2009 Global Peace Index: atheist nations are more peaceful

by behemot 12 Replies latest jw friends

  • behemot
  • purplesofa
    purplesofa

    thanks for posting,

    purps

    wish I lived in one of the top ten countries!!!

  • Pig
    Pig

    like the article implied, if you live in a good country you dont need make believe

  • purplesofa
    purplesofa

    Just finishing The God Delusion this information comes at a good time for me. And even more sure that I am athiest now, I am more at peace within myself than ever.

  • AlexHall
    AlexHall

    Woho! Sweden i top 6. With Norway/denmark and Finland all in top 10. Its good to be scandinavian sometimes :)

  • MissingLink
    MissingLink

    Link isn't working for me.

  • behemot
  • BurnTheShips
    BurnTheShips

    Correlation != Causation. There are other factors that no doubt map more strongly, such as average age, and GDP per capita. When you fish stats to find something that confirms what you already believe, you will tend to find it.

    BTS

  • drwtsn32
    drwtsn32
    When you fish stats to find something that confirms what you already believe, you will tend to find it.

    You're proving your own point, aren't you? You have "no doubt" that other factors "map more strongly." Why don't you go fish the stats and see if you can find something that has a stronger correlation.

  • MissingLink
    MissingLink

    I agree BTS that Correlation does not always mean Causation. You could graph personal bacon consumption against peace and find correlation. But bacon consumption is not linked to "peacefullness" like morality is. That's why this correlation is at least worth looking at.

    I also agree that it's a much too complex an issue to resolve with simple 2 dminestional statistics like this. It could also be skewed because in the peaceful countries people are more free and willing to admit that they are atheists.

    I don't see these stats as proving that religion causes violence (although that is still a very good debate). I think these stats simply show that the opposite is not true. Some people push the idea that if a country loses it's religion, then all morality goes out the window and they become violent beasts. That simply isn't true.

    BTW - I'm happy that Ireland is still #12. Our score actually improved over last year, but other countries have improved even faster and leap-froged us.

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