http://www.secularhumanism.org/index.php?section=library&page=pzuckerman_26_5
Is Faith Good for Us?
Phil Zuckerman
Phil Zuckerman is an associate professor of sociology at Pitzer College in
California. He is the author of Invitation to the Sociology of Religion
(Routledge, 2003) and is currently writing a book on secularization in
Scandinavia.
Whether Christian, Muslim, Jewish, or Sikh, there is one common belief that all
religious fundamentalists share: worship of God and obedience to his laws are
essential for a peaceful, healthy society. From Orthodox rabbis in the occupied
West Bank to Wahhabi sheiks in Saudi Arabia, from the pope in Vatican City to
Mormons in Salt Lake City, the lament is the same: God and his will must be at
the center of everyone's lives in order to ensure a moral, prosperous, safe,
collective existence.
Furthermore, fundamentalists agree that, when large numbers of people in a
society reject God or fail to make him the center of their lives, societal
disintegration is sure to follow. Every societal ill-whether crime, poverty,
poor public education, or AIDS-is thus blamed on a lack of piety. A most
disconcerting example of this worldview was expressed in the immediate
aftermath of September 11, 2001, when Jerry Falwell blamed the terrorists
attacks on America's "throwing God out of the public square," further adding
that "when a nation deserts God and expels God from the culture . . . the
result is not good."
If this often-touted religious theory were correct-that a turning away from God
is at the root of all societal ills-then we would expect to find the least
religious nations on earth to be bastions of crime, poverty, and disease and
the most religious nations to be models of societal health. A comparison of
highly irreligious countries with highly religious countries, however, reveals
a very different state of affairs. In reality, the most secular countries-those
with the highest proportion of atheists and agnostics-are among the most
stable, peaceful, free, wealthy, and healthy societies. And the most religious
nations-wherein worship of God is in abundance-are among the most unstable,
violent, oppressive, poor, and destitute.
One must always be careful, of course, to distinguish between totalitarian
nations where atheism is forced upon an unwilling population (such as in North
Korea, China, Vietnam, and the former Soviet states) and open, democratic
nations where atheism is freely chosen by a well-educated population (as in
Sweden, the Netherlands, or Japan). The former nations' nonreligion, which can
be described as "coercive atheism," is plagued by all that comes with
totalitarianism: corruption, economic stagnation, censorship, depression, and
the like. However, nearly every nation with high levels of "organic atheism" is
a veritable model of societal health.
Table 1: Top 25 Nations with the Highest Percentage of Nonbelievers
Country Estimated Percent Atheist or Agnostic
1. Sweden 64–85 percent
2. Denmark 48–80 percent
3. Norway 54–72 percent
4. Japan 65 percent
5. Czech Republic 54–61 percent
6. Finland 41–60 percent
7. France 44–54 percent
8. South Korea 30–52 percent
9. Estonia 49 percent
10. Germany 41–49 percent
11. Russia 30–48 percent
12. Hungary 35–46 percent
13. Netherlands 42–44 percent
14. Great Britain 32–39 percent
15. Belgium 43 percent
16. Bulgaria 34–40 percent
17. Slovenia 35–38 percent
18. Israel 37 percent
19. Canada 19–30 percent
20. Latvia 20–29 percent
21. Slovakia 10–28 percent
22. Switzerland 17–27 percent
23. Austria 18–26 percent
24. Australia 25 percent
25. Taiwan 24 percent
The twenty-five nations characterized by organic atheism with the highest
proportion of nonbelievers are listed in Table 1. When looking at standard
measures of societal health, we find that they fare remarkably well; highly
religious nations fare rather poorly. The 2004 United Nations' Human
Development Report, which ranks 177 countries on a "Human Development Index,"
measures such indicators of societal health as life expectancy, adult literacy,
per-capita income, educational attainment, and so on. According to this report,
the five top nations were Norway, Sweden, Australia, Canada, and the
Netherlands. All had notably high degrees of organic atheism. Furthermore, of
the top twenty-five nations, all but Ireland and the United States were
top-ranking nonbelieving nations with some of the highest percentages of
organic atheism on earth. Conversely, the bottom fifty countries of the "Human
Development Index" lacked statistically significant levels of organic atheism.
Irreligious countries had the lowest infant-mortality rate (number of deaths
per 1,000 live births), and religious countries had the highest rates.
According to the 2004 CIA World Factbook
(http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook), out of 225 nations, the
twenty-five with the lowest infant-mortality rates had significantly high
levels of organic atheism. Conversely, the seventy-five nations with the
highest infant-mortality rates were all very religious and without
statistically significant levels of organic atheism.
Concerning international poverty rates, the United Nations Report on the World
Social Situation (2003) found that, of the forty poorest nations on earth
(measured by the percentage of population that lives on less than one dollar a
day), all but Vietnam were highly religious nations with statistically minimal
or insignificant levels of atheism.
Regarding homicide rates, Oablo Fajnzylber et al., in a study reported in the
Journal of Law and Economics (2002), looked at thirty-eight non-African nations
and found that the ten with the highest homicide rates were highly religious,
with minimal or statistically insignificant levels of organic atheism.
Conversely, of the ten nations with the lowest homicide rates, all but Ireland
were secular nations with high levels of atheism. James Fox and Jack Levin, in
The Will to Kill, looked at thirty-seven non-African nations and found that, of
the ten nations with the highest homicide rates, all but Estonia and Taiwan
were highly religious, with statistically insignificant levels of organic
atheism. Conversely, of the ten nations with the lowest homicide rates, all but
Ireland and Kuwait were relatively secular nations, with high levels of organic
atheism.
Concerning literacy rates, according to the United Nations Report on the World
Social Situation (2003), of the thirty-five nations with the highest levels of
youth-illiteracy rates (percentage of population ages fifteen to twenty-four
who cannot read or write), all were highly religious, with statistically
insignificant levels of organic atheism.
In regard to rates of AIDS and HIV infection, the most religious nations on
earth-particularly those in Africa-fared the worst. (Botswana suffers from the
highest rate of HIV infection in the world; see
http://www.avert.org/aroundworld. htm.) Conversely, the highly irreligious
nations of Western Europe, such as those of Scandinavia-where public sex
education is supported and birth control is widely accessible-fared the best,
experiencing among the lowest rates of AIDS and HIV infection in the world.
Concerning gender equality, nations marked by high degrees of organic atheism
are among the most egalitarian in the world, while highly religious nations are
among the most oppressive. According to the 2004 Human Development Report's
"Gender Empowerment Measure," the ten nations with the highest degrees of
gender equality were all strongly organic-atheistic nations with significantly
high percentages of nonbelief. Conversely, the bottom ten were all highly
religious nations without any statistically significant percentages of
atheists. According to Ronald Inglehart and Pippa Norris's (2003) "Gender
Equality Scale," of the ten nations most accepting of gender equality, all but
the United States and Colombia were marked by high levels of organic atheism;
of the ten least-accepting of gender equality, all were highly religious and
had statistically insignificant levels of organic atheism. According to
Inglehart et al. in Human Values and Social Change (2003), countries such as
Sweden, Denmark, and the Netherlands, with the most female members of
parliament, tended to be characterized by high degrees of organic atheism, and
countries such as Pakistan, Nigeria, and Iran, with the fewest female members
in parliament, tended to be highly religious.
The acceptance of gender equality among irreligious nations may be linked to
the relative acceptance of homosexuality. Inglehart et al., in Human Beliefs
and Values: A Cross-Cultural Sourcebook Based on the 1999-2002 Value Surveys
(2004), found that, of the eighteen nations least likely to condemn
homosexuality, all were highly ranked organic-atheistic nations. Conversely, of
the eighteen nations most likely to condemn homosexuality, all but Hungary were
highly religious, with statistically insignificant levels of organic atheism.
A country's suicide rate stands out as the one indicator of societal health in
which religious nations fare much better than secular nations. According to the
2003 World Health Organization's report on international male suicide rates
(http://www.who.int/en/), the nations with the lowest rates of suicide were all
highly religious, characterized by extremely high levels of theism (usually of
the Muslim and Catholic varieties). Of the ten nations with the highest male
suicide rates, five were distinctly irreligious nations ranked among the top
twenty-five nations listed earlier. These five are Estonia, Hungary, Latvia,
Russia, and Slovenia. It is interesting to note that of the nations currently
experiencing the highest rates of suicide-including the five just
mentioned-nearly all are former Soviet/communist-dominated societies. (The
nations of Scandinavia, where organic atheism is strongest, do not have the
highest suicide rates in the world, as is widely thought to be the case.)
In sum, countries with high rates of organic atheism are among the most
societally healthy on earth, while societies with nonexistent rates of organic
atheism are among the most destitute. The former nations have among the lowest
homicide rates, infant mortality rates, poverty rates, and illiteracy rates and
among the highest levels of wealth, life expectancy, educational attainment,
and gender equality in the world. The sole indicator of societal health in
which religious countries scored higher than irreligious countries is suicide.
Where does the United States fit in all this? Americans are very religious.
Many studies have found that only between 3-7 percent of Americans do not
believe in God. Rates of prayer, belief in the divinity of Jesus, belief in the
divine origins of the Bible, and rates of church attendance are remarkably
robust in the United States, making it the most religious of all Western
industrialized nations, with the possible exception of Ireland. When it comes
to societal health, the United States certainly fares far better than much of
the rest of the world. According to the United Nations' 2004 "Human Development
Index" discussed earlier, the United States ranked eighth. However, when we
compare the United States to its peer nations-i.e., developed, industrialized,
democratic nations such as Canada, Japan, and the nations of Europe-its
standing in terms of societal health plummets. The United States has far higher
homicide, poverty, obesity, and homelessness rates than any of its more secular
peer nations. It is also the only Western industrialized democracy that is
unwilling to provide universal health coverage to its citizens. The fact is
that extremely secular nations such as Japan and Sweden are much safer,
cleaner, healthier, better educated, and more humane when compared to the
United States, despite the latter's exceptionally strong levels of theism.
The information presented in this discussion in no way proves that high levels
of organic atheism cause societal health or that low levels of organic atheism
cause societal ills such as poverty or illiteracy. The wealth, poverty,
well-being, and suffering in various nations are caused by numerous political,
historical, economic, and sociological factors that are far more determinant
than people's personal belief systems. Rather, the conclusion to be drawn from
the data provided above is simply that high levels of irreligion do not
automatically result in a breakdown of civilization, a rise in immoral
behavior, or in "sick societies." Quite the opposite seems to be the case.
Furthermore, religion is clearly not the simple and single path to righteous
societies that religious fundamentalists seem to think it is. This fact must be
vigorously asserted in response to the proclamations of politically active
theists. From small-town school boards to the floor of the Senate, conservative
Christians are championing religion as the solution to America's societal
problems. However, their pious "solution" is highly dubious and clearly not
supported by the best available research of social science.
Belief in God may provide comfort to the individual believer, but, at the
societal level, its results do not compare at all favorably with that of the
more secular societies. When seeking a more civil, just, safe, humane, and
healthy society, one is more likely to find it among those nations ranking low
in religious faith-contrary to the preaching of religious folks.
Acknowledgment
My article is indebted to Gregory S. Paul's important research correlating
rates of belief/nonbelief with various measures of societal health.
Further Reading
Reginald Bibby, Restless Gods: The Renaissance of Religion in Canada (Toronto,
Ontario, Canada: Stoddart Publishing Company, 2002).
Grace Davie, "Europe: The Exception That Proves the Rule?" in The
Desecularization of the World, edited by Peter Berger (Grand Rapids,
Mich.:William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1999).
Kim Eungi, "Religion in Contemporary Korea: Change and Continuity," Korea
Focus, July-August 2003.
Oablo Fajnzylber, Daniel Lederman, and Norman Loatza, "Inequality and Violent
Crime," The Journal of Law and Economics, April 2002.
James Fox and Jack Levin, The Will to Kill (Boston, Mass.: Allyn and Bacon,
2000).
Timothy Gall, Worldmark Encyclopedia of Culture and Daily Life, Vol.4: Europe
(Cleveland, Ohio: Eastword Publications. 1998).
George Gallup and Michael Lindsay, Surveying the Religious Landscape
(Harrisburg, Pa.: Morehouse Publishing, 1999).
Andrew Greeley, Religion in Europe at the End of the Second Millennium (New
Brunswick, N.J.: Transaction Publishers, 2003).
Goran Gustafsson and Thorleif Pettersson, Folkkyrk och religios pluraism-den
nordiska religiosa modellen (Stockholm: Verbum Forlag, 2000).
Michael Hout and Claude Fischer, "Why More Americans Have No Religious
Preference: Politics and Generations," American Sociological Review 67, no. 2
(2002).
Ronald Inglehart, Miguel Basanez, Jaime Diez-Medrano, Loek Halman, and Ruud
Luijkx, Human Beliefs and Values: A Cross-Cultural Sourcebook Based on the
1999-2002 Value Surveys, (Beunos Aires, Argentina: Siglo Veintiuno Editores,
2004).
Ronald Inglehart and Pippa Norris, Rising Tide: Gender Equality and Cultural
Change Around the World (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2003).
Ronald Inglehart, Pippa Norris, and Christian Welzel, "Gender Equality and
Democracy," in Human Values and Social Change, edited by Ronald Inglehart
(Boston, Mass.: Brill, 2003).
Peri Kedem, "Dimensions of Jewish Religiosity," in Israeli Judaism, edited by
Shlomo Deshen, Charles Liebman, and Mishe Shokeid (London: Transaction
Publishers, 1995).
Gerald Marwell and N.J. Demerath, "'Secularization' by Any Other Name,"
American Sociological Review 68, no. 2 (2003).
Pippa Norris and Ronald Inglehart, Sacred and Secular: Religion and Politics
Worldwide (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2004).
Gregory Paul, "The Secular Revolution of the West: It's Passed America By-So
Far," Free Inquiry 22, no. 3 (Summer 2002).
--, "Cross National Correllations of Quantifiable Societal Health with Popular
Religiosity and Secularism in the Prosperous Democracies," Journal of Religion
and Society, vol. 7 (2005).
Detlef Pollack, "The Change in Religion and Church in Eastern Germany after
1989: A Research Note," Sociology of Religion 63, no. 3 (2002).
United Nations, Human Development Report (New York: Oxford University Press,
2004).
United Nations, Report on the World Social Situation (New York: United Nations
Publications, 2003).
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