Very well written and thought out post!

Personally I'm always very wary of statistics, however this is not the first time I’ve seen the correlation drawn between atheism and prison population.

It seems that this is the case the world over (I’ve seen similar reports from a number of EU countries and the US).
So the question this raises to me is why is this the case? Why does it seem that a lower percentage of atheists wind up in jail?

Most curious.

I have heard about these stats before, but in regards to debate morals with theists, I don't like to use the argument. Stats can be dicy, people can convert to god just to look good before parole boards, and even Atheists can be more successeful criminals than theists(wont get caught easily).

What I wonder though, is how good an outspoken atheist would do if he claimed before a parole board his atheism, and comparing it to a theist...

(September 14, 2010 at 10:25 am)LastPoet Wrote: I have heard about these stats before, but in regards to debate morals with theists, I don't like to use the argument. Stats can be dicy, people can convert to god just to look good before parole boards, and even Atheists can be more successeful criminals than theists(wont get caught easily).

What I wonder though, is how good an outspoken atheist would do if he claimed before a parole board his atheism, and comparing it to a theist...

I agree. Stats can be dicy. They can be manipulated. But when even the most conservative estimate I can find put the UK population of Atheists at 15% and separate government stats put the Atheist and Agnostic prison population combined at 1%, it's hard to not see the implication.

Good question about an out spoken atheist in front of a parole board, another reason perhaps to hide Atheism while in prison. Although these statistics are based on the U.K. prison population, where if im honest, I don't believe as much weight would be put on someone's religious stand point as it would in perhaps some countries, but I guess thats hard to measure as it's a easily hidden prejudice.

I do see the implication, and it kinda makes me proud. I guess it naturally follows from being an atheist, an atheist needs to be more rational to deal with the insanity of theist claims, rational people are less likely to commit crimes, therefore there are less atheists in prisons. This is not very far fetched really

One a side note, evolution does provides a great argument for our morality, and that is the argument I like to use

A couple of problems with distinguishing between those who put 'no religion' and those who put 'atheist' is that only fairly educated people would identify themselves as atheist. A lot of less educated people wouldn't know what one is. Or some atheists would say 'no religion'. So, it's unreliable. Besides, the theist argument is that lack of religion, rather than atheism per se, leads to immoral behaviour.

(September 14, 2010 at 12:19 pm)The Omnissiunt One Wrote: the theist argument is that lack of religion, rather than atheism per se, leads to immoral behaviour.

Doesn't it tend to lean more towards the argument that lack of a higher power to answer to is what leads to immoral behaviour? Plenty of people don't follow a religion so would be defined as "no religion", yet still belive theres a god or spirit and "something else" after life.

Most of the atheists I have come across are very ehtical, moral individuals. They are very strict about upholding this framework, which is obviously a good thing. So while it doesn't surprise me if there are less atheists in prison, I too doubt this studdy. For one, by ratio wouldn't less atheists be in prison? Less atheists exist. So proportionally it is pretty accurate to assume that, given a smaller number of atheists throughout the world, there will be a smaller number of atheists in prison as compared to religious folk.

I don't see why it would be difficult to gauge the religious beliefs of the prison populations to a very high degree of accuracy... Surprising that it hasn't been done by any reputable source.