Monday, 24 February 2014
The benefits of believing in God
Does belief in God offer the believer any benefits? A good way to find out is to compare highly religious countries with less religious countries. So I've done just that.
I've taken the 10 most religious countries in the world and compared them with the 10 least religious countries.
Religiosity is measured by the proportion of adults who agree with the statement, “My religion is important in my everyday life.” This data is collected by Gallup Poll Research.
Across the 10 most religious countries, 98.8% of people said religion is important. In the 10 least religious 21.7% agreed that religion is important. So, you could say, the 10 most religious countries are around 4.5 times more religious than the least religious—a very significant difference.
Does believing keep you safe?
One measure of safety is the number of road traffic fatalities.
Most religious: 4,123 deaths/year/100,000 motor vehicles;
Least religious: 12.
The most religious countries have 343 times more road traffic deaths than the least religious. Believing does not keep you safe.
Does believing make you better off?
We can measure income as gross domestic product per capita (average income per person).
Most religious: $2,565USD per year;
Least religious: $40,639USD.
The least religious countries are 15.8 times better off. Believing does not make you better off.
Does believing make you live longer?
If some god(s) answer prayers we would expect believers to be healthier and to recover better when they are sick or pregnant. Average life expectancy is a good aggregate measure of this.
Most religious: 62 years (male and female at birth);
Least religious: 80 years.
This gives the least religious 18 years of extra life on average (29% longer lives). Believing does not make you live longer.
Does believing make you behave better?
One way to assess behaviour is to compare crime rates. For simplicity, I’ve compared intentional homicide rates. This is only one crime but it is the most serious crime.
Most religious: 10 homicides per year per 100,000 inhabitants;
Least religious: 1.
The most religious kill their neighbours at 10 times the rate of the least religious. Believing does not make you behave better.
Does believing make you happier?
Most years the World Happiness Report is published. This uses a range of data known to be correlated to individual happiness. It ranks 156 countries according to their happiness score. So a score of 1 corresponds to the happiest country in the world and a score of 156 corresponds to the least happy. (Togo ranked 156 in the 2013 report.)
Most religious: average rank = 110 out of 156;
Least religious: average rank = 26 out of 156.
So the most religious countries ranked 84 places below the least religious. Believing does not make you happier.
Conclusion
On these measures, believing in God does not deliver any practical benefits. I have reviewed many different measures and found a consistent pattern—the higher the level of belief in God, the more human well-being declines.
Data is available for unemployment, maternal mortality, neonatal mortality, infant mortality and many other measures. I invite readers to check for themselves.
But are there any disadvantages to belief? There are some obvious disadvantages. Believers typically associate themselves with a church and spend time attending services and functions. Attending church costs money and anecdotal stories suggest that poorer people tend to give money they can ill-afford in the hope that God may improve their lot. Tithing (giving 10% of salary) is common is some countries. So believing costs time and money.
Believing in a supernatural God leaves people open to believing in other supernatural agents—some of which are thought to be malevolent. The fears so created leave believers vulnerable to exploitation by unscrupulous pastors and others.
Even children can suffer when a pastor declares they are infected by demons and offers to exorcise them for a fee. Some such exorcisms can be brutal and sometimes even result in death of the child.
Religious communities can live side-by-side quite happily but conflicts can arise and when they do, they can escalate into wholesale bloodletting. This is happening today in several parts of the world and was a persistent scourge during the 20th century.
There is one benefit for believers—they become part of a mutual help community. This is undoubtedly a genuine practical and psychological benefit albeit one that could be achieved on a secular basis at far less cost and without all the baggage and disadvantages of religion.
All this does raise the question why? Why are there no benefits when believers so clearly believe there are? It is interesting that the 10 most religious countries include mostly Christian, mostly Muslim and mostly Buddhist countries. So none of these belief systems nor their supernatural agencies actually provide any protection from the perils of life. And why do countries, who seek little or no help from gods do so well?
The simplest explanation is there are no benefits for believing countries because no Gods exist. The countries that do well do so because they have the resources and have developed infrastructure and political systems that are effective.
No doubt there will be contrary opinions as to why there are no practical benefits in believing but the facts are crystal clear. Believing in God will not help you—unless you are a pastor or cleric!
---SOURCES---------------------------------------
The 10 most religious countries (alphabetical order):
Bangladesh
Democratic Republic of the Congo
Djibouti
Indonesia
Malawi
Mauritania
Morocco
Niger
Somalia
Sri Lanka
The 10 least religious countries (alphabetical order):
Czech Republic
Denmark
Estonia
Finland
Hong Kong
Japan
Netherlands
Norway
Sweden
United Kingdom
Religiosity - Gallup Poll Research: 
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Importance_of_religion_by_country
Happiness - World Happiness Report 201: 
http://unsdsn.org/files/2013/09/WorldHappinessReport2013_online.pdf
Life Expectancy - World Health Organisation: 
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_life_expectancy
GPD/Capita - World Bank: 
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_GDP_(PPP)_per_capita
Homicide Rates - UNODC: 
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_intentional_homicide_rate
Road Traffic Fatalities - World Health Organisation: 
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_traffic-related_death_rate
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Nildogma, the blogga
About Me
- Nildogma
- As a 20-year-old I was insatiably curious about the world and passionate about rejecting superstitions and all kinds of false beliefs. I still am today. Sometimes when people believe things that are not true, it make little or no difference but sometimes the consequences can be disastrous and deadly. Now, I do what I can to help people improve their thinking skills, especially in how they impinge on core beliefs, such as cultural values and religious beliefs. I have an active Facebook page for which I create memes and write articles almost daily. I also engage people in on-line debates. You can find me here: https://www.facebook.com/bill.flavell.1 I lecture at universities around the world and present or debate at public meetings. I also, draw on my management consultancy background to help freethought groups, almost anywhere in the world, to get organised, develop strategy and improve their media and presentation skills. If you would like me to present at your university or for your church group or freethought group, please contact me.
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this is what news stations ought to be talking about.except for the LDS Church whose tithes go toward education and the largest private welfare program existing in the world today and no one person getting rich, all other religions seem to amass wealth for a few and offer soup for the many.
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