Religion: Murder, aids, abortion

[=D.C.L.I=Everest]

=D.C.L.I=TuRb0jUg3nD Wrote:Yes there is, but like Evert i kind of view these "domestic" campaigns from Amnesty as more of an advertisement for themselves. And the use of statistics in the example above is very vague and shady, to say the least. Say a girl at 19 gets hit by her boyfriend once, but never experiences anything like it again for her whole life. She\'ll still be one of the four, so to speak.

Exactly.

[The_Punisher]

Anytime a study doesn\'t consider everything, it is flawed from the start.

[=D.C.L.I=Everest]

Please do elaborate.

[isoFlux]

The_Punisher Wrote:Anytime a study doesn\'t consider everything, it is flawed from the start.

Show me a study whish does consider everything. It doesn\'t exist. We have to make due with only some of \"everything\" and try to compensate.

This is an interesting point. I\'ve heard it being true on a smaller scale in the US: the more religious states having a higher teen-birth-rate and so forth.

I wonder if it has both to do with the culture and the religion. All over the US, not just the more conservative states, I know for a fact that our sexual education system is pathetic and weak. Abstinence-only programs are everywhere, and shit like condoms failing 20% of the time is commonly heard in classrooms. Again, I wonder if it has to do with more the mentality of the culture rather than the denomniation or specific diety.

[The_Punisher]

For example. Say I\'m going to make a poll of people to see who\'s going to vote for who in the next US election.

My results will be skewed if I only show up in Republican Districts.



For me to give any sort of credit to this report, it would need to have all countries.

[SoulSurfer]

not really you can get a accurate skew of democratic countries from taking various regional countriessay you take two country from southern northern eastern and western europe i would call this a pretty accurate study of trends in europe. as alot of countries follow the same kind of trends with countries in similar areas. Although of course it depends on having accurate research on which countries to pick and proper weighting for the statistics

Anyway with the rapid globalisation of the world currently underway countries with heavily infludence from american TV and film are all slowly becoming the same anyway (just my opinion )

[Sgt. Boomer]

Well, even if we accept the conclusions of the study as accurate and unbiased (which of course they may be), I do think the many differences, culturally, historically, and in (possibly genetic) personality traits, have to be factored in. Secondly, the US really hasn’t had a truly Christian culture for some time. A higher than average number of Jesus loves you bumper stickers doesn’t make the culture Christian.

I think a more relevant study would be to compare 1950’s America with 1970’s America, where the greatest change was the large scale rejection of Christian values in the 1960’s. In the 1950’s, abstinence only worked because peer pressure and the popular culture was largely in agreement. The same was true of sobriety, crime, etc. I would imagine abstinence only sex ed has a higher success rate for Islamic families in Iran than in California. Sadly, peer pressure and pop culture have a greater influence on most kids than their parents.

=D.C.L.I=Everest Wrote:The most democratic countries in the world are outspokenly secular

The least democratic are(were) certainly outspokenly secular - China, North Korea, USSR. I’m not sure the “most democratic” countries are. I think the US has the strongest checks and balances to prevent tyranny – particularly compared with the more “outspokenly secular” Canada. Governments with tyrannical bents tend to dislike the competition for authority that churches provide.

[=D.C.L.I=Everest]

Good point you\'re making! But you make it sound as if being secular is a strong indication for being tyrannical, and if you look at most modern-day secular democracies, you\'ll find that that is just not true. Yes there are/were undemocratic countries that are secular because of the reasons you named. And I meant most as in \"most of the democratic countries\", not as in \"the countries that are the most democratic\", as you seem to have interpreted that, if I\'m not mistaken.

And I think the best way to prevent tyranny, is in the end tyranny itself. Checks and balances are merely tools to sugarcoat it.