In his column last Wednesday, my colleague Erik Skipper articulated the classic assertion that a growing absence of God and religion in public life has led to the disintegration of American society.
Instead of religion, Skipper contended, people have conformed to worshipping various -isms: multiculturalism, environmentalism and statism, for instance.
Skipper’s assessment of the state of American society is not completely wrong.
Indeed, there are serious philosophical concerns: the inability to make sound judgments about right and wrong due to growing relativism; the sacrifice of free speech to political correctness; the fear that people should avoid certain scientific or academic exploits to avoid offending someone; and the belief that the state is the ultimate answer to many of America’s woes.
But Skipper’s diagnosis for the root of these problems — a growing absence of God in public life — is based on scant evidence and essentially little to no correlation with reality.
First, I can attest to the existence of many nonreligious people, like myself, who do not ascribe to these -isms. Indeed, there are many people who do not believe in a higher power but who also believe in right and wrong, ethical principles and individual rights. There are also many secular people who do not ascribe to the idea that we should sacrifice thoughtful debate in the name of multiculturalism and who believe the government is not the answer to our problems.
Second, there is no evidence that America is facing a serious decline in religious belief. A survey conducted by the Pew Research Center in 2007 found that 92 percent of Americans believe in God or a higher power. While maybe not all of these individuals are devoutly religious, a greater presence of God in the public square will probably not make everyone embrace morality out of the blue.
In fact, there is no evidence that a higher rate of religious belief leads to a more moral population.
According to a 2009 study by Phil Zuckerman in the journal Sociology Compass, which examines religious belief around the world, atheists and secular people “are markedly less nationalistic, less prejudiced, less anti-Semitic, less racist, less dogmatic, less ethnocentric, less close-minded, and less authoritarian.”
Zuckerman’s research also finds that, while secular people might be more likely to drink alcohol underage or use illegal drugs, “there is simply no evidence suggesting that atheist and secular people are more likely to commit [violent] crimes than religious people.” He points to the fact that only 0.2 percent of American prisoners are atheists, which is much lower than the proportion of atheists in the general population.
Furthermore, a 2005 study by Gregory S. Paul in the Journal of Religion & Society found that in modern democratic societies, “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.” On the other hand, the study found that “the more secular, pro-evolution democracies have, for the first time in history, come closest to achieving practical ‘cultures of life’ that feature low rates of lethal crime, juvenile-adult mortality, sex related dysfunction, and even abortion.”
I do not bring up this research to suggest that religious people are immoral. Yet, I do not think the evidence supports Skipper’s assertion that a lack of religious belief leads to increased immoral behavior.
People should discuss these greater societal problems but not associate a lack of belief in a higher power with immorality and civil decline.
Justin Hayes is pursuing a master’s degree in political communication. His column appears on Wednesdays. You can contact him via opinions@alligator.org.
