Atheist nations are more peaceful

Interesting article I came across... bhascience.blogspot.com...

"The 2009 Global Peace Index has just been released. It's basically a ranking of how turbulent and warlike a country is.

They put it together by assessing 23 criteria, including foreign wars, internal conflicts, respect for human rights, the number of murders, the number of people in jail, the arms trade, and degrees of democracy"

The .pdf of the rankings can be found here www.guardian.co.uk...


It really does make one wonder what the world would be like if there was no religion. Now I am not saying religion is wrong by any means... free will is a great thing.

The original author summed it up best I think... "Now, there are several possible reasons for this. It could be that people living in turbulent countries turn to religion, or it could be that religion is not a good way to structure modern society.

Whatever, it's another blow to the idea that secularization leads to social meltdown. Atheist countries are, in fact more peaceful."

America is number 83. Woo Hoo.

We're number 83, We're number 83.

Go America.

It's an interesting idea. While I don't totally accept a black and white idea that atheists will be more peaceful, it is at the least one less thing to argue about, and we know from protestants and catholics in Ireland and elsewhere, Shi'te and Sunni in the middle east, and many others that religion can play a big part in war.

Interesting stuff. Thanks a bunch.

People don't need religion as an excuse to cause grief to their fellow man (See: Pol Pot, Stalin et al).

I suspect that if humankind suddenly abandoned religion en masse, we would just stick to all the other reasons we have to kill each other.

:-(

How about South Korea? They are very peaceful by themselves and they are mostly Christians.

Too bad they have a very aggressive neighbor!

New Zealand is hardly an atheist country

More than half the population affiliate with a Christian religion, of which Anglican, Catholic and Presbyterian are the largest denominations.

Source
www.stats.govt.nz...


China is an atheist country, think about their human rights. Athiest countries of the past bred Pol Pot, Stalin, Lenin etc.

Don't believe all you read on the net figures are easy to manipulate by those with a vested interest.

czech republic #11!
btw data from 2001 shows 59% of czech are atheists, so i guess there might be something to that theory

[edit on 4/6/2009 by ranswer]

reply to post by TwiTcHomatic


Meh, I don't think this analysis is accurate...

The Guardian link mentions nothing about religion or countries that are more/less secular having a result on their safety & security level.

It's the Epiphenom link that took the results of the Guardian site and used them to explain it's own claim.

While I'm an atheist and would hope the OP title were the case, I don't think it necessarily is.

As someone already mentioned, remove religion, and we'll just find something else to fight about.

Originally posted by noonebutme

As someone already mentioned, remove religion, and we'll just find something else to fight about.

You nailed it right there!! Ever heard of unruly football fans?? Unruly political parties??

reply to post by ahnggk


True, but there is a massive difference between "unruly football fans" and the hundreds of thousands who die as a result of religion yearly.
Hardly comparable.

I think in a few generations time religion will be a mere relic of the past.

Originally posted by dizzylizzy
New Zealand is hardly an atheist country

That is true.
We are a secular country however and those denominations quoted are going through rifts at the moment. The Happy Clappies are going strong though...well, they make a lot of noise at least.
Suffice to say we're a diverse lot and if we're the 'most peaceful' then I feel for the rest of the World.




[edit on 4-6-2009 by aorAki]