And a Happy New Year

Here are several different perspectives on religion, spirituality and mental health, ranging from personal to societal to historical, as evidenced in this cross-cultural study. E.O. Wilson provides the take of a biologist in this essay on Intelligent Evolution. One question we all must contend with when considering whether secularism or religion are either detrimental or beneficial to a modern global society (as opposed to an isolated premodern tribal society) is the way in which people are treated in such societies. A glance around the world suggests that religious cultures constantly war with each other and secular ones live in relative peace both within and without. Note the relatively low rates of violence and absence of war in western Europe since it secularized, relative compared to Europe of old and the US and middle east of today.

Many might point to the immense bloodshed in the communist regimes of the 20th century, such as China and the old Soviet Union. However, those countries were not (and are still not) secular democracies. And many are unaware that Hitler's war was most certainly driven in part by religious ideology. Hitler was a pagan mystic and one of his gifts to mankind was the partial destruction of the founders of modern monotheism, the Jews, who were ironically a highly secular culture in Germany of that era, much as they are today in both Israel and the US. Even Japan was a highly religious country prior to world war 2 and is perhaps the most secular, least violent and most long-lived country in the modern age.

The more religious a modern democratic country is, the higher its rates of homicide, infant mortality, sexually transmitted disease, mass murder (like school shootings). Perhaps most telling and ironic of all the data is that abortion and teen pregnancy are both much higher in religious democracies than secular ones. In addition, shorter lifespan and generally poorer physical and mental health correlates with increasing religiosity. So within the US, such statistics are usually associated with the perils of secularism, but when compared cross-culturally, it appears that religion may be actually be the true cause.

Let's face facts. People kill each other over religion, both within and between countries. The religious hold irrational views which impact their mental health severely when confronted with differing views and lifestyles. The extremely religious often reject scientific ideas which may lead them to be ignorant of facts that would protect their physical health. This ranges from complete rejection of medicine by christian scientists, rejection of parts like the central role of microbes in illness by many new agers to the teaching of abstinence rather than the use of condoms, a primary factor in the spread of STDs since it is not actually possible to restrain the natural desire for sex in a free society. It almost goes without saying that that the most secular countries have the least poverty, homelessness, and disparity between the rich and poor as well as greater access to healthcare and other necessary services.

If you break up the data within the US, the only highly religious country amongst the modern democracies, the trend becomes even more glaring. According to the cross-cultural study from which this data is culled, "the strongly theistic, anti-evolution south and mid-west having markedly worse homicide, mortality, STD, youth pregnancy, marital and related problems than the northeast where societal conditions, secularization, and acceptance of evolution approach European norms (Aral and Holmes; Beeghley, Doyle, 2002)." Despite the ongoing controversy and culture wars in the US, evidence suggests the population as a whole is actually becoming more secular and thus may someday reap the rewards of this trend seen in most of western Europe, particularly with regard to decreasing violence. Its time to wake up, consider the facts and stop just listening to the rhetoric.