The delusion that without religion countries teeter into a moral abyss is peculiarly American (1) and an article of faith amongst religious conservatives. As Republicans prepare for their primaries, it is something of a spectator sport to see how many of these religious myths they carry on their sleeves.
Here are some of the core conservative beliefs that are challenged by the real lives of godless Europeans:
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· Religious values bring down crime.
· Religious people are happier and healthier.
· Religious belief is essential for civic engagement and charitable activity.
Religious values bring down crime
Here is the conclusion drawn by Phil Zuckerman in Society Without God (1):
As for murder, Denmark and Sweden - along with many other relatively irreligious nations such as Norway - have the lowest rates in the world. Bur when it comes to other indicators of crime - such as rape, robbery, or car theft - fair international ranking is tricky... That said, while the Scandinavian nations do experience their fair share of burglary and bike theft - and while such crimes have been on the increase in recent years - overall violent crime rates are still among the lowest among industrialized democracies. pp. 28-29
So contrary to the myth, the least religious nations have the lowest crime rates.
Religious people are happier and healthier
Country comparisons also give the lie to any claim that religion makes people happier. Denmark is the happiest country in the world. Of course, Danes are also very low on religiosity. Happiness is unusually high for many of the other godless European nations also.
Critics of the happiness data often point to suicide rates that are fairly high in Scandinavia. Yet, these are not exceptionally high in the sense that none of the godless countries features in the top 20 most suicidal countries in the world (1). High suicide rates are also indicative of humane attitudes in relation to end-of-life care.
So religious nations are conspicuously less happy than godless ones.
Religious belief essential for civic engagement and charity
It turns out that people in godless countries are highly involved with their communities, and, indeed, with the world community. They belong to a large number of civic organizations. Political involvement is high as well and the number of women in politics is elevated.
Citizens of godless countries are highly concerned about the global environment and Sweden does more to combat global warming than any other country with innovations such as the use of kitchen waste to generate cooking fuel. Rounding out the top three in terms of concern for the global environment are the UK and Denmark. The godless countries are also close to the top when it comes to donating money to poorer countries.
As Phil Zuckerman writes: ..."Religion is often linked in people's minds with social morality and ethical conduct; it is often assumed and argued that without a strong belief in God or a deep religious commitment, people will have no moral strivings or ethical inclinations, And yet here we see that corruption is extremely low in Scandinavia, and charity extremely high - both clear indicators of a well-developed societal morality, and yet both existing in countries that are quite secular." p. 28
Of course, the godless nations have well-developed welfare states. So all of this challenges another key conservative credo, namely that large government is pure evil.
Large government is pure evil only in the sense that it destroys religion. For the European welfare state creates a more secure life for ordinary people. This means that they no longer need religion as a balm for life's miseries.
1. Zuckerman, P. (2008). Society without God: What the least religious nations can tell us about contentment. New York: New York University Press.
