God Is Imaginary - Proof 24

== "Proof #24" - Ask why religion causes so many problems ==
~~~~ If God were to exist, wouldn't you expect there to be a huge benefit to those who follow and obey him? Why, instead, do we see the opposite?
For example, there is growing evidence that the delusion of religion causes significant social dysfunction. Statistical research is revealing the problems that go with religion. For example, a recent article in the Journal of Religion and Society points out that religion is correlated to the significant social difficulties that we can see in America:
    
In general, higher rates of belief in and worship of a creator correlate with higher rates of homicide, juvenile and early adult mortality, STD infection rates, teen pregnancy, and abortion in the prosperous democracies (Figures 1-9). The most theistic prosperous democracy, the U.S., is exceptional, but not in the manner Franklin predicted. The United States is almost always the most dysfunctional of the developed democracies, sometimes spectacularly so, and almost always scores poorly. The view of the U.S. as a “shining city on the hill” to the rest of the world is falsified when it comes to basic measures of societal health.~~~~'''
Once more, a religion cannot be judged by its followers. It must be judged on its own merits. If there were only one faithful person in the whole world and all the rest claimed to be Christians, but were unfaithful, or struggled, or had turned away from God, that does not make the religion itself the problem. This is not a case against God, this is a case that shows that America is not as "Christian" as everyone claims. There aren't very many actually following Christ.
Furthermore, this reference to the JRS is very misleading. It basically says two things.
1) America has the most people who identify as Christian out of all nations.
2) America has the most people who do un-Christian things.
Correlation is not causation. There is nothing that says that its actually the practicing Christians who are committing these crimes. If Joe Thug says he's a Christian, but doesn't know anything about the Bible, doesn't attend worship, and goes around being a thug, he's not a Christian, no matter what he claims.
So, this isn't a proof at all.
In Truth and Love.
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