They do mention Portugal in passing, but, in general, the objection I made originally holds: they're generalizing from a sample size of one.
There are a couple other things I note: they occasionally ignore inconvenient data, such as church attendance rates in Switzerland.
All in all, it seems that they do a reasonable job of demonstrating that Europe is, on the whole, doing a lot of things better than the US is, but, in my opinion, fail to prove that the reason for it is the religion issue.
"The high rates of church attendance reported for the Swiss appear anomalous compared to their modest levels of belief and prayer."
They said that data is internaly inconsistent though. And then mostly ignore it. Sence the Swiss are mentioned in other places as doing things well, perhaps the lesson is "goto church, but dont do much else with it".
I agree they dont prove that high rates or religion cause social disfunction. But they _do_ show that high rates or religion are not coralated with highly functional sociaty, and that is the argument they set out to disprove.
Looking at it from a different perspective, though, it's a lovely counterpoint to the religious right's arguments that societies not based on or heavily drenched in religion are morally deficient, and that lack of religion is the root of all our problems. They may not prove that religion is the reason we're screwed up, but I'm guessing (haven't read the article, sorry) they at least show that religion isn't the only path to a functional free society, as some would have you believe.
While articles talking about the study talk about it as if it were claiming that faith is the reason for the social trends, the study overview itself doesn't claim any sort of causation in either direction; they merely claim correlation on some variables. In fact, they explicitly say that they didn't even look for causation.
Admittedly, the US is an outlier in most of the measures of faith, but there is gradation within the other countries studied, and for at least some of the variables they claim that there's a smooth correlation from that gradation. I'd need to read the actual data to be able to say for certain, but it sounds like they'd have usable - if much less dramatic - correlation data even just looking at the EU countries.
Also, the first thing which jumped out at me is that Paul uses the word 'religion' to mean 'Christianity'. Which is weird since Japan is a part of the study and there is no mention of Shinto or Buddhist teachings.
If someone can say that there is a negative correlation between Bible literalness and belief in evolution, and then states that agreement with scientific theory is highest in the least religious nation, Japan, the only impression one is left with is that the certain someone ought to be a bit more careful with his research/examples.
As an evolutionary biologist who believes in God, I’m having difficulty with their phrasing that “evolution removes the need for God”. Does it? I have studied evolution, yet my faith is very important to me. They are different realms of my life, my understanding about the world and myself. Besides, do we need a God to tell us we should do good? Evolutionary game theory suggests that generous tit-for-tat is the most successful social strategy. (Do what was done to you last time, but every now and then, forgive and forget).
It would be interesting to compare more and less religious areas of the United States to see if their trends continue on a region, rather than international, scale…
My own examination of the Figures suggests that the US is an outlier WRT homicides, and that this might not have to do with our religiosity. The US is the middle of the pack for teen suicide, which I found itneresting. We have an infant mortality problem in the US which, in my opinion, has more to do with access to health care than with morality and faith.
Is it possible that when the threats of a punitive God are removed that people are liable to take more responsibility for their sexuality? As an educator of the 14-18 set (some of whom are/will be involved in pregnancies this year), I am certain that our inability as a culture and as educators to discuss sexuality with them in an open and complete fashion, rather than pushing the "abstinence-only" message, does not allow those who are already exploring their sexuality to do so in a way that allows them to be responsible or feel empowered.
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
(no subject)
Date: 2005-09-28 02:10 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2005-09-28 02:15 pm (UTC)Not that I've seen, and I'm sure not holding my breath for that. Maybe Fox will pick it up for some kind of "crackpot of the week" story. Heh.
(no subject)
Date: 2005-09-28 02:47 pm (UTC)There are a couple other things I note: they occasionally ignore inconvenient data, such as church attendance rates in Switzerland.
All in all, it seems that they do a reasonable job of demonstrating that Europe is, on the whole, doing a lot of things better than the US is, but, in my opinion, fail to prove that the reason for it is the religion issue.
(no subject)
Date: 2005-09-28 03:28 pm (UTC)They said that data is internaly inconsistent though. And then mostly ignore it. Sence the Swiss are mentioned in other places as doing things well, perhaps the lesson is "goto church, but dont do much else with it".
I agree they dont prove that high rates or religion cause social disfunction. But they _do_ show that high rates or religion are not coralated with highly functional sociaty, and that is the argument they set out to disprove.
AE
(no subject)
Date: 2005-09-28 04:02 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2005-09-28 05:32 pm (UTC)Admittedly, the US is an outlier in most of the measures of faith, but there is gradation within the other countries studied, and for at least some of the variables they claim that there's a smooth correlation from that gradation. I'd need to read the actual data to be able to say for certain, but it sounds like they'd have usable - if much less dramatic - correlation data even just looking at the EU countries.
(no subject)
Date: 2005-09-29 03:58 am (UTC)If someone can say that there is a negative correlation between Bible literalness and belief in evolution, and then states that agreement with scientific theory is highest in the least religious nation, Japan, the only impression one is left with is that the certain someone ought to be a bit more careful with his research/examples.
Some thoughts on the article
Date: 2005-09-28 11:32 pm (UTC)It would be interesting to compare more and less religious areas of the United States to see if their trends continue on a region, rather than international, scale…
My own examination of the Figures suggests that the US is an outlier WRT homicides, and that this might not have to do with our religiosity. The US is the middle of the pack for teen suicide, which I found itneresting. We have an infant mortality problem in the US which, in my opinion, has more to do with access to health care than with morality and faith.
Is it possible that when the threats of a punitive God are removed that people are liable to take more responsibility for their sexuality? As an educator of the 14-18 set (some of whom are/will be involved in pregnancies this year), I am certain that our inability as a culture and as educators to discuss sexuality with them in an open and complete fashion, rather than pushing the "abstinence-only" message, does not allow those who are already exploring their sexuality to do so in a way that allows them to be responsible or feel empowered.