tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7690830057835669205.post7621856058048942959..comments2023-10-21T07:55:34.085-04:00Comments on RevCyn: Proposition 8 - And It Gets WorseCynthia L. Landrumhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02858232066200226342noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7690830057835669205.post-202501635391591582008-11-23T09:12:00.000-05:002008-11-23T09:12:00.000-05:00Check out this article on Huffingtonpost.com:The R...Check out this article on Huffingtonpost.com:<BR/><BR/>The Religious Support Behind Proposition 8<BR/>http://www.huffingtonpost.com/phil-zuckerman/the-religious-support-beh_b_145180.html<BR/><BR/>The opening quote from the article:<BR/><BR/><B>"Proposition 8 passed because of religious folk. There is no question about it. Church-going Black Americans, tithe-paying Mormons, mass-attending Latinos, and Evangelical whites all joined forces in 'protecting marriage.'"</B><BR/><BR/>Indeed, when one compares religious nations like ours with Scandinavian nations, one could make the case that religious belief is just too expensive from a cost-benefit point of view for society.<BR/><BR/>One final quote from Zuckerman's article on Huffingtonpost:<BR/><BR/><B>"If God punishes societies that violate his commandments and rewards those that do, this just isn't apparent by looking at the state of the world today. The sociological fact is that the most irreligious nations right now are among the most successful, humane, moral, and free, while the most religious nations tend to be among the most destitute, chaotic, crime-ridden, and undemocratic. A similar pattern also holds true within the United States: those states and counties that boast the greatest numbers of strong believers and regular church attenders tend to have higher poverty rates, child abuse rates, violent crime rates, and lower educational attainment rates than those states and counties characterized by more secular populations.<BR/><BR/>Consider the nations of Scandinavia specifically. These countries are noteworthy because they were among the first nations to make abortion legal and readily available and they were also among the first nations (along with Holland) to allow for gay marriage. Indeed, gays and lesbians have been able to wed in these countries of Northern Europe for nearly 20 years now. And what is the state of society in these relatively irreligious nations, where weekly church attendance is among the lowest in the world and belief in God is markedly thin? They lead the world on nearly all indicators of societal well-being. From economic prosperity to low crime rates, from equality between men and women to excellent child welfare, from life expectancy to low rates of H.I.V., the relatively godless (or at least God-indifferent) nations of Denmark, Sweden, Norway, and Holland suggest that secularity - and acceptance of gay marriage, specifically -- doesn't bring down the wrath of God at all. And yet when we look at the most religious nations in the world - especially those that severely condemn homosexuality, such as Iran, Angola, and Mauritania -- we see extreme poverty, high violent crime rates, oppression of women, dictatorship, warfare, corruption, etc."</B><BR/><BR/>The question that we need to ask ourselves as Unitarian Universalists is are we helping reduce the costs of religious belief in the US?Steve Caldwellhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12333184436301854794noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7690830057835669205.post-27418022505391403652008-11-23T03:03:00.000-05:002008-11-23T03:03:00.000-05:00The atheist blogger Greta Christina wrote about th...The atheist blogger Greta Christina wrote about this several days ago. She found a correlation between weekly church attendance and voting "yes" on Prop. 8 in CNN's exit polling:<BR/><BR/>** Weekly Church Attendance - 84% in favor of Prop. 8<BR/><BR/>** Occasional Church Attendance - 54% in favor of Prop. 8<BR/><BR/>** Do Not Attend Church at All - 17% in favor of Prop. 8 (83% against)<BR/><BR/>I suspect the higher percentage of blacks voting in favor of Prop. 8 may simply reflect higher levels of church attendance for blacks when compared to whites.<BR/><BR/>Greta wrote more about the impact of religion on the Prop. 8 vote here:<BR/><BR/>http://gretachristina.typepad.com/greta_christinas_weblog/2008/11/why-we-care-what-other-people-believe-religion-race-and-prop-8.html<BR/><BR/>In this blog column, she attempts to answer why atheists, agnostics, and other non-believers care about what religious believe.<BR/><BR/>What religious people believe may affect how they vote on your civil rights.Steve Caldwellhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12333184436301854794noreply@blogger.com