Tulisan yang disampaikan Sunny yang layak diperhatikan..
--- In proletar@yahoogroups.com, "Sunny" <ambon@...> wrote: > > http://www.secularhumanism.org/index.php?section=library&page=pzuckerman_26_5 > > Is Faith Good for Us? > Phil Zuckerman > > > Phil Zuckerman is an associate professor of sociology at Pitzer College in > California. He is the author of Invitation to the Sociology of Religion > (Routledge, 2003) and is currently writing a book on secularization in > Scandinavia. > > > > Whether Christian, Muslim, Jewish, or Sikh, there is one common belief that > all religious fundamentalists share: worship of God and obedience to his laws > are essential for a peaceful, healthy society. From Orthodox rabbis in the > occupied West Bank to Wahhabi sheiks in Saudi Arabia, from the pope in > Vatican City to Mormons in Salt Lake City, the lament is the same: God and > his will must be at the center of everyone's lives in order to ensure a > moral, prosperous, safe, collective existence. > > Furthermore, fundamentalists agree that, when large numbers of people in a > society reject God or fail to make him the center of their lives, societal > disintegration is sure to follow. Every societal ill-whether crime, poverty, > poor public education, or AIDS-is thus blamed on a lack of piety. A most > disconcerting example of this worldview was expressed in the immediate > aftermath of September 11, 2001, when Jerry Falwell blamed the terrorists > attacks on America's "throwing God out of the public square," further adding > that "when a nation deserts God and expels God from the culture . . . the > result is not good." > > If this often-touted religious theory were correct-that a turning away from > God is at the root of all societal ills-then we would expect to find the > least religious nations on earth to be bastions of crime, poverty, and > disease and the most religious nations to be models of societal health. A > comparison of highly irreligious countries with highly religious countries, > however, reveals a very different state of affairs. In reality, the most > secular countries-those with the highest proportion of atheists and > agnostics-are among the most stable, peaceful, free, wealthy, and healthy > societies. And the most religious nations-wherein worship of God is in > abundance-are among the most unstable, violent, oppressive, poor, and > destitute. > > One must always be careful, of course, to distinguish between totalitarian > nations where atheism is forced upon an unwilling population (such as in > North Korea, China, Vietnam, and the former Soviet states) and open, > democratic nations where atheism is freely chosen by a well-educated > population (as in Sweden, the Netherlands, or Japan). The former nations' > nonreligion, which can be described as "coercive atheism," is plagued by all > that comes with totalitarianism: corruption, economic stagnation, censorship, > depression, and the like. However, nearly every nation with high levels of > "organic atheism" is a veritable model of societal health. > > Table 1: Top 25 Nations with the Highest Percentage of Nonbelievers > Country Estimated Percent Atheist or Agnostic > 1. Sweden 64â"85 percent > 2. Denmark 48â"80 percent > 3. Norway 54â"72 percent > 4. Japan 65 percent > 5. Czech Republic 54â"61 percent > 6. Finland 41â"60 percent > 7. France 44â"54 percent > 8. South Korea 30â"52 percent > 9. Estonia 49 percent > 10. Germany 41â"49 percent > 11. Russia 30â"48 percent > 12. Hungary 35â"46 percent > 13. Netherlands 42â"44 percent > 14. Great Britain 32â"39 percent > 15. Belgium 43 percent > 16. Bulgaria 34â"40 percent > 17. Slovenia 35â"38 percent > 18. Israel 37 percent > 19. Canada 19â"30 percent > 20. Latvia 20â"29 percent > 21. Slovakia 10â"28 percent > 22. Switzerland 17â"27 percent > 23. Austria 18â"26 percent > 24. Australia 25 percent > 25. Taiwan 24 percent > > The twenty-five nations characterized by organic atheism with the highest > proportion of nonbelievers are listed in Table 1. When looking at standard > measures of societal health, we find that they fare remarkably well; highly > religious nations fare rather poorly. The 2004 United Nations' Human > Development Report, which ranks 177 countries on a "Human Development Index," > measures such indicators of societal health as life expectancy, adult > literacy, per-capita income, educational attainment, and so on. According to > this report, the five top nations were Norway, Sweden, Australia, Canada, and > the Netherlands. All had notably high degrees of organic atheism. > Furthermore, of the top twenty-five nations, all but Ireland and the United > States were top-ranking nonbelieving nations with some of the highest > percentages of organic atheism on earth. Conversely, the bottom fifty > countries of the "Human Development Index" lacked statistically significant > levels of organic atheism. > > Irreligious countries had the lowest infant-mortality rate (number of deaths > per 1,000 live births), and religious countries had the highest rates. > According to the 2004 CIA World Factbook > (http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook), out of 225 nations, the > twenty-five with the lowest infant-mortality rates had significantly high > levels of organic atheism. Conversely, the seventy-five nations with the > highest infant-mortality rates were all very religious and without > statistically significant levels of organic atheism. > > Concerning international poverty rates, the United Nations Report on the > World Social Situation (2003) found that, of the forty poorest nations on > earth (measured by the percentage of population that lives on less than one > dollar a day), all but Vietnam were highly religious nations with > statistically minimal or insignificant levels of atheism. > > Regarding homicide rates, Oablo Fajnzylber et al., in a study reported in the > Journal of Law and Economics (2002), looked at thirty-eight non-African > nations and found that the ten with the highest homicide rates were highly > religious, with minimal or statistically insignificant levels of organic > atheism. Conversely, of the ten nations with the lowest homicide rates, all > but Ireland were secular nations with high levels of atheism. James Fox and > Jack Levin, in The Will to Kill, looked at thirty-seven non-African nations > and found that, of the ten nations with the highest homicide rates, all but > Estonia and Taiwan were highly religious, with statistically insignificant > levels of organic atheism. Conversely, of the ten nations with the lowest > homicide rates, all but Ireland and Kuwait were relatively secular nations, > with high levels of organic atheism. > > Concerning literacy rates, according to the United Nations Report on the > World Social Situation (2003), of the thirty-five nations with the highest > levels of youth-illiteracy rates (percentage of population ages fifteen to > twenty-four who cannot read or write), all were highly religious, with > statistically insignificant levels of organic atheism. > > In regard to rates of AIDS and HIV infection, the most religious nations on > earth-particularly those in Africa-fared the worst. (Botswana suffers from > the highest rate of HIV infection in the world; see > http://www.avert.org/aroundworld. htm.) Conversely, the highly irreligious > nations of Western Europe, such as those of Scandinavia-where public sex > education is supported and birth control is widely accessible-fared the best, > experiencing among the lowest rates of AIDS and HIV infection in the world. > > Concerning gender equality, nations marked by high degrees of organic atheism > are among the most egalitarian in the world, while highly religious nations > are among the most oppressive. According to the 2004 Human Development > Report's "Gender Empowerment Measure," the ten nations with the highest > degrees of gender equality were all strongly organic-atheistic nations with > significantly high percentages of nonbelief. Conversely, the bottom ten were > all highly religious nations without any statistically significant > percentages of atheists. According to Ronald Inglehart and Pippa Norris's > (2003) "Gender Equality Scale," of the ten nations most accepting of gender > equality, all but the United States and Colombia were marked by high levels > of organic atheism; of the ten least-accepting of gender equality, all were > highly religious and had statistically insignificant levels of organic > atheism. According to Inglehart et al. in Human Values and Social Change > (2003), countries such as Sweden, Denmark, and the Netherlands, with the most > female members of parliament, tended to be characterized by high degrees of > organic atheism, and countries such as Pakistan, Nigeria, and Iran, with the > fewest female members in parliament, tended to be highly religious. > > The acceptance of gender equality among irreligious nations may be linked to > the relative acceptance of homosexuality. Inglehart et al., in Human Beliefs > and Values: A Cross-Cultural Sourcebook Based on the 1999-2002 Value Surveys > (2004), found that, of the eighteen nations least likely to condemn > homosexuality, all were highly ranked organic-atheistic nations. Conversely, > of the eighteen nations most likely to condemn homosexuality, all but Hungary > were highly religious, with statistically insignificant levels of organic > atheism. > > A country's suicide rate stands out as the one indicator of societal health > in which religious nations fare much better than secular nations. According > to the 2003 World Health Organization's report on international male suicide > rates (http://www.who.int/en/), the nations with the lowest rates of suicide > were all highly religious, characterized by extremely high levels of theism > (usually of the Muslim and Catholic varieties). Of the ten nations with the > highest male suicide rates, five were distinctly irreligious nations ranked > among the top twenty-five nations listed earlier. These five are Estonia, > Hungary, Latvia, Russia, and Slovenia. It is interesting to note that of the > nations currently experiencing the highest rates of suicide-including the > five just mentioned-nearly all are former Soviet/communist-dominated > societies. (The nations of Scandinavia, where organic atheism is strongest, > do not have the highest suicide rates in the world, as is widely thought to > be the case.) > > In sum, countries with high rates of organic atheism are among the most > societally healthy on earth, while societies with nonexistent rates of > organic atheism are among the most destitute. The former nations have among > the lowest homicide rates, infant mortality rates, poverty rates, and > illiteracy rates and among the highest levels of wealth, life expectancy, > educational attainment, and gender equality in the world. The sole indicator > of societal health in which religious countries scored higher than > irreligious countries is suicide. > > Where does the United States fit in all this? Americans are very religious. > Many studies have found that only between 3-7 percent of Americans do not > believe in God. Rates of prayer, belief in the divinity of Jesus, belief in > the divine origins of the Bible, and rates of church attendance are > remarkably robust in the United States, making it the most religious of all > Western industrialized nations, with the possible exception of Ireland. When > it comes to societal health, the United States certainly fares far better > than much of the rest of the world. According to the United Nations' 2004 > "Human Development Index" discussed earlier, the United States ranked eighth. > However, when we compare the United States to its peer nations-i.e., > developed, industrialized, democratic nations such as Canada, Japan, and the > nations of Europe-its standing in terms of societal health plummets. The > United States has far higher homicide, poverty, obesity, and homelessness > rates than any of its more secular peer nations. It is also the only Western > industrialized democracy that is unwilling to provide universal health > coverage to its citizens. The fact is that extremely secular nations such as > Japan and Sweden are much safer, cleaner, healthier, better educated, and > more humane when compared to the United States, despite the latter's > exceptionally strong levels of theism. > > The information presented in this discussion in no way proves that high > levels of organic atheism cause societal health or that low levels of organic > atheism cause societal ills such as poverty or illiteracy. The wealth, > poverty, well-being, and suffering in various nations are caused by numerous > political, historical, economic, and sociological factors that are far more > determinant than people's personal belief systems. Rather, the conclusion to > be drawn from the data provided above is simply that high levels of > irreligion do not automatically result in a breakdown of civilization, a rise > in immoral behavior, or in "sick societies." Quite the opposite seems to be > the case. Furthermore, religion is clearly not the simple and single path to > righteous societies that religious fundamentalists seem to think it is. This > fact must be vigorously asserted in response to the proclamations of > politically active theists. From small-town school boards to the floor of the > Senate, conservative Christians are championing religion as the solution to > America's societal problems. However, their pious "solution" is highly > dubious and clearly not supported by the best available research of social > science. > > Belief in God may provide comfort to the individual believer, but, at the > societal level, its results do not compare at all favorably with that of the > more secular societies. When seeking a more civil, just, safe, humane, and > healthy society, one is more likely to find it among those nations ranking > low in religious faith-contrary to the preaching of religious folks. > > > Acknowledgment > > My article is indebted to Gregory S. Paul's important research correlating > rates of belief/nonbelief with various measures of societal health. > > > > > Further Reading > Reginald Bibby, Restless Gods: The Renaissance of Religion in Canada > (Toronto, Ontario, Canada: Stoddart Publishing Company, 2002). > Grace Davie, "Europe: The Exception That Proves the Rule?" in The > Desecularization of the World, edited by Peter Berger (Grand Rapids, > Mich.:William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1999). > Kim Eungi, "Religion in Contemporary Korea: Change and Continuity," Korea > Focus, July-August 2003. > Oablo Fajnzylber, Daniel Lederman, and Norman Loatza, "Inequality and Violent > Crime," The Journal of Law and Economics, April 2002. > James Fox and Jack Levin, The Will to Kill (Boston, Mass.: Allyn and Bacon, > 2000). > Timothy Gall, Worldmark Encyclopedia of Culture and Daily Life, Vol.4: Europe > (Cleveland, Ohio: Eastword Publications. 1998). > George Gallup and Michael Lindsay, Surveying the Religious Landscape > (Harrisburg, Pa.: Morehouse Publishing, 1999). > Andrew Greeley, Religion in Europe at the End of the Second Millennium (New > Brunswick, N.J.: Transaction Publishers, 2003). > Goran Gustafsson and Thorleif Pettersson, Folkkyrk och religios pluraism-den > nordiska religiosa modellen (Stockholm: Verbum Forlag, 2000). > Michael Hout and Claude Fischer, "Why More Americans Have No Religious > Preference: Politics and Generations," American Sociological Review 67, no. 2 > (2002). > Ronald Inglehart, Miguel Basanez, Jaime Diez-Medrano, Loek Halman, and Ruud > Luijkx, Human Beliefs and Values: A Cross-Cultural Sourcebook Based on the > 1999-2002 Value Surveys, (Beunos Aires, Argentina: Siglo Veintiuno Editores, > 2004). > Ronald Inglehart and Pippa Norris, Rising Tide: Gender Equality and Cultural > Change Around the World (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2003). > Ronald Inglehart, Pippa Norris, and Christian Welzel, "Gender Equality and > Democracy," in Human Values and Social Change, edited by Ronald Inglehart > (Boston, Mass.: Brill, 2003). > Peri Kedem, "Dimensions of Jewish Religiosity," in Israeli Judaism, edited by > Shlomo Deshen, Charles Liebman, and Mishe Shokeid (London: Transaction > Publishers, 1995). > Gerald Marwell and N.J. Demerath, "'Secularization' by Any Other Name," > American Sociological Review 68, no. 2 (2003). > Pippa Norris and Ronald Inglehart, Sacred and Secular: Religion and Politics > Worldwide (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2004). > Gregory Paul, "The Secular Revolution of the West: It's Passed America By-So > Far," Free Inquiry 22, no. 3 (Summer 2002). > --, "Cross National Correllations of Quantifiable Societal Health with > Popular Religiosity and Secularism in the Prosperous Democracies," Journal of > Religion and Society, vol. 7 (2005). > Detlef Pollack, "The Change in Religion and Church in Eastern Germany after > 1989: A Research Note," Sociology of Religion 63, no. 3 (2002). > United Nations, Human Development Report (New York: Oxford University Press, > 2004). > United Nations, Report on the World Social Situation (New York: United > Nations Publications, 2003). > > E-mail this article to a friend > > > [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] > ------------------------------------ Post message: prole...@egroups.com Subscribe : proletar-subscr...@egroups.com Unsubscribe : proletar-unsubscr...@egroups.com List owner : proletar-ow...@egroups.com Homepage : http://proletar.8m.com/Yahoo! 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