of Women in these societies which leaks stagnation and poverty through the generations and classes? Will you not give due consideration to the lack of opportunities for all in deprived countries which means that any potential that children might have is stifled or short-circuited at birth? The discovery of genius is predicated on the following assumptions: - that someone is looking for it, -that the subject is alive and well, - that they had resources to train themselves with and - that their financial and social priorities in life gave value to this discovery. It is no surprise that the average African child does so much better than his or her western counterpart or that the average western child goes on to lead a better quality life despite this. There is nothing in Religion which induces violence and stupidity. THAT you find in culture, and superstition, and bad traditions and Law and Lack of Education. Religion teaches how to be good and how to prosper physically and spiritually in society. The Law is mostly punitive. It prescribes treatment for society and against the offending individual. This has all kinds of drawbacks. However, It is the best we've come up with. Cultures clash. Ethnicities bind together and against adjacent foreigners in a bid to effectively compete for real resources or any other perceived advantage. This breeds violence. Case in point: the attitudes to women and LGBTs by most religious institutions. Jesus did not preach or advocate the subjugation of women. He did not treat them as second class citizens. That came when Rome somehow took over Christianity, took it away from Africa, and then adopted rules, mythologies and traditions that early Christians would not have recognised let alone agreed with. E.g. Hoarding money in the millions without proportionate support in communities. Other forms of Capitalism in religion, Christmas, Easter, Relocation (& not imprisonment) of paedophiles, Denigrating particular women in the bible, excising other important women from the Christian story. As for religiosity and wealth, again being religious in deprived countries doesn't make anyone immune to thievery. The Roman Catholic church has 3BN pounds in its coffers. Local churches in Nigerian and Kenya especially make millions of pounds (sterling) in contributions from their congregations who attend church almost daily, giving whatever small coin they have to individuals who take and spend it on God's behalf. Faith is good for society. The British and American Law are built on principles established in Christianity. Islamic countries also base their Laws on principles determined by their religions. It's when these are abused that we all start having problems.