Gregory S. Paul has an article in the Journal of Religion and Society which draws a positive correlation between religious belief and societal ills. In the paper, he does state that we can't take a correlation and infer a cause-effect relationship, but it seems all too easy for anyone reading the paper to make that leap for him.
This paper has raised as storm of controversy, as one side takes it as gospel and the other side finds in it holes that would dwarf St. Peter's Basilica.
It is interesting that Mr. Paul's paper makes no mention of Russia, whose 70-year experiment with enforced atheism did not create a society altogether lacking in social pathology, to put it mildly, and where the life expectancy of men is now appreciably lower than that of credulous countries such as Guatemala. Which brings up the question of what should be compared with what. After all, comparisons within countries, both static and across time, control for far more cultural factors than comparisons between them.
(By the way, I commend Mr. Dalrymple for saying "brings up the question" and not "begs the question". "Begging the question" is the fallacy of assuming what you intend to prove.)
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