America's Smartland
Followers of Christ did not get the label "Christian" until several decades after Christ. The term was coined by non-Christians in Asia Minor as a derisive term, meaning "little Christ ones." In a stroke of genius, the followers of Christ adopted the term as their name and it came to mean something good. I saw a similar opportunity in a newspaper editorial by Orson Scott Card. Mr. Card refers to the non-Heartland derisively as "Smartland." Don't you love that name? America's Smartland. Let's start using it. In fact, let's think of ways to spread it as a meme. I think I'll make a banner for people to post on their sites and blogs. Perhaps it will feature an image of Mr. Card with a word balloon saying, "This site a proud resident of America's Smartland."
The problem is that there is seriously a non-Smartland in America. Sane, responsible Christians and religious people who are members of Smartland are much better than American Christians and religious people who are not. This is often used as an excuse to not try to reach out to insane and irresponsible forms of religion in non-Smartland, and cut off one of its major weapons by proving God doesn't exist. For instance, Marshall Brain, who runs HowStuffWorks.com, recently put out a gentle and incisive online book that intends to help with that goal, and John Scalzi (an agnostic) wrote a blog post to lambaste it as a waste of time because we're hurting the feelings of Brother Guy Consolmagno and other religious residents of Smartland. Never mind that the book is not aimed at religous residents of Smartland. We are taking weapons out of the hands of those who abuse them. That's what matters.
John is correct when he says there is just as much of a problem with 20th-century secular dictators as there had been with the Inquisition, Crusades, and witch trials of earlier centuries. But nobody who thinks faith-based cultures are more virtuous and socially stable than secular cultures knows about the comparison with Sweden.
Sweden is the most atheistic country per-capita in the world, and yet somehow not only don't they descend into genocide, they have better rates on just about everything than do highly religious nations. More to the point, according to this article (which reports a systematic study that found current global statistics the exact opposite of religious assumptions), this and countless other recent comprehensive studies show dramatically that the less religious a nation is, the more virtuously its citizens act. The article says,
"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 ... None of the strongly secularized, pro-evolution democracies is experiencing high levels of measurable dysfunction." Within the United States "the strongly theistic, anti-evolution South and Midwest" have "markedly worse homicide, mortality, STD, youth pregnancy, marital and related problems than the Northeast where ... secularization, and acceptance of evolution approach European norms."
"the more secular, pro-evolution democracies have ... come closest to achieving practical "cultures of life"."
What could cause this? I like this quote from the article as well: "We know that the most dangerous human trait is an absence of self-doubt, and that self-doubt is more likely to be absent from the mind of the believer than the infidel."
I'm pleased that there are so many positive exceptions, of course. I myself see very critically-thinking, and independently conscientious Christian individuals around me-- several of them are on my Livejournal friends list, in fact-- but their fellow Christians, especially in this country, are leaving them a minority. Religious progressivism is wonderful but the vast majority outside Smartland will read what the words of scripture plainly say, instead of the intellectual's balanced and nuanced scriptural interpretations.
Consider this article by David Crowe on Belief.net in which he says Hurricane Katrina was a well-deserved judgement from God. This is a minority view among American believers in God, possibly because they ask themselves, are we on the side of the suffering or on the side of an authority figure who inflicts suffering? Just because a man can raise his fist to a woman doesn't mean she owes him allegiance. This kind of might-makes-right morality, based on authority, fits hand in glove with the style of god-belief that is not already conscientious independently of religion. And yet when it's spelled out explicitly, the vast majority of religious people recoil in horror from such a view. It is not at all what they intended. But it makes perfect sense as a result of belief in God.
EDITED TO ADD: John Scalzi made an important point that the study is not scientific proof of what I originally said here, as the study's authors have said, because correlation is not causation. Given the blance of the evidence, I will still lean toward the lessening of theism as a solution which, while not overwhelmingly conclusive, is merely more likely to improve the world than the alternative of leaving the "supply chain" in place for hardcore faith junkies.
The problem is that there is seriously a non-Smartland in America. Sane, responsible Christians and religious people who are members of Smartland are much better than American Christians and religious people who are not. This is often used as an excuse to not try to reach out to insane and irresponsible forms of religion in non-Smartland, and cut off one of its major weapons by proving God doesn't exist. For instance, Marshall Brain, who runs HowStuffWorks.com, recently put out a gentle and incisive online book that intends to help with that goal, and John Scalzi (an agnostic) wrote a blog post to lambaste it as a waste of time because we're hurting the feelings of Brother Guy Consolmagno and other religious residents of Smartland. Never mind that the book is not aimed at religous residents of Smartland. We are taking weapons out of the hands of those who abuse them. That's what matters.
John is correct when he says there is just as much of a problem with 20th-century secular dictators as there had been with the Inquisition, Crusades, and witch trials of earlier centuries. But nobody who thinks faith-based cultures are more virtuous and socially stable than secular cultures knows about the comparison with Sweden.
Sweden is the most atheistic country per-capita in the world, and yet somehow not only don't they descend into genocide, they have better rates on just about everything than do highly religious nations. More to the point, according to this article (which reports a systematic study that found current global statistics the exact opposite of religious assumptions), this and countless other recent comprehensive studies show dramatically that the less religious a nation is, the more virtuously its citizens act. The article says,
"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 ... None of the strongly secularized, pro-evolution democracies is experiencing high levels of measurable dysfunction." Within the United States "the strongly theistic, anti-evolution South and Midwest" have "markedly worse homicide, mortality, STD, youth pregnancy, marital and related problems than the Northeast where ... secularization, and acceptance of evolution approach European norms."
"the more secular, pro-evolution democracies have ... come closest to achieving practical "cultures of life"."
What could cause this? I like this quote from the article as well: "We know that the most dangerous human trait is an absence of self-doubt, and that self-doubt is more likely to be absent from the mind of the believer than the infidel."
I'm pleased that there are so many positive exceptions, of course. I myself see very critically-thinking, and independently conscientious Christian individuals around me-- several of them are on my Livejournal friends list, in fact-- but their fellow Christians, especially in this country, are leaving them a minority. Religious progressivism is wonderful but the vast majority outside Smartland will read what the words of scripture plainly say, instead of the intellectual's balanced and nuanced scriptural interpretations.
Consider this article by David Crowe on Belief.net in which he says Hurricane Katrina was a well-deserved judgement from God. This is a minority view among American believers in God, possibly because they ask themselves, are we on the side of the suffering or on the side of an authority figure who inflicts suffering? Just because a man can raise his fist to a woman doesn't mean she owes him allegiance. This kind of might-makes-right morality, based on authority, fits hand in glove with the style of god-belief that is not already conscientious independently of religion. And yet when it's spelled out explicitly, the vast majority of religious people recoil in horror from such a view. It is not at all what they intended. But it makes perfect sense as a result of belief in God.
EDITED TO ADD: John Scalzi made an important point that the study is not scientific proof of what I originally said here, as the study's authors have said, because correlation is not causation. Given the blance of the evidence, I will still lean toward the lessening of theism as a solution which, while not overwhelmingly conclusive, is merely more likely to improve the world than the alternative of leaving the "supply chain" in place for hardcore faith junkies.