The dark side of faith

Of course, this is nothing new to those of us who are atheists. Consider the simple fact that believing in a supernatural force as existing in our real world without any evidence whatsoever opens the door for our children to say to themselves that it's OK to believe in things without any evidence. That obviously opens the door for all kinds of trouble, in and of itself..... never mind the justifications that come with the "religion" package for hurting others. Mycos~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The dark side of faith By ROSA BROOKS IT'S OFFICIAL: Too much religion may be a dangerous thing. This is the implication of a study reported in the current issue of the Journal of Religion and Society, a publication of Creighton University's Center for the Study of Religion. The study, by evolutionary scientist Gregory S. Paul, looks at the correlation between levels of "popular religiosity" and various "quantifiable societal health" indicators in 18 prosperous democracies, including the United States. Paul ranked societies based on the percentage of their population expressing absolute belief in God, the frequency of prayer reported by their citizens and their frequency of attendance at religious services. He then correlated this with data on rates of homicide, sexually transmitted disease, teen pregnancy, abortion and child mortality." cont.....