I have heard from other people who have gone on vacation outside of the states that there is a crime alert on America and what cities that they advise their own citizens to stay away from. Out of curiosity I have looked it up and found an article like this.
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Right behind Vatican City. One of the most crime-ridden places on the planet. Vatican City actually has the highest crime rate per capita in Europe, making it the fourth-most criminal city in the world. The fact is, tourists who go there are targets for every top scam artist in Europe. A good con man can spend three to four months working tourist cons like, pick-pocketing, scamming, running Express Kidnapping scams and any new cons someone came up with over the break. Vatican City is a hedonistic pit of scam artists, from the Holy See, right on down to the street urchins. The difference is that the street urchins can be arrested and go to jail for their cons.
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That’s just the reported crime of course, what are the odds the priests there are any better behaved than elsewhere?
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I don’t see the rapid or instantaneous deterioration of most religions happening. It would take a lot of social energy to make this happen. Something like the discovery of an (indisputable) intelligent life elsewhere could be a catalyst and make things change faster but on the everyday level social change happens at a very slow pace. In several generations, hundreds if not thousands of years; make believing and fantasy (which after all is what theism is all about) will not find a need in a secure environment that we are muddling towards.
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Welcome to AR, and I am inclined to agree with your post, I also think people are inherently superstitious, and the only way I know to challenge that is proper education, and breaking religion’s control on education is not an easy task by any means. You also can’t completely control what people think or believe, nor would I want it otherwise. I do think teaching small children some basic logic, that covers common logical fallacies would be a great idea. If there isn’t space in the curriculum I’d be happy to ditch all religious teachings, which might better be suited to a church or mosque, then foisted on their sate education.
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I also think it begins with exposing young minds to scientific evidence that this is a natural universe. I don’t know where I got my naturalistic views, but from my earliest years I thought this was a physical experience and the spiritual things being said around me were just as much mythology as ancient beliefs. I’m not a teacher and have no idea how to get young people to see this. I was lucky that religion wasn’t a big thing in my family, but with so many it’s as real as the air they breathe.
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Yes again I agree, my mother bless her tried her best to indoctrinate me into a version of the christian faith, my dad was apathetic and had seen too much hypocrisy and venom in his parents chapel to have much time for it. I got big enough to make my own choices, and lucky enough to stumble across rational arguments, and learn about logical fallacies. Where I live in the UK, religion does not hold as much sway as other parts of the world, and holds less and less during my lifetime.
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Agreed, and one must also include the interminable unchanging objectively moral god thing’s extraordinary malleability. 3000 different Christian Sects, Judaism and it’s 8 to 12 sects, *
One true Quran, published in its seven or more versions Naafi’ al-Madani, Ibn Amr al-Basri, Abu Amr al-Basri, Ibn Kathir al-Makki, Abu Jafar al-Madani, Asim al-Kufi, and Hamzah al-Kufi . And, at least 73 sects… “All Muslim sects happily claim that their sect is the ‘saved one’ (naji) and the ‘others’ are destined for hell.” Christian sects do the same. The Jewish faiths have their special relationship with God and are the ‘Chosen.’
Even if life is found on another planet. Even if one of the thousands of Gods could logically be disproved, God’s amazing eternally unchanging malleability and the imaginations of his adherents would find some new version to worship. Some folks just need a daddy figure in their lives.
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Here is a quote of one of the most evil and infamous men in history he believed deeply in God and was deeply religious while at same time he killed millions of innocent people 
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More than excellent as a representative example of the role religion plays in the most heinous of acts. Premeditating, and beginning wars. Ultimately where Reason fails, favor, forgiveness by a third party (for which you can charge from the proceeds of the crime), panic-mongering, and ubergruppenmindfucken can be used to create hysteria so great the ramblings of a hysterical, paranoiac podium pounding bitch can become the exclusive voice of once/otherwise great nations. Thank you.
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Welcome to AR, Phil.
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Did you see the post on paedophilia insurance for churches?
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For this assertion to be true you would have to make the case that Atheists don’t have empathy and can’t be guided in their behaviour by kindness, caring and love for others. That by choosing not to believe in a deity they have given up their capacity to live successfully in society. You assume, it would seem, that the only route to moral behaviour is through a belief in god and the threat of hells damnation. In other words
theists don’t have the mental capacity to reason out on their own a moral code and the self discipline without coercion to follow one they believe was inspired or perhaps handed down by their god. WOW thats so sad!
I come by my moral values through thinking about what is good for the collective rather than primarily what is good for me. A bundle of sticks is stronger than a single stick. Christians are only good because they worship a badass god who has proven himself to be a genocidal maniac.
I would contend that the downward slide is not led by atheists but by Christians following their leader Demented Donald.
Atheist societies? What? Where? I didn’t know there were any Atheist Societies - Republics yes but I haven’t been a member long enough to be invited to any form of depravity.
You do realize that the Russian Orthodox Church is alive and well and has blessed Putin’s war effort to re-establish the Soviet empire. In China, despite Mao’s best efforts, religion just went under ground for a while and for the past several decades years they have allowed Christian missionaries in.
I predict this will prove to be a huge mistake. We can see for example, that China has become much more Nationalistic and belligerent of late as it tries to re-establish its lost empire. Is that fact related to the rise of religious freedom in China?
Very Well could be.