More Debate Over Christmas Atheist Ad

(1) Faith & Intelligence

Intelligence & Religion

Religiousness, Spirituality, and IQ: Are They Linked?

Plus: Scientists & Belief

Leading scientists still reject God

Scientists' Belief in God Varies Starkly by Discipline

(2) Faith & Violence

Does biblical violence
cause aggressive readers?

When God sanctions killing, the people listen

(3) Faith & Morality

Divorce: Born Again Christians Just As Likely to Divorce As Are Non-Christians

Prison: The results of the Christians vs atheists
in prison investigation.

Secular Nations:

The following is taken from Sam Harris' An Atheist Manifesto (a).


Countries like Norway, Iceland, Australia, Canada, Sweden, Switzerland, Belgium, Japan, the Netherlands, Denmark and the United Kingdom are among the least religious societies on Earth.
According to the United Nations' Human Development Report (2005) (b) they are also the healthiest, as indicated by measures of life expectancy, adult literacy, per capita income, educational attainment, gender equality, homicide rate and infant mortality. Conversely, the 50 nations now ranked lowest in terms of human development are unwaveringly religious.
Other analyses paint the same picture: The United States is unique among wealthy democracies in its level of religious literalism and opposition to evolutionary theory; it is also uniquely beleaguered by high rates of homicide, abortion, teen pregnancy, STD infection and infant mortality (c).
The same comparison holds true within the United States itself : Southern and Midwestern states, characterized by the highest levels of religious superstition and hostility to evolutionary theory, are especially plagued by the above indicators of societal dysfunction, while the comparatively secular states of the Northeast conform to European norms (d).
Countries with high levels of atheism also are the most charitable in terms of giving foreign aid to the developing world (e).
The dubious link between Christian literalism and Christian values is also belied by other indices of charity (f).
Consider the ratio in salaries between top-tier CEOs and their average employee: in Britain it is 24 to 1; France 15 to 1; Sweden 13 to 1; in the United States, where 83% of the population believes that Jesus literally rose from the dead, it is 475 to 1(g).


(a) An Atheist Manifesto

(b) Human Development Report 2005

(c) Cross-National Correlations of Quantifiable Societal Health with Popular Religiously and Secularism in the Prosperous Democracies

(d) Societies worse off 'when they have God on their side'

(e) US and Foreign Aid Assistance

(f) Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development

(g) Europe vs. America


(4) Faith (Prayer) & Healing

Prayer does not heal the sick, study finds

Sunday, November 16, 2008