Thank God I'm an Atheist

An article by Profesor Phil Zuckerman in the August/September issue of Free Inquiry magazine finds that the most secular nations—those with the greatest proportion of atheists and agnostics—are among the most stable, peaceful, free, affluent, and healthy societies in the world, while the most religious nations-wherein worship of God is in abundance-are among the most unstable, violent, oppressive, poor, and destitute.

This is not meant to imply a causal relationship; instead, says Zuckerman, the conclusion to be drawn from the data is that high levels of irreligion do not automatically result in a breakdown of civilization, a rise in immoral behavior, or in "sick societies." Moreover, religion is clearly not the simple and single path to righteous societies that religious fundamentalists seem to think it is.