Better That Australia Doesn't Become More Like the US

Paul used survey data to gauge the degree of religious observance and attitudes to science in the target countries, and gauged societal health and dysfunction by using available statistics for life expectancy, infant mortality, murder rates, youth suicide, STD rates, teen pregnancies and abortion data.

It will be a huge shock and disappointment for our conservative government, who are striving to make Australia more like the US, to find out that the US fairs badly in these areas.

The US leads the western world for religious observance, absolute belief in God and Bible literalism. It also has the lowest acceptance of scientific theory, the highest homicide rate, second highest infant mortality (after Portugal), below average life expectancy, the highest rate of STDs, and the highest rate of teenage pregnancy and terminations.

I think it's particularly poignant that in the wealthiest country on earth, one that spends the most on health as a proportion of GDP, its population has a lower than average life expectancy. The US is the only developed nation that does not have a universal health scheme.

It was noted that in the areas of the US where religiosity was strongest, the figures were markedly worse.

There is evidence that within the U.S. strong disparities in religious belief versus acceptance of evolution are correlated with similarly varying rates of societal dysfunction, the strongly theistic, anti-evolution south and mid-west having markedly worse homicide, mortality, STD, youth pregnancy, marital and related problems than the northeast where societal conditions, secularization, and acceptance of evolution approach European norms.

The study was summed up thus ....

If the data showed that the U.S. enjoyed higher rates of societal health than the more secular, pro-evolution democracies, then the opinion that popular belief in a creator is strongly beneficial to national cultures would be supported. Although they are by no means utopias, the populations of secular democracies are clearly able to govern themselves and maintain societal cohesion. Indeed, the data examined in this study demonstrates that only 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. The least theistic secular developed democracies such as Japan, France, and Scandinavia have been most successful in these regards. The non-religious, pro-evolution democracies contradict the dictum that a society cannot enjoy good conditions unless most citizens ardently believe in a moral creator. The widely held fear that a Godless citizenry must experience societal disaster is therefore refuted.

So, it seems that the countries the US conservative right love to hate, ie, France and Scandinavia, have social systems that provide vastly superior outcomes to those of the US.

Australia ranks well in this study except for an appalling number of youth suicides. Perhaps our government should be turning their attention there instead of floating the idea of teaching "Intelligent Design" as an alternative to Evolutionary science in our schools, dismantling Medicare by stealth and introducing US style industrial relations and welfare systems.