Ronn said: > > At 12:18 AM Wednesday 9/28/2005, The Fool wrote: > > ><http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2-1798944,00.html> > > > > > >Societies worse off 'when they have God on their side' > > >By Ruth Gledhill, Religion Correspondent > > > > > > So how do Muslim countries compare wrt the rates of promiscuity, > > STDs, belief in evolution, etc.?
The only non-Christian country the researcher seems to have considered is Japan. So paragraph 13 of the original research talks of the negative correlation between belief in evolution and Bible literalness, and goes on to say that the highest degree of agreement with scientific theory is found in the least religious nation Japan...Another thing which struck me as slightly strange is that whenever Paul uses the word 'religion', he actually means 'Christianity'. Given the parameters of his research [prosperous democracies], and his use of the example of Japan, he could have expanded the word 'religion' to at least include Shinto and Buddhist religions, but he doesn't do so. Also, the introduction clearly states that 'This is not an attempt to present a definitive study that establishes cause versus effect between religiosity, secularism and societal health.' You can find the original paper here: http://moses.creighton.edu/JRS/2005/2005-11.html Ritu _______________________________________________ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
