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Religion Makes People Bad

Sharon Begley (Newsweek) writes of two recent findings:

  1. Since 1990, the number of American non-believers has doubled.
  2. The countries with the highest rates of dysfunction (rates of homicide, abortion, teen pregnancy, sexually transmitted disease, unemployment, poverty, etc.) have the highest rates of believers (measured by professed belief, church attendance, prayer habits, etc.).

Atheists today are making a case from these two findings: Christian faith is decreasing, and that’s a good thing, because countries with high levels of Christian faith have high levels of social dysfunction.

We could argue about cause and effect, chicken and egg, and about the validity of the studies cited.  But it nonetheless raises an interesting question: does religion make people bad, and if so, why?

How can we best recapture the transforming and renewing faith that Jesus lived, taught, and passed on to his earliest followers?  How do we release human religion that makes people bad and restore Jesus’ religion that makes people good?

Source: Sharon Begley “(Un)wired for God,” Newsweek (8/24&31/09), 30.

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1 thought on “Religion Makes People Bad”

  1. Daniel McGraw

    Thanks for your thoughts, Chris. I encounter this a lot through my work here on campus. Tolerance makes people better socially, so anything that is intolerant (i.e. Christianity) is instantly evil Intriguingly, the rate of crime across the world has skyrocketed, not just in America. The crime rate here has gotten worse intriguingly as the number of nonbelievers has doubled. Although the two might not be cause/effect, there is a statistical quandary here.

    I think we need a faith that isn’t tied to a political agenda, but rather a social agenda: helping people encounter the Kingdom of God in their daily lives. It does make a difference; the fruit of the Spirit changes the world around us. Christians should be change agents in their community, making a difference in the lives of people in the name of Christ. We love you because Christ first loved us.

    Good “religion” is one that is involved in social justice, taking care of the orphans and widows. Our faith should make a difference or it is dead.

    Just my two cents…

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