Monday, November 28, 2011

Secular Government Benefits Everyone

All religions are touted by their followers as being vehicles to promote and spread peace, love, and morality. Unfortunately, this is not even close to being true. While most (or all) religions do teach these values at one level, at a deeper level they also teach that anyone who doesn't believe in a particular religion is not only wrong, but somehow less human than the believers. And religious adherents use this deeper belief to bully, discriminate against, and even physically harm non-believers and believers of other faiths.

As the graphic above shows, instead of bringing the world closer together, religion has historically had the effect of pulling it apart. And this is especially true when governments involve themselves in promoting religion -- whether a particular religion, or religion in general. When government becomes involved in religion bad things begin to happen, such as wars, pogroms, discrimination & denial of human rights, forced religious participation, relegation of females to a second-class status, honor killings, and many other things -- all of which would be considered immoral and unethical if not justified in a religious context.

Our Founding Fathers knew this and tried to create a secular nation, but that didn't last long. For the last couple of centuries religion (particularly christianity) has steadily encroached into government activities. Traditionally, this has mostly been seen on the local level, but recently the state and federal governments are also being involved. This has resulted in legislation based on religious beliefs and much of that legislation has had a detrimental effect on American society. A good example is when the religious right mandated schools cannot teach sex education, except for "abstinence only", and this resulted in more teen pregnancies and larger numbers of abortions.

Religion has also historically been used (and is still being used) in this country to justify discrimination and the denial of equal rights to many groups -- examples ranging from slavery and Jim Crowism to denial of full equal rights to women and homosexuals. It is undeniable that religion (christianity) is the biggest obstacle to the full realization of our constitutional values -- the granting of equal rights to all American citizens.


I know I may be angering some readers by writing this post, but I really believe this nation (and all other nations) would be better served by a truly secular government -- a government that based decisions and regulations on common sense and what is best for everyone, rather than some religious beliefs. I do believe that secular government should protect religious freedom (the freedom to believe in any religious faith or no religious faith at all), but religion should not be allowed to interfere in government.

The folks over at Atheist Connect also believe people would be better served by having a secular government, and they have compiled a list of ten reasons why this is true. Here is their rather interesting list:

#10 – Lower Crime Rates
That’s right, secular countries have the lowest crime rates and are the safest places on the planet. Sweden, Finland, Norway, Japan, etc., are all secular countries that have incredibly low rates of crime. Inversely the more religious a country is, the more the population suffers from thefts, rapes, assaults, etc. Clearly being a religious country does not mean that your fellow citizens will be better behaved.



#9 – Lower Homicide Rate
While homicide is certainly a crime and could be categorized accordingly, almost every country on the planet separates homicides out from other types of crime, which tends to make sense as the crime of homicide is certainly more heinous than a robbery. Now why religious countries tend to have higher homicide rates is open for debate. Some believe that the moral center of the religious has been corrupted by the fairy-tale that life after death is more important than actual life; others believe that it is the religious concepts of punishment and damnation that result in the increased homicide rates. Whatever it is, clearly religious countries have higher homicide rates than secular countries. So, if you prefer not to be murdered, you should also prefer your society to be secular.



#8 – Lower Rates of Sexually Transmitted Diseases
Almost all secular nations have sex education programs for children, confidential public health-care programs to treat sexually transmitted diseases for free, publicly advertised programs to educate the masses about sexually transmitted diseases, and free condoms for any and all. In opposition to the secular nations, the religious nations tend to treat sex as sin, resist teaching children about the topic, and even discourage condom use. Religious countries want to rely on abstinence as the only protection from disease. Is it any surprise that secular countries have the lowest rates of sexually transmitted disease? 



.#7 – Lower Rates of Infant Mortality
Infant mortality is a measure of the survival rate of new-born babies within a country. Typically it is tracked by how many infant deaths occur per 1000 full-term pregnancies. You would think that technologically advanced countries would have a distinct advantage over the less technological in their ability to save the lives on newborn infants… but according to the data, secular beliefs are far more beneficial to newborns than technology.
Why do religious countries have higher rates of infant mortality? It is probably because of the demonization of unwed mothers by religious societies. Combine this demonization with an inability to receive an abortion, and you will have a large group of mothers having children that they don’t want and/or can’t economically afford. Whether it is a conscious or an unconscious decision by the mothers to inadequately care for themselves during pregnancy, or it is the societies themselves that are not willing to provide the needed care, is not important. The point is that societies that demonize certain classes of individuals due to religious rules of acceptance are going to cause increased rates of infant mortality.

#6 – Lower Rates of Teen PregnancyAs should be clear by now, secular nations tend to encourage sex education and have a far more honest understanding of human sexuality than religious nations. As such, the policies of secular countries have resulted in lower rates of teen pregnancy. This is not because teens from secular nations are having abortions at higher rates; they simply don’t get pregnant to start with. By providing education, free contraceptives, and treating human sexuality like a normal human function, secular nations have reduced the rates of teen pregnancy to levels that religious countries can only dream of.


#5 – Lower Abortion Rates
This is one of the hardest and most bitter pills that religious nations have to swallow, their policies of restricting the ability of women to receive an abortion, actually results in increased rates of abortion. Secular countries tend to provide free no-questions-asked abortions to any woman that wants one, and yet these countries have rates of abortions as much as 10-times lower than religious countries. Clearly, the religious desire to control the bodies of women and forcing them into having children, does not work in reducing abortion rates.



#4 – Healthier Citizens
The citizens of secular countries are healthier than the citizens of religious countries. The reasons for this difference are almost certainly due to a combination of factors involving public education, health-care policies, access to care, etc. How religion affects these policies is open to debate, however it is clear that religious belief is a major factor. The citizens of nations that are religious and technologically advanced are no better off than countries that are less technologically advanced. In fact, the link between technology and improved health is questionable; the link between secular beliefs and improved health is not.



#3 – Citizens have Better Personal Relationships
The citizens of secular nations have better interpersonal relationships (and are more happy!) than the citizens of religious nations. Religious nations tend to demonize life-styles that don’t conform to their expectations, and tend to place women at a lower social status than men. This has resulted in higher rates of infidelity and higher divorce rates in religious countries, than in secular countries. Other mental-health factors related to relationships, also demonstrate that secular countries have policies that are beneficial to improving the relationships of its citizens.



#2 – Citizens Have Higher Education Rates
Secular nations such as Norway, Finland, etc., not only have citizens with an average education that is higher than religious countries, but the children of secular nations outperform religious children in math, science, and reading. Consider the level of education that your grand children will need to have in order to succeed in the future, and you can quickly see that doubting basic scientific principles such as evolution will get them nowhere.



#1 – Higher Per Capita Income
Possibly the single most important reason why you should want to live in a secular nation instead of a religious nation, is that the citizens of secular nations make more money than the citizens of religious nations! And it’s not that the citizens of secular nations simply make more money, they actually have more discretionary income!

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