RE: A Small Census
March 9, 2013 at 6:03 pm
(This post was last modified: March 9, 2013 at 6:05 pm by Simon Moon.)
(March 9, 2013 at 5:43 pm)jstrodel Wrote:(March 9, 2013 at 5:33 pm)Simon Moon Wrote: About 80% of the population of Sweden is atheist. Yet they have lower crime rates, lower drug use, much lower teen pregnancy rate than the US, even though the US has a much higher % of belief in a god.
How do explain that?
Where do you get that number from?
http://www.thelocal.se/26878/20100527/#.UTusIDd5iUY
This says that the church of Sweden still plays a central role in Swedish life, although it is declining.
The number comes from adherence.com.
Up until very recently, when a child was born to parents that belonged to The Church of Sweden, they were automatically made members.
Most of the article you posted talks about rituals. So what? Many people continue with the rituals of their upbringing without actually believing them.
Sweden is among the lowest in the world with regards to church attendance. So are Denmark, Norway, Finland, 3 other countries with very high atheist populations -
http://www.nationmaster.com/graph/rel_ch...attendance
More evidence that atheism does not lead to bad behavior. Quite the opposite, actually -
http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/our-...d-religion
You'd believe if you just opened your heart" is a terrible argument for religion. It's basically saying, "If you bias yourself enough, you can convince yourself that this is true." If religion were true, people wouldn't need faith to believe it -- it would be supported by good evidence.
