I've heard some people say that as more and more people leave religion and become atheist, the murder and suicide rates have gone up. Is this true?

Submitted by Mad_Season_1994 t3_xvdiei in askscience

I saw a video recently by some guy named Dennis Prager. It was basically him talking about things like Western civilization, Judeo-Christian values and the like. But one thing he mentioned that stood out to me was the idea that since more and more people are becoming nonreligious or atheist, the murder and suicide rates (at least in America) have been on the rise. And he implies there is a causation/correlation. Just curious if he's right.

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Thomasnaste420 t1_ir0zx8m wrote

No. While there has been a slight uptick in crime over the last few years, it is still way below where the rates were 30-40 years ago, when more people identified as religious.

Dennis Prager is a snake oil salesman

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Pretty_Wallaby_3658 t1_isur2xv wrote

I don’t think it’s so much about religiosity, but rather the number of children born. As the vast majority of crimes are committed by young people, the lower the birth rates, the lower the crime rate.

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urzu_seven t1_ir19pdo wrote

US States with the highest homicide rates (2017 data from the CDC)

  1. Mississippi - 20.50 per 100k
  2. Louisiana - 19.90 per 100k
  3. Alabama - 14.20 per 100k
  4. Missouri - 14 per 100k
  5. Arkansas - 13 per 100k
  6. South Carolina - 12.70 per 100k
  7. Tennessee - 11.50 per 100k
  8. Maryland - 11.40 per 100k
  9. Illinois - 11.20 per 100k
  10. New Mexico - 10.80 per 100k

US States with the highest religiosity rank (2016 data from Pew research

  1. Alabama 77%
  2. (tie) Mississippi 77%
  3. Tennessee 73%
  4. Louisiana 71%
  5. Arkansas 70%
  6. (tie) South Carolina 70%
  7. West Virginia 69%
  8. Georgia 66%
  9. (tie) Oklahoma 66%
  10. North Carolina 65%

States that are in both top tens (alphabetical)

  • Alabama
  • Arkansas
  • Louisiana
  • Mississippi
  • Tennessee
  • South Carolina

So the top 6 religious states make up 6 of the top 7 spots for highest homicide rates. Its not complete proof, its obviously specific to the US, and its far more complicated than "religion" which is too vast a term to be meaningful for arguments like this, for example the Mennonites are strict pacifists and are both highly religious but very unlikely to murder you. Meanwhile there are plenty of non-religious murderers. But this data does seem to refute the claim being made.

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Sinapine t1_ir1zhcx wrote

No, homicide rates in the US are lower now than they were 40 years ago and we're the least religious we've ever been as a population. Dennis Prager and his affiliates are known alt right grifters and push very obvious agendas in their content, especially around Christian nationalism, nuclear family, sexuality, and roles of men and women. If you must watch it, I'd take everything with a grain of salt and compare their claims to the claims of people who do not have overt political biases and rhetorical goals.

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Herlander_Carvalho t1_ir2ecwb wrote

Climate change has been on the rise since the industrial era, while pirates have seen their numbers decline. Therefore, we can assume, under these 2 statements, that we need more pirates to reverse climate change... Yargh!

EDIT: Grammar correction

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ChrisARippel t1_ir1cy40 wrote

Correlations with suicide

Article 1

Article 2

The statistics I have read usually say many are leaving mainstream churches to become unaffiliated believers. It is not clear how many are becoming actual agnostics or atheists.

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PoetryandScience t1_ir2mlho wrote

Beware of correlation.

The only correlation index that is conclusive is zero.

A correlation index of 1 is trivial, the data is the same; two connections to the same pair of wires if you will; the answer already obvious.

Remember that Americans do not wear an extra layer of cloths because people in the UK are cold. Drawing conclusions from correlation is only meaningful to politicians. Politicians do not need any understanding or talent; all they need is votes

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FantasticFunKarma t1_ir2dm56 wrote

I’ve seen a lot of videos too. Some are amazing in their use of skillful rhetoric to paint seemingly realistic pictures of reality. However the proof is not there as the fact checking (as for by many of the replies to this post) show the premise to be without significant support.

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Dr-P-Ossoff t1_ir2piq0 wrote

I’m in Pittsburgh, and we had a mass murder spawned by right wing values. The red state values church will presumably increase murders, while the Mr Rogers church will decrease it. In the Middle East they have the super special “honor to Moloch“ religion that challenges you to kill your own children. Different religions have different effects.

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