Hi Russ T

First, if you don't understand the relationship between evolution and morality, then there is a profound blindness occurring here.

If you do not understand that there is no connection between the truth or otherwise of the theory of evolution or the observed fact of evolution and morality then you have a lot to learn Russ T.

Evolution says, for example, that if all the long legged creatures of a species die the species as a whole will get shorter, we observe that happening in the wild and in our own breeding work with Dogs for example. Now knowing that that is true does not force me to suddenly decide I should or reasonably could go out and rape the first good looking woman I see. It has no effect what so ever on my moral view of the world which is pretty close to the christian view except that I don’t believe it is or ever was OK to keep slaves or stone disobedient children to death despite the fact that the bible says that it was.

Did you know that there is an inverse relationship between your chances of being locked up in federal prison and your belief in god? The more fundamentalist the more likely you are to commit a crime worthy of the federal pen. Did you know that your religious beliefs also bear directly on your chances of having a failed marriage? If you don’t want to get divorced become an atheist as they have a significantly lower Divorce rate than fundamentalist christians closely followed by the Catholics.

So if we look at the stats on these moral markers what do we actually see. Those who accept god most literally have the worst morals by these measures while those more moderates who are also those most likely to accept evolution have, by these same measures, the best morals. So the evidence, yet again, contradicts your claims Russ T. It doesn’t matter how many talking heads you find in video’s who say otherwise Russ. People lie on camera, in print and face to face. What you need to find is evidence not good talkers Russ if you want to make a case for this.

What it boils down to Russ T is that, if morality is really important to you and this is not just part of a push for fundamentalist religion, you should be pushing people towards atheism and a belief in evolution and away from those beliefs that clearly correlate with poor moral outcomes, fundamentalist religion and all that it entails.

So which is it Russ T, do you really think that morals are a worthy goal or do you really just want to push your brand of fundamentalist religion on people because it appears that the two are mutually exclusive. You can’t have, on average, good morals and a fundamentalist outlook. Not that atheists are perfect or anything, far from it, but they do score better on these moral markers that your cohort.

In reason

Russell


George Barna, president and founder of Barna Research Group


http://www.barna.org/FlexPage.aspx?Page=BarnaUpdateNarrow&BarnaUpdateID=295
in an earlier survey atheist and agnostic were seperated and atheist was around 26% but I can't locate that survey right now.


Denise Golumbaski, Research Analyst, Federal Bureau of Prisons, compiled from up-to-the-day figures on March 5th, 1997

The UK figures, which are very similar though their atheist percentage in the general population is higher than the US which is reflected in these statistics, can be found here. http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/rds/pdfs/hosb1501.pdf

In most surveys in America recently Atheists make up between 8 and 19 percent of your population suggesting that atheists are dramatically underrepresented in your prisons.