Blog 21: Societies worse off ‘when they have God on their side’

Today I read an article that was in The Times magazine.  In this article the author says that a study was conducted to see how religion affects a nation.  The results of the study show that, “In general, higher rates of belief in and worship of a creator correlate with higher rates of homicide, juvenile and early adult mortality, STD infection rates, teen pregnancy and abortion in the prosperous democracies” (Gledhill 1).  From the article this is proven from the rates of these said subjects compared to how “religious” a nation describes itself.  America is described as a very religious country and from the study is shown to have a all of the said above.  This is very different from what most people usually think when concerning religion; the general view is that religion is necessary to provide a foundation of moral and ethical standards in society.  Although this may be shocking to some its, is most certainly not surprising to me.  If you are subject to what is right and wrong from a book or just from a church session you are not truly learning it; instead if you actually experience what is right and wrong I do believe there is a more lasting impression.  Just like learning; studies have shown that a more hands on approach is better absorbed than their lecturing counterparts.