Response to (Yet) Another Stupid Meme

There are days (okay, most of them) when I can't help but laugh at the gullibility of some of my fellow Americans. This post was prompted by a meme that I have seen again recently on Facebook where the "tea fartiers" and gun nuts are comparing how different acts of terrorism were perpetrated using something other than a gun. And, of course, the meme ends with a comment about how godlessness is the real root of the problem.

I call "bullshit."

In less than three minutes and two Google searches, I was able to EASILY dispel that myth. I started by looking up the countries of the world ranked by how religious they are (the specific question from Gallup was "Is religion important in your daily life?", with only two possible answers: yes or no), and then I looked up the countries with the highest rates of homicide. What one will find is the least religious countries almost always have the lowest rates of homicide. For example, the religion survey shows that fully 83% of Swedes say that religion is NOT important to their daily lives, yet the country is tied for seventh in least number of homicides (0.7/100,000 population). On the other hand, the United States is one of the world's more religious countries, with 65% saying religion is important in their daily lives, yet has a homicide rate (4.8/100,000) almost SEVEN TIMES GREATER than that of Sweden.

Here are the rest of the top 10 least religious countries with their homicide rates:

Denmark (80.5%)	0.8/100,000
Estonia (78%)	5.0/100,000
Norway (78%)	2.2/100,000
Hong Kong (75.5%)	0.4/100,000
Netherlands (75.5%)	0.9/100,000
Japan (75%)	0.3/100,000
Czech Republic (74.5%)	1.0/100,000
United Kingdom (73%)	1.0/100,000
Finland (70%)	1.6/100,000

*(The number in parentheses is the percentage of those who say religion is not important in their daily lives.)

Except for the outlier Estonia, each and every one of these "not very religious countries" has a homicide rate significantly lower than that of the U.S., and the majority of them are at 1.0/100,000 or less. In addition, of the top ten countries with the highest rates of homicide per 100,000 population that appear on both lists, all save one of those had a greater percentage of respondents who believe religion is important in their daily lives than those in the U.S.

Given this information, can we HONESTLY look each other in the eye and say that godlessness leads to acts of terrorism and murder? I think the answer can only be a resounding "No!" While there almost certainly forces at work, godlessness isn't one of them.

For Pete's sake, I wish people would start using their brains again . . .