I doubt there's a vocal atheist who hasn't been told by a theist that there can't be morals if there's no god, or at least that there can't be an absolute right and wrong, without god.
There are many issues with this, of course. One thing I often wonder - If we get our sense of right and wrong from god, how can we know that god's morals are good? If we can decide for ourselves that god's morals are good, why do theists claims we get our morals from him?
I recently got told by a theist[1] that atheism was bankrupt and that under atheism, 'anything is permissible.' Clearly this isn't true, because I know a lot of atheists, and not one of them thinks anything is permissible.
I wondered, does living in a more religious society mean living in a more peaceful. happier society? I looked into it.
According to the Institute for Economics and Peace[2] the 10 most peaceful countries on earth are:
Iceland
New Zealand
Portugal
Austria
Denmark
Canada
Singapore
Slovenia
Japan
Czech Republic
The rankings are based on 23 criteria, grouped into three categories (societal safety and security; extent of ongoing domestic and international conflict; and degree of militarization).
Let's look at the religiosity of some of these countries....
Some 80% of Icelanders are members of the Lutheran State church. Which would make it seem that Iceland is a very religious country. However, 10% of the population identify as convinced atheist and a further 30% identify as non-religious. According to this article in the Washington Post, zero percent of young people in Iceland believe god created earth. And non-believers have risen from 13% in 1996 to 54% in 2015. Bjarni Jonsson, the managing director of the Icelandic Ethical Humanist Association, said of a 2014 Gallup Poll, "Results within the survey indicate that the state church holds a weak position in Icelandic society"
It would be hard, from this information, to conclude that Iceland's peacefulness stems from its religiosity.
Results from the 2018 census in New Zealand showed that, for the first time, 'no religion' was the highest ranking choice among New Zealanders (at 48.3%, whereas Christian was just over 35%). In a 2009 gallup poll, only 33% of New Zealanders said they thought religion was important. 48% of those polled said religion was not important. New Zealand is a highly secular country. Religion is separated from legislation. Religion and beliefs are considered private, rather than public matters.[3] As with Iceland, hard to conclude that religion is responsible for the peace in New Zealand.
In Portugal, 74% of people say religion is important. Austria is 55%, Denmark - 19%, Canada - 42%, Singapore - 70%, Slovenia - 47%, Japan - 24% and finally Czech Republic - 21%.
So out of the top 10 most peaceful countries, only three have populations where the majority of people think religion is important.
Which countries are the most religious? Lists can vary in order, but the top 20 to 25 are almost always the same. According to this list in the UK Telegraph, the 10 most religious countries are:
Ethiopia
Malawi
Niger
Sri Lanka
Yemen (the top 5 rank as 99% religious)
Burundi
Djibouti
Mauritania
Somalia (countries 6 to 9 report 98% religious)
Afghanistan (97% religious)
The same report mentioned above from Institute for Economic and Peace lists the 10 most dangerous (based on 23 different indicators, including political terror, deaths from internal conflict, and murder rate.) countries as:
Afghanistan (97% of people religious 99% of those are Muslims)
Syria (95 to 97% religious, 99% Muslim)
South Sudan (data varies, but estimates are around 96% religious, 60% Christian)
Yemen (99% religious, over 99% Muslim)
Iraq (97 to 99% religious, 97% Muslim)
Somalia (98% religious, 97% Muslim)
Central African Republic (95% religious. 80% Christian)
Libya (97 to 99% religious, 99% Muslim)
Democratic Republic of the Congo (95 to 99% religious, 95% Christian)
Russia (85% religious, 75% Christian)
So it's not quite 'most religious' = 'most dangerous' but it's certainly close.
Now I want to look at the world's happiest countries. The World Happiness Report by the United Nations list these 10 countries as the happiest in the world:[4]
Finland (70%, 28%, 22%)
Denmark (80%, 19%, 24%)
Switzerland (75%, 41%, 11%)
Iceland (80%, No data, 18%)
Norway (80%, 20%, 29%)
Netherlands (50%, 33%, 30%)
Sweden (70%, 17%, 34%)
New Zealand (52%, 33%, 13%)
Austria (78%, 55%, 13%)
Luxembourg (78%, 39%, 24%)
Some notes on these numbers: As you can see, except for Netherlands and New Zealand, 70 to 80% of people in these countries identify as religious. However out of all 10 of the happiest countries in the world, only one has a majority population that thinks religion is important. Iceland has 80% of its population identifying as religious, but only about 10% of people attend church more than once a month. The third column denotes atheists. There are people who don't believe in god who identify as agnostic, there are also people who are 'non-religious' but whether or not they believe a god exists is unclear.
Sweden seems to have odd numbers. 70% of people are religious, but 34% of people are atheists. This could be accounted for because different agencies conduct the polls, polls aren't all conducted in the same year, and some people consider themselves 'culturally religious' but don't actually believe all the tenets.
What is clear is that the happiest countries on earth place little importance on religion.
Not surprisingly, the list of unhappiest countries is quite similar to most dangerous: [4]
Afghanistan (97%, 97%, <1%)
South Sudan (96%, 93%, 6%)
Zimbabwe. (90%, 88%, <1%)
Rwanda (98%, 95%, <1%)
CAR (95%, 95%, <1%)
Tanzania (95%, 89%, 2%)
Botswana (98%, 77%, 2%)
Yemen (>99%, 99%, <1%)
Malawi (98%, 99%, 2%)
India (99%, 90%, <1%)
As you can see, almost all the people in these unhappy countries are religious and almost none of them are atheists. Seven of the countries have at least 90% of their population thinking religion is important.
Of course the reasons a country's population is happy and peaceful versus unhappy and violent extends far beyond religion and irreligion. There are economic factors, environmental factors, and, obviously, countries affected by war are going to rate low on happiness.
But that isn't the point of this post. The question is - does religion make for a moral, happy, peaceful society?
The answer is a quite resounding and emphatic no.
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1 When I called this person a theist, he replied 'Im not a theist, I'm a Christian'. Okay, champ.
2 most peaceful countries
3 Secularism in New Zealand https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Importance_of_religion_by_country
4 After the country name is the percentage of people who identify as religious, percentage of people who say religion is important, percentage of people who don't believe there is a god.
