Prison got me thinking about atheism

[Reasoned]

Went from Catholicism to atheist in 1 year.

No, I didn't go to prison, see below.

Story is simple; I asked around for a roughly year why there were 100% of theists in prison, and 0% atheists. (I am from a cold place, too paranoid to tell)

Got no answers.

Slowly began to throw away religion.

I went from kneeling down to pray, every night, to being disgusted by religion. 

This was a hard process especially with the fact that my family were initially regular church goers. (and so are many of the surrounding sheeple, you know, people that behave like herded sheep)

Now I want to rid the planet of churches, to see if this would reduce the percentage of theists in prison.

[account_inactive]

[Reasoned]

Thanks

[Alex K]

@OP

I'm pretty certain that this is because atheists in US prisons are strongly compelled to hide their nonbelief in order to increase their chances to have their sentences reduced for good conduct. Claiming to have become a better Christian and thus be redeemed is still one of the more obvious ways to convince your average american small time judge that you're good now. There are certainly not 0% atheists in prison.

[ignoramus]

OP, The Americans like to say that guns don't kill people, people kill people.
It also makes sense that bibles don't kill people, people kill people.

Welcome by the way...

[chimp3]

Welcome!

[Alex K]

Yes, welcome!

[Aoi Magi]

Welcome

And I don't think there are 0% atheists in the prison, but atheists would certainly be less likely to break the law because they believe in those same man-made laws and know the consequences, whereas theists tend to believe in the open-to-interpretation-not-man-made laws and often seem to not care about real world consequences.

[brewer]

Welcome.

Does church = prison?

Both contain atheists.

[johan]

Now I want to rid the planet of churches, to see if this would reduce the percentage of theists in prison.

Be extremely careful what you wish for. Its very easy to visualize a world where there are no theists and how wonderful that would be yada yada yada. But then I go out into the real world and I'm instantly reminded just how armed and angry and stupid so many of the people are and then I remember that having an invisible sky daddy around who will punish you forever if you fuck up too badly is probably a good thing.

I genuinely believe there are still lots of people around who may or may not be active church going theists. But they know about the prison system and what that entails and they aren't afraid of it. But they also know that this god thing and this hell thing might exist. They don't know for sure, but they know that it might. And that is what keeps them from going full metal jacket anytime someone annoys them slightly.