Atheistic Societies Are Happy Societies
By Daniel Miessler on August 23rd, 2007: Tagged as Atheism | Civilization | Culture | Religion
According to a major study there’s a very strong correlation between atheism and societal health. Here are the most non-religious countries in the world, according to the findings:
- Sweden
- Vietnam
- Denmark
- Norway
- Japan
- Czech Republic
- Finland
- France
- South Korea
- Estonia
High levels of organic atheism are strongly correlated with high levels of societal health, such as low homicide rates, low poverty rates, low infant mortality rates, and low illiteracy rates, as well as high levels of educational attainment, per capita income, and gender equality. Most nations characterized by high degrees of individual and societal security have the highest rates of organic atheism, and conversely, nations characterized by low degrees of individual and societal security have the lowest rates of organic atheism. In some societies, particularly Europe, atheism is growing. However, throughout much of the world – particularly nations with high birth rates – atheism is barely discernible.No surprise here. I wish the world would pull out of the downward spiral of building jails and churches to house the millions we’re producing but can’t take care of. Quite simply, religion leads to suffering because it encourages the intellectual weakness and dependence of its followers.
Educated and independent people are 1) less likely to be religious, and 2) less likely to be taken advantage of by their governments. Both lead to happiness — hence the findings.:
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Repeat after me: correlation does not imply causation.
I’m a Dane; we’re right up there. But I don’t think there’s any cause relationship here. Instead, it’s more likely attributable to a deeper and more fundamental and more complex set of factors.
Comment by Josef Assad — 8/24/2007 @ 3:09 am
Correlation does not imply causation. But when you check the math, the inverse is equally true. The more important religion becomes in lives of a population, the more crime and dissatisfaction they experience.
http://moses.creighton.edu/JRS/2005/2005-11.html
Comment by Michael — 8/24/2007 @ 4:23 am
Josef, In most cases I would agree that correlation does not imply causation. However, in this case, I would have to say that it does imply causation. I live in Alabama in the US. The bible belt. Religion dominates everything here. I would say it could be cultural differences, but that points to religion as well. That IS the cultural difference. It is following the religion over here that makes things so bad. All the countries that don’t let christianity run their lives live better lives. The ones that let religion run their lives live worse lives.
Comment by Tim — 8/24/2007 @ 4:24 am
Hi Daniel,
Always remember the important rule: There are lies, there are damn lies, and there’s statistics.
You are most likely looking at two factors that have a high correlation. Let me let you in on a few others:
The chance of reaching age 60 vs. abortions http://www.nationmaster.com/plot/heaproofnotrea60/heaabo_percap/flag
Broadband subscribers per capita and phone subscribers http://www.nationmaster.com/plot/intbroaccpercap/medpho_sub/flag
Look at that last one - The number of phone subscribers didn’t cause broadband availability - there’s a factor that happened to affect both.
– Arik
Comment by Arik — 8/24/2007 @ 11:45 am
The more you know the less you have to take on faith. The correlation is between knowledge and superstition. The more knowledge, the less superstitious. The less knowledge, the more superstition. Those 10 countries listed probably also have the highest literacy rates, or the highest rates of citizens with college degrees, or both.
Comment by Peregrino — 8/24/2007 @ 11:49 am
Ignorance is Bliss !
Comment by lasthope — 8/24/2007 @ 9:10 pm
Yeah, correlation does not imply causation. This is true.
But is there no cause here? If one has a religion, you are constantly being reminded how bad you are for thinking what you can’t help thinking and doing what you can’t help doing. If anything good happens in your life, it isn’t because of the work you put into making it happen, it’s because a god wanted it to happen. If anything bad happens in your life, it’s because a god is upset with you.
Honestly, it makes total sense to me.
Comment by Alan — 10/31/2008 @ 3:38 am
This just reinforces how much i hate religitards. If you don’t mind, I’ll be taking this URL (and crediting you, of course) when I blog about this, probably tomorrow.
You can see my blog here: myspace.com/sexg0d that’s a zero, not a capital o
Alan FTW, I couldn’t have said it better myself. Let me just add: religion causes war. Pull your heads out of your asses and think for yourself instead of believing in superstitious nonsense passed down for almost 2000 years but written no sooner than 80 years after ‘jesus’ died, while heavily under the influence of drugs (hashish, psychedelic mushrooms).
Comment by Phil E. Drifter — 10/31/2008 @ 4:00 am
Not to mention increased suicide rates. Perhaps atheism itself is a side effect of depression, such as loss of faith, wilting interest in the world, etcetera.
Comment by Alex Poniz — 10/31/2008 @ 6:11 am
I’d rather say that religion is the by-product of an authoritarian society and comes about as a result of the inhibition of independent thought. Or some shit like that. I was going somewhere with this, but honestly.. It’s like 5 AM and what the fuck am I doing up this late? I need to get my life together, seriously. Can’t sit here all night drinking.. All my booze is gone now. I’d have to walk to that all-night place. And I’ve applied for a job there, wouldn’t look to good coming in there a fucking thursday morning buying beer. Damn it, I just need to go to bed so that I can wake up all fresh in the morning and start worrying about my life.
Comment by Maox — 10/31/2008 @ 10:25 am
dude, 1st off it’s correlation does not PROVE causation (that’s basic right there) 2nd it does IMPLY that just look at the middle east, and how much it sucks over there, because they are controlled by religion oh dare I mention, our own USA, how during the Bush presidency (a right wing religious nut and moron) this country has spiraled downward, and as he has passed signed bill, put in judges, and other things for religious reasons (or to limit our civil liberties) so yeah, deal with it you crazies
Comment by Sasha — 11/1/2008 @ 3:48 am
High levels of religion are there because of unhappiness: where there is poverty, there will be religion, because it helps. When people are suffering, they turn to a God or Gods because that gives them hope and meaning. It is, as Marx said, the “heart in a heartless world”.
I’m an atheist, and it would be nice to prove that religion makes people unhappy- and sometimes it does- but we can’t. It does help people sometimes, and we can not deny the validity of that. We need to make the world a better place to live in and then religion should be unnecessary.
Comment by Saoirse — 11/2/2008 @ 11:51 am
I’m pleased to see mostly serious comments here. Religion is a symptom in and of itself. the problem is mechanical. Or looked at another way, bio-electric. Religion was a natural outgrowth of tribalism, which is a survival advantage.
Point: The need to serve is built in to us. The rest is social inertia. The problem is technological, systemic, and economic (materialistically). The instant we have affordable, available self augmentation, these problems will vanish. The day people can make them selves what they want to be or claim to be, is the day we become truly human.
Attacking religion as a behavior is absurd, one does not choose one’s emotions nor do they control their birth location and parents. Focus on the root of the problem. (Hint: Maslow’s hierarchy.)
Decentralize the powers of human technology. Develop a backpack that would allow an individual to live happily anywhere on the planet’s surface that can copy itself, and the problem will solve itself.
Comment by Brandon M. Sergent — 11/5/2008 @ 2:10 am
P.S. My blog is at innomen.blogspot.com.
Comment by Brandon M. Sergent — 11/5/2008 @ 2:10 am
[...] read something the other day that was titled Atheistic Societies are Happy Societies. It’s based on a study by Phil Zuckerman and finds that the most organically atheistic [...]
Pingback by Relationship Between Religion, Societies and Happiness | Heaving Dead Cats — 11/15/2008 @ 6:10 am
Norway is one of the most Protestant Christian dominated countries in the world.
Comment by no — 11/18/2008 @ 3:58 am
you guys forgot about Atheistic Societies @ Happy Societies of ex Soviet-Union , China , Cuba all very Atheistic and soo Happy … dumb @ stupid
Comment by Dragos — 11/18/2008 @ 5:35 am
I believe that the article said organic atheism. China and Cuba are, atheist by state institution. Not organic. Also, if you will note, the ex soviet nations on the list of most atheistic are fairly economically and socially sound. I think this relationship is statistically significant, although I haven’t looked at the actual statistics, I am just familiar with the economic and social climate of most of those countries. However, I don’t think that this implies causation, although I’m sure they are related. Perhaps the inverse is true. Perhaps socially safe climates are good cultures for atheism. Perhaps it is because most of these countries are fairly liberal, and tend to service the poor rather than the wealthy, people are less dependent on religious organizations for safety. I think it’s only significant to say that the better off societies are more atheistic societies. Which has a lot of implications, no doubt, but it’s a little subjective.
Comment by Andy — 11/18/2008 @ 9:41 pm
apparently this study has never spent much time in south korea. they are about as atheistic as green beans are colored red.
Comment by beer — 11/18/2008 @ 11:15 pm