信仰上帝使社会状况恶化

liebling

Societies worse off 'when they have God on their side'
By Ruth Gledhill, Religion Correspondent

RELIGIOUS belief can cause damage to a society, contributing towards high murder rates, abortion, sexual promiscuity and suicide, according to research published today.

According to the study, belief in and worship of God are not only unnecessary for a healthy society but may actually contribute to social problems.

The study counters the view of believers that religion is necessary to provide the moral and ethical foundations of a healthy society.

It compares the social peformance of relatively secular countries, such as Britain, with the US, where the majority believes in a creator rather than the theory of evolution. Many conservative evangelicals in the US consider Darwinism to be a social evil, believing that it inspires atheism and amorality.

Many liberal Christians and believers of other faiths hold that religious belief is socially beneficial, believing that it helps to lower rates of violent crime, murder, suicide, sexual promiscuity and abortion. The benefits of religious belief to a society have been described as its “spiritual capital”. But the study claims that the devotion of many in the US may actually contribute to its ills.

The paper, published in the Journal of Religion and Society, a US academic journal, reports: “Many Americans agree that their churchgoing nation is an exceptional, God-blessed, shining city on the hill that stands as an impressive example for an increasingly sceptical world.

“In general, higher rates of belief in and worship of a creator correlate with higher rates of homicide, juvenile and early adult mortality, STD infection rates, teen pregnancy and abortion in the prosperous democracies.

“The United States is almost always the most dysfunctional of the developing democracies, sometimes spectacularly so.”

Gregory Paul, the author of the study and a social scientist, used data from the International Social Survey Programme, Gallup and other research bodies to reach his conclusions.

He compared social indicators such as murder rates, abortion, suicide and teenage pregnancy.

The study concluded that the US was the world’s only prosperous democracy where murder rates were still high, and that the least devout nations were the least dysfunctional. Mr Paul said that rates of gonorrhoea in adolescents in the US were up to 300 times higher than in less devout democratic countries. The US also suffered from “ uniquely high” adolescent and adult syphilis infection rates, and adolescent abortion rates, the study suggested.

Mr Paul said: “The study shows that England, despite the social ills it has, is actually performing a good deal better than the USA in most indicators, even though it is now a much less religious nation than America.”

He said that the disparity was even greater when the US was compared with other countries, including France, Japan and the Scandinavian countries. These nations had been the most successful in reducing murder rates, early mortality, sexually transmitted diseases and abortion, he added.

Mr Paul delayed releasing the study until now because of Hurricane Katrina. He said that the evidence accumulated by a number of different studies suggested that religion might actually contribute to social ills. “I suspect that Europeans are increasingly repelled by the poor societal performance of the Christian states,” he added.

He said that most Western nations would become more religious only if the theory of evolution could be overturned and the existence of God scientifically proven. Likewise, the theory of evolution would not enjoy majority support in the US unless there was a marked decline in religious belief, Mr Paul said.

“The non-religious, proevolution democracies contradict the dictum that a society cannot enjoy good conditions unless most citizens ardently believe in a moral creator.

“The widely held fear that a Godless citizenry must experience societal disaster is therefore refuted.”

西风烈

第一次听说这样的观点，不知道原文在美国会不会被禁？

Ducati

随便拿几个信仰上帝的国家和不信的比下就完了。
起码不会有最近国内发生的那个什么所谓的“防卫过当”的事。

zap

因为很多有信仰的人，都拿god当挡箭牌...
　我们很容易以为神爱世人，所以神应该对我做些甚麽、神应该让我可以期待些甚麽、神应该给我些甚麽。
　　没错，很多信徒也相信所有的人都有罪，都需要信耶稣，
　　但是，真正认识所有罪人都只配下地狱去的信徒，却为数不多。
　　除非我们知道所有人的罪，是大到都必须下地狱，
　　否则的话，我们不可能真正认识人的无能、无助、无力、不配，也不可能真正认识人对耶稣基督救赎的绝对必须。

当我们在神爱世人错误观念下，很容易就以为人有自由意志是天经地义的绝对真理，上帝在这种绝对真理面前，也必须让步，却严重忘记上帝也有自己的自由意志，而祂的自由意志一定是凌驾在人的自由意志之上的。
　　当人类的自由意志与上帝的自由意志相冲突时，大家不经思索就以为上帝必须退让。
　　但这是何等荒谬可笑的误解。
　　凭甚麽上帝就要退让给人？
　　人甚麽时候比上帝还大，大到上帝不能干预？
　　事实上，上帝确实会退让，那时叫“任凭”，任凭人用自己的自由意志去犯罪下地狱。
　　但是，当上帝用祂的自由意志决定拯救，祂可从来不会退让，而是确定绝对拯救到底，绝不撇弃任何一个祂的小孩。
　　上帝退让给法老的自由意志，任凭法老的心去刚硬；
　　但上帝可没退让给要去大马色害人的保罗，而是强力用上帝自由意志光照保罗，使他信主得救。
　　上帝甚麽时候决定要退让祂的自由意志，甚麽时候决定要坚持祂的自由意志，不是我们所决定的，而是纯粹出于祂自己的美意。
　

catparrot

原帖由 Ducati 于 31-5-2009 18:06 发表

                               
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随便拿几个信仰上帝的国家和不信的比下就完了。
起码不会有最近国内发生的那个什么所谓的“防卫过当”的事。

怎么比？就比比哪个国家有钱？那个国家发达？
人的信仰是自由的，相信什么也都是自己的自由
我最讨厌的就是基督徒在我面前说那些除了基督教，对其它教派怎么怎么瞧不起的那个样子

至于国家的发达不发达，太多因素，和宗教没关系

不过对于上帝，不相信的人也不要乱加评击

青山

I don't believe God. However, I believe the belief of God improved the equality of all people in some stage of history.