Sweden is the most NON religious country in the world

Is there any correlation between this?

"The survey concluded that "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."

www.gadling.com...

Whats ur take on this?

Edit: I am from Sweden!

[edit on 1-9-2007 by Steff]

If you saw the price of booze over there, all your questions would be answered.

Then again I love having holidays there with all those loveley blonde girls......aaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

yes, being non-religious (non necessarily atheist but also the new age-spirituality type of non-religiousness) and a higher level of intelligence and income very often match. no surprise there.

The one that surprised me was Israel, ranking 19th, with up to 37% claiming to be non-believer, atheist, agnostic.

Actually you'd think Israel would comprise the most believers, considering how they're supposed to be God's chosen people and all...

reply to post by Steff

Greetings Steff

May I ask you to clarify your statement that Sweden is the most Non Religious Country?

Did you mean non-Christian Country? Were you refering to another religion other than Christanity?

Just curious.

What a great observation. I think religion does attempt to teach some morally sound things, and the intention is generally there to promote a good way of life.

I also think one of the side effects of community-based belief systems result in a more collective sense of hatred for opposition to the common belief. This is exclusive to religion NOT because religion is bad, but because organization of the belief structure results in a unified system with common ideals.

Those who are spiritual and seek their own meaning and answers, along with atheists, don't experience this same negative side effect because neither "sect" are anywhere near the big religions in terms of organization and common goal.

Religion breeds conformity, where less organized belief systems breed individuality, which in turn encourages creativity, curiosity, critical thinking.

I'm not picking on religion. I dont think it ONLY serves to indirectly influence our society in a negative way. I think religion does teach good things. I'm not saying atheism doesn't promote the same things. I'm just saying it doesn't promote hatred and turn that hatred into action.

reply to post by The Cyfre


excellent point.

and the connection religion/poverty is rather blatant. one reason for this is that in the major religions it is seen as some kind of virtue to be poor. the intention behind that may have been good, but poverty often leads to conflict.

reply to post by dizziedame


Just NON religoius overall! I have noticed a trend (when I lived in Sweden, I reside in Los Angeles and have for a long time) that people no longer are getting married for instance........Yes! People are getting married, but its far more common to merely live together un-married then it used to be. I have been to church exactly 4 times in my entire life.......

My baptism (cant remember)
My confirmation (only because of gifts given)
My fathers death
My grandfathers death

overall, religion is not part of everyday life over there, or part of life at all quite frankly.

Originally posted by Steff
Is there any correlation between this?

I've read several papers about this, and it seems to be generally true. However, as I understand it, the LEAST religious country is generally held to be Japan, with Sweden second.

"The survey concluded that "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."

While most of that is generally true, the "gender equality" is not necessarily true. Japan has some problems with true gender equality, I believe.

Two other interesting points: the more religious countries tend to have a much higher birth rate and they also tend to be more contemptuous of environmental efforts.

Here's a good paper that explains some of the things you noticed in your quote:
www.umich.edu...

The source for your article is a 2005 paper by Zuckerman (summarized in very readable English here) :
www.adherents.com...

I'm in a hurry and haven't researched the following (perhaps a few of you will do the research and check the numbers today) but Britain outranks Canada and the US in the number of non-religious people. I *believe* that Britain and Canada both have lower "percentages of crime per capita" than the US (if you're researching this, get the "crime per thousands" figure and not the numbers because the population sizes are very different.)

Anyway, Zuckerman's article with the raw data is there... if some of you would like to spot check crime rates per thousand for those countries, it could be an interesting bit of board research. Ditto poverty.

I tend to believe the statistics but the scientist in me says we should check 'em out!

Here's United Kingdoms rate per thousand

0.0140633 per 1,000 people

and here's Canadas

0.0149063 per 1,000 people

and Untited States

0.042802 per 1,000 people

The U.S have a much hogher crime rate per thousand people...So far it holds true.

Here' the Top 10 countries with the most crimes per 1000.

#1 Colombia: 0.617847 per 1,000 people
#2 South Africa: 0.496008 per 1,000 people
#3 Jamaica: 0.324196 per 1,000 people
#4 Venezuela: 0.316138 per 1,000 people
#5 Russia: 0.201534 per 1,000 people
#6 Mexico: 0.130213 per 1,000 people
#7 Estonia: 0.107277 per 1,000 people
#8 Latvia: 0.10393 per 1,000 people
#9 Lithuania: 0.102863 per 1,000 people
#10 Belarus: 0.0983495 per 1,000 people

I have not yet done the research, but if it holds true....most of these countries on the top 10 should be very religious.

reply to post by Steff


good example of posting something very politically incorrect and disturbing, but very, very true.

reply to post by Steff


But you left out one of Sweden's great achievements: an extraordinary suicide rate over the last forty years.

reply to post by Pellevoisin


excellent counter-point to our posts. I will go look up the statistics on that.

reply to post by Pellevoisin




Heheheh! I hear you, but we're actually nowhere near the top, that I believe is held by Lithuania, or one of those old Sovjet union reformed countries....

Actually Abba is the best thing we ever did;-)

reply to post by Pellevoisin


As it turns out, 5 of the top 10 countries with the highest suicide rate, is on the top 10 list of most crime.



[edit on 2-9-2007 by Steff]

Or it could be that most European countries haven't been dealing with racial strife for the better part of 300 years. Most homogeneous nations have extremly low crime rates.

reply to post by Truman_was_a_Dalek


I think you need to standardize the sample for this argument. You can only compare similar countries...it would be silly to say, for instance, a third world country has a higher rate of murder than the US, so the religious argument is killed. compare the US to other completely modernized and western nations. France has the best healthcare in the world according to WHO. just some info..

reply to post by Pellevoisin


Dude, it's not true. it's a myth created in the US to make Sweden look bad. Unfortunately it stuck. Like the lyrics of the ABBA-songs. Again, unfortunately... Anyway, here's some suicide statistics: en.wikipedia.org... You will see that Sweden is nowhere near the top. It's all bull#. Just like Iraq having weapons of mass destruction. Another myth created in the US. Or like the existence of god, which is not created in the US, but very popular over there.

I'm Swedish and I'm insulted by this ignorance. Not surprised though...

Originally posted by Pellevoisin
reply to post by Steff

 

But you left out one of Sweden's great achievements: an extraordinary suicide rate over the last forty years.

Whether for good or for bad, I imagine a collective lack of fearing to go to hell because of suicide plays into that.

reply to post by Pellevoisin


Not too different from any other country at it's latitude. Something about the north gets people in the mood to kill themselves. Look at Russia, Poland, Lithuania, Croatia, Kazakhstan, or Ukraine. (all of which have higher suicide rates)

Hell, it's not too much higher than the US's or Canada's. Several individual states, like Alaska, have higher suicide rates. (Alaska's suicide rate is more than 1.5 times Sweden's)

You'd have a better case with Japan. It's suicide rate is nearly twice Sweden's, and it is probably even less religious.

[edit on 19-2-2009 by mdiinican]