Tom Grey wrote
> Further, I derive support for this from limited thought experiments:
> Society A: more Atheist,
> Society B: more Bible Believing.
>
> In which society do I expect more fraud? more cheating spouses &
> promiscuity? more theft? more murder?
> Well, even without empirical support, I believe B will be better for me to
> live in, whether I, personally, am a weak Episcopalian/ agnostic/ atheist/
> or devout believer.
The data do not seem to support the hypothesis England and France, for
example, are much less bible believing than the U.S. but overall have
lower crime rates (and despite their reputation the French are
apparently not especially promiscious). The U.S. South is much more
bible believing than the North but crime rates are higher. Atheism
increases with education and income (even more clearly "bible beleving"
falls with education and income) but crime falls with education and
income.
The hypothesis is not well framed but if we were to say simply that
societies with more bible believing should have lower crime rates etc.
than that is even more decisively refuted because most of the world is
not bible believing and the Asian societies, in particular, appear to
have lower crime rates etc.
It's tricky, but by some measures Confucian's, for example, can be
considered atheists (Confucious was a person not a god) albeit not
secular atheists. I have little doubt that you will find that
Confucian's in the United States say have lower rates of crime etc. than
bible believers.
None of this controls for other factors, of course, so I do not
claim causality and of course counter-examples can be found (no need to
mention them) but the limited-evidence ought to be enough to cast doubt
on the limited thought experiments.
Alex
--
Dr. Alexander Tabarrok
Vice President and Director of Research
The Independent Institute
100 Swan Way
Oakland, CA, 94621-1428
Tel. 510-632-1366, FAX: 510-568-6040
Email: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
