Least religious countries safest and enjoy highest standard of living?

Question

coincidence or not?

Norway and Sweden have the highest standards of living in the world, some of the lowest crime rates and are considered among the "least religious"

http://www.mapsofworld.com/world-top-ten/world-top-ten-quality-of-life-map.html

http://www.aardvarktravel.net/chat/viewtopic.php?t=19214

http://www.umich.edu/~urecord/0304/Nov24_03/15.shtml

Answer 1

It's not a matter of being "religious" or not but about having a impartial, secular, non-communal government to maintain stability in politics. Equality is important.

Answer 2

Well I would say from the outset that there is no direct correlation between atheism or the secularity of a country, and the level of crime within that country, just as there is no distinct link between religiosity and crime. The fact that these countries are highly secularized or that there is a collective absence in the belief in God does not directly translates into a tranquil environment. After all, China, and the former Soviet Union, made collective atheism a matter of law, and crime was/is just as pervasive there as anywhere else.

However, there is a mentality conducive to the rational subscription of atheism that makes societies less conducive to crime. I emphasize “rational subscription” because in former and current Communist nations, where crime was/is common place, atheism in a population is induced by force, or is done out of political expediency, not as a result of rationally deliberating the merits of theism, and rebuking them after finding them highly improbable or false.

Yet when a society puts reason and logic above all virtues, then naturally the same emphasis on rational thinking that causes a society to be less religious will also cause a society to be more introspective when deliberating matters of morality and what is best for the common good. Hence, atheism is not the cause of a civil, virtually crime free, society, but instead both atheism and a steady social order are the result of broadly held devotions to rational thinking by the country’s citizenry. In other words atheism and low crime rates in a nation are symptomatic of a society of reasonable people, atheism is not in and of itself a deterrent to criminal behavior.

Answer 3

It's not a coincidence. The least religious a country is, the most intellectually and socially advanced they tend to be.

Answer 4

Religious nuts despise facts.

Answer 5

They are also white. So are you making a racist statement too?

Beware logic.

-Aztec276

Answer 6

No not true........religion has nothing to do with freedom unless its an extremist one (no im not talking about Islam).