How come Christians are criminals and atheists aren't?

Question

Several different studies have found that the population of Christians in prison far outweighs the population of atheists - and the studies accounted for the difference in overall population. "Note that atheists, being a moderate proportion of the USA population (about 8-16%) are disproportionately less in the prison populations (0.21%). "

http://www.holysmoke.org/icr-pri.htm

Also:

http://www.skepticfiles.org/american/pri...

Why are atheists able to embrace morality and be law-abiding while Christians can't stay out of jail and not commit crimes against their fellow man?

"Maybe they were converted while in prison"

Nope. One of the studies looked into that.

"Actually, I would have to believe that would be due to the fact that there are probably more Christians than athiests in the world, "

Nope. As I said, they took that into account. Read the question.

"Why would religion matter whether you were a criminal or not?"

Doesn't religion claim morality...especially Christians? Yey the percentage of Christians in jail WAY WAY WAY outweighs the percentage of atheists. By far too much to be a coincidence.

"well, I suppose it couldn't have anything to do with the fact that more people in this country claim a religion than to be atheists, and that the christianity is a leading religion in this country."

Again, no this was accounted for!!!!

"A lot of people find God in prison. Your study is flawed, unless you find the number of Christians in Jail that were atheists prior to going to prison."

OK:
"In "The New Criminology", Max D. Schlapp and Edward E. Smith say that two generations of statisticians found that the ratio of convicts without
religious training is about 1/10 of 1%."

The religious training took place before they went to jail.

"its just that there are more people who are christian than people who are Atheist."

THIS....WAS.....ACCOUNTED....FOR.

"Read about the communist regimes and all the atrocities they did to everyone including Christians."

Read about the Holy Wars, The Crusades, the stinking bible where your god supposedly wiped out cities, and even everyone on the planet except for a handful of people.

The bottom line is that the prisons are filled with Christians. Not atheists.

Answer 1

Because we embrace the concept of Rule of Law and obey the law.

We atheists know we are responsible for our own actions while Christians always have a ready excuse.

Answer 2

One thing I think this study does show is that people are more likely to admit to being Christian once they are imprisoned. I'm not talking about people converting to Christianity, but people claiming to have always been Christian because Christian nuts are in control of the prison system, and they decide the quality of life and parole opportunities of the inmates. I'm quite a radical atheist, but only because I am free to express my beliefs. If I were imprisoned somewhere in the Islamic world, I'd rather cut the end of my penis off and pray to Allah several times a day than be subjected to the daily bullying and harassment I'd suffer as an outcast. Confronted with the choice of an honest life of suffering or a dishonest happy one, only the most hard-faced atheist or agnostic would forgo the happiness. I'm just glad I'm in a position where I can have the happiness and honesty together.

Answer 3

there are more christians than atheists. Much too many christians are christians by name. Atheists blame everything that happens on god and they are the people thats should be the pious belivers but they blame all wrong on God yet they dont view the fact that god said he put humanes on earth to see how they act with each other do they love each other and so on, so god gave us freewill and he cannot intrude in that yet he can punish and make all right in the next world because of the results of this world. Of course the hallacoust happened, 9-11, the crusades, and all those horrible happinings god did not intrude in those becuase he gave us free will and all that have been wronged will be given the upper hand and all who have wronged will be delt with in a fair and just way. Atheists are the careing yet they blame the wrong people, or God for all bad that happens, very careing people but they should know whos fault it is.

Answer 4

Typically atheists have higher levels of education, while religious people often have lower levels of education. This discrepancy in education levels probably would explain it.

If a study was done which controlled for level of education and still showed that Christians are more likely to be found in jail, then maybe a stronger case could be made that it is something about atheism and something about Christianity which cause different levels of criminality. Until then, I would bet on it being only a correlation actually caused by the lower education levels of the people in jails.

There could be other explanations too. It could be that the prison population faces more evangelizing than the population as a whole. It could be that prisoners are more likely to convert or become more religious while in prison either in an attempt to reduce their sentence or out of a sincere sense of hopelessness. Are people who are going through a difficult period in their lives more likely to try to change the course of their lives by converting or becoming more spiritual? If so, wouldn't it be expected that prisoners would have a higher rate of spirituality than non-prisoners (since prisoners are obviously going through a difficult period)?

I am an atheist, but I distrust studies and statistics like this. It is too easy to make a correlation appear to be a causal relationship.

P.S. I was only able to open the holysmoke link and I didn't see anything there about whether they converted in prison or not. If the other study did look at this, and still found a disproportionately high number of Christians, the reasons to convert in prison that I mentioned earlier would not apply.

But it still seems highly plausible that these findings are actually caused by another factor. People from lower socio-economic backgrounds are more likely to be religious, and more likely to be found in jail, but it is likely their class background which causes both of these behaviors.

I think it is a bit of a stretch to connect the Crusades and religious violence with the higher rate of religiosity among inmates. First we would have to determine that religion did in fact make a person more prone to criminal behavior, which is what we are in fact trying to find out here. If we are trying to figure out if there is a causal relationship between religiosity and criminality, we cannot just assume that this relationship exists, since that is circular reasoning. You are right, the jails are filled with Christians, not atheists. But your question is why this is.

P.P.S. I did think this was an interesting question. I also like the fact that you are a top contributor in philosophy. If you would like to talk about religion or philosophy, just send me an email. I'm always looking to talk with people who share my interests. :)

Answer 5

Nearly half of the answerers can't seem to understand that the number of Christians vs. atheists DOES NOT MATTER. The statistics examine the percentage of Christians and atheists in prison based on the percentage in the country. Yes one can be called to stereotype by saying more Christians are criminals, but stereotypes have some basis in truth no matter how bad they are.

My guess is that a majority of those in poverty are less able to accept that there might not be any god(s), and therefore there are some confounding variables. But overall, the atheists I have met are intelligent and very tolerant. Of course there are some rotten apples, just like there are many Christians I admire.

Answer 6

If atheists are only 8-16% of the US population, shouldn't it make sense that they're in the minority in prison too? Christians outweighing atheists in prison doesn't say much about Christians because there are plenty of non-criminal Christians outside of prison. It's not like every Christian is in prison.

Also, as someone else said, just because they're a Christian doesn't mean they're a practicing Christian. From my experience, only a very small percentage are actually devout and truly religious. Most of the Christians I know don't pray or go to church; they just believe in the existence of God and that's pretty much it.

Answer 7

80% of the US population believe in God. There are four levels in the degree of belief in Christianity. The last two levels are not Christians practicing the belief, they just think it could be true. The other side is that the convict wants out so he will profess to anything that will release him earlier. The convict knows that parole boards rule in favor of correct morals of Christianity. The question is how many level 1 Christians are incarcerated? An ex-convict will probably tell you after he is out that the devoted atheists are really stupid.

Answer 8

That's strange.. The Bible says, "Thou shalt not kill."

However, I think that maybe some Christians may be intolerable of the bad deeds people commit in this world, and decide not to deal with it anymore. This could lead to a murder.

Religion can make people go crazy (look at Bush). The atheists have more rational views on what our world is like...

Answer 9

The prisons are filled with people who claim to be Christians. Just because you say you are a Christian does not make you one.

e.g. Actions speak louder than words.

Answer 10

At what point in an inmates incarceration is this information taken? Born-again Christianity is seen (by some) as good reason to grant early parole and that they have truly 'learned from their mistakes'. If these numbers were compiled based on what would have been declared the day before incarceration, as opposed to, say, five years into a sentence, then there may be some truth to them. Otherwise, I'd say it is just a play for leniency on the inmates' part

Answer 11

Well number one, VERY GOOD question. The term "CHRISTIAN" is used very broadly and can be stamped on anyone who chooses it, whether or not they are a true Christian in "God's" eyes. Secondly, Inmates embrace religion and mostly Christianity like wildfire when they are locked up only to chunk that black bible in the discard pile when they are released.

Atheists are pretty much from similar socio-classes and are normally your middle class to upper educated people who feel a greater sense of enlightenment.

Your truly devoted christian from various different sects are just as educated and make up all social classes and ethnic backgrounds.