Comment by Sniz on February 4, 2009 at 8:30am

I am proud to report that my beloved home state of Wisconsin, while not in the "least religious" grouping, was in the next lowest "less religious" grouping. It also makes me feel bad for the people in other states, because I feel like it is hard to be an atheist here!

It is interesting how this works out. I also know that there are higher crime rates in religious states as well. However, I have a feeling that all of these things are more dependent on education level than "religiosity." There have been surveys that have shown the more educated you get, the less likely it is that you are religious. However...this could be due to religion. I kind feel that as a whole, non-religous people are more open to being educated than religious people.

Thanks for the post, Nelson! It was neat to see these numbers and find out where my state ranks! Way to rock.

Comment by Pam on February 4, 2009 at 8:47am

Even ignoring the correlation, isn't it ironic that the most religious states are home to the sickest, poorest, most obese people in the country? Why isn't god helping them?

I can't even begin to point to the number of cases where people refuse to seek medical care because of their religion, but here's one example.

Comment by Nelson on February 4, 2009 at 2:01pm

@Sniz: but there is a well established correlation between educational attainment and religiosity as well. the more well educated a person is the less credulous they tend to be. taking top scientists as the highest educated among us, only 3-7% believe in the existence of a personal intervening god. 7% of the National Academy of Sciences and 3.3% of the Royal Academy in Britain. so sure, education level does enter in to it but i think it does so by making people more secular. so we can't throw out religiosity as the factor here- religiosity and education are related in an inversely proportional way.

@pamelot: what's incredible and infuriating to me is that something like 40 states have laws on the books to protect parents from charges when they deny their children medical attention on religious grounds. protect them??? they ought to be prosecuted to the fullest extent possible!

thanks for commenting both of you!

Comment by Sophie on February 4, 2009 at 2:16pm

wow pam i just checked out your link. good read nelson.

Comment by Sniz on February 4, 2009 at 2:31pm

@Nelson. Yeah, I agree with you that they are all interrelated, but I just don't want to see atheists going "Being Christian means you are more likely to get divorced." There are multiple factors there.

Comment by Phi Delta on February 4, 2009 at 2:36pm

The sad thing is that the least religious state (Vermont) still has 42% of all people claiming religion is important in their life.
I personally think that is a sure sign of social pathology.

Comment by Nelson on February 4, 2009 at 2:47pm

@Sniz: yes, i totally agree with you there. that would be a bad trap to fall into. that very trap is the reason i was careful to point out that correlation doesn't equal causation.

@Phi: i agree. when i consider the religiosity surveys of the National Academy or the Royal Society, what stands out to me isn't that so few of these scientists lack belief but that even ONE does! it's amazing how ingrained a refusal to acknowledge reality as it and not how we want it to be really is. so much so apparently that even scientists who ought to know better still believe- talk about compartmentalization! i don't know how they do it!

thanks Sophie and Phi for commenting!

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