Peace and its worst enemy…religion?

Peace and its worst enemy…religion?

There has been a list published recently regarding The Worlds Most Peaceful Countries. I couldn’t help but notice that some of the a lot of the most peaceful were also the least religious.

So, what does the list show us?

Within the top ten most peaceful countries were Denmark (No.2), Norway (No.3), Sweden (No.7) and Japan (No.8).
The very same countries were also in the top 10 least religious countries; Sweden (No.2), Denmark (No.3), Norway (No.4) and Japan (No.8).

Coincidence?

Also, within the USA:

Most Religious States

Mississippi
Alabama (13)
S. Carolina (3)
Tennessee (6)
Louisiana (2)
Arkansas (11)
Georgia (12)
N. Carolina (18)
Oklahoma (16)
Kentucky
Texas (15)

In BOLD are the states that also appear in the ‘twenty most dangerous states 2009’ list, with their respective positions in brackets.

Least Religious States

Vermont (2)
New Hampshire (1)
Maine (3)
Massachusetts
Alaska
Washington
Oregon (20)
Rhode Island (9)
Nevada
Connecticut (10)

In BOLD are the states that also appear in the ‘twenty safest states 2009’ list, with their respective positions in brackets.

Now I can fully understand that surveys like this can be very misleading.
I also understand that this can be a touchy subject.

But i hope you recognized that the thread title was a question and not a statement.

This was also pretty rushed so I will be doing further research and will add it in due course.

I just wanted to see what peoples opinions were.
Please feel free to add any other evidence for/against.

Thanks

[edit on 05/08/09 by LiveForever8]

Hi,

Can you please define the terms as used by the study? How does one define 'religious' or 'peaceful'?

If extra-national aggression is considered in the definition, then it should be noted that a number of the countries referenced don't have the capacity to wage war.

It should also be noted that far and away the most deaths in the history of the world were committed by governments that espoused atheism.

www.hup.harvard.edu...

Eric

[edit on 5-8-2009 by EricD]

reply to post by EricD


Hi,

Global Peace Index.

Today, the GPI measures 144 nations based on 23 indicators of the existence or absence of peace both within and outside a country’s borders. The indicators use quantitative and qualitative data from the World Bank, various U.N. offices and Peace Institutes, and the Economist Intelligence Unit and are divided into three categories: five measures of ongoing domestic and international conflict, 10 measures of safety and security in society, and eight measures of militarization.

In the study of religious countries residents were asked "Is religion an important part of their daily life?"
This was put into a percentage, very basic i know.

On your point about atheism. The term 'governments' is questionable. Many such cases were of countries who were ruled as a dictatorship. Was it because a country gave up on religion? Or was it one mans lust for power and money at whatever cost?

Its a very difficult topic to explore.

Thanks.

Skipped Ireland, me thinks... Surely by chance, since it is very religious.
Soviet Union was very aggressive. And atheistic. N. Korea is also as atheistic as it gets. Rule of thumb in this case does not work very well.
My personal opinion is that a close and semi-fanatical groups of people sharing the same "crowd" definition are easier to manipulate into situations that the same people as individuals would never agree to be part of. So organized religions are just as much a risk factor as other organized groups, like Venus project for example . Pretty sure that if some wrong manipulator would get hold of it we would see crusaders from those guys.
People, all crowds are dangerous since we loose our-self in them and can become part of stampede.

The worst enemy of peace is ENEMY.
And ENEMY is just a big lie, there is no such thing.

reply to post by ZeroKnowledge

Approximately 100 million citizens consider themselves Russian Orthodox Christians, amounting to 70% of population, although the Church claims a membership of 80 million[5][6];also according to a poll by the Russian Public Opinion Research Center, 63% of respondents considered themselves Russian Orthodox, 6% of respondents considered themselves Muslim and less than 1% considered themselves either Buddhist, Catholic, Protestant or Jewish.[7] Another 12% said they believe in God, but did not practice any religion, and 16% said they are non-believers.[7]. It is estimated that Russia is home to 23 million people of Muslim backgrounds, including 1.5 million in Moscow alone.[8][9] The Orthodox Church estimated in 2000 that 20 million Russians were Muslim, while the official census counter around 15 million[10] Russia also has an estimated 3 million to 4 million Muslim migrants from the ex-Soviet states.

Source

So Russia does still have a lot of religious influence.
Also, there are factors that can effect the general trend, but it does seem there is a link.