One of the bedrock teachings of Christianity is that the Gospel has the solution for every problem. An article in the Journal of Religion and Society challenges that notion. [The same issue includes an article by J. SPencer Fluhman of BYU on Anti-Mormonism and the Question of Religiou Authenticity in Antebellum America.]
The study is useful, but does not consider factors other than religiousity that seem to be more relevant when causation is considered, such as availability of guns in the U.S. compared with other nations (murder rates); lack of universal health care (child mortality, STDs, etc.). One could argue that these policies exist because of religiosity, but gun rights were established in the Constitution and I don't know of any religious justification for lack of universal health care.
Another factor to consider is that the U.S. is the only one of the countries studied that has as diverse a population. Arguably, Canada, Australia and New Zealand are also immigrant countries; however, they each have much smaller and less diverse populations. All the rest of the countries in the study have populations whose roots extend back for centuries, if not millennia.
The LA Times published an editorial about a study by evolutionay scientists Gregory S. Paul, in which Paul looked at the correlation between the extent of "popular religiosity" and various "quantifiable societal health" indicators in the U.S. and 17 other democracies. According to the Times, Paul "found that the most religious democracies exhibited substantially higher degrees of social dysfunction than societies with larger percentages of atheists and agnostics. Of the nations studied, the U.S. — which has by far the largest percentage of people who take the Bible literally and express absolute belief in God (and the lowest percentage of atheists and agnostics) — also has by far the highest levels of homicide, abortion, teen pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases."
The editorial claimed Paul's study confirms the trends in the U.S.: "When it comes to "values," if you look at facts rather than mere rhetoric, the substantially more secular blue states routinely leave the Bible Belt red states in the dust." "Six of the seven states with the highest 2003 homicide rates were "red" in the 2004 elections (Louisiana, Mississippi, Nevada, Arizona, Georgia, South Carolina), while the deep blue Northeastern states had murder rates well below the national average. Infant mortality rates? Highest in the South and Southwest; lowest in New England. Divorce rates? Marriages break up far more in red states than in blue. Teen pregnancy rates? The same."
Brooks continues:
"Of course, the red/blue divide is only an imperfect proxy for levels of religiosity. And while Paul's study found that the correlation between high degrees of religiosity and high degrees of social dysfunction appears robust, it could be that high levels of social dysfunction fuel religiosity, rather than the other way around."
Finally, Brooks says: "The claim that religion can have a dark side should not be news. Does anyone doubt that Islamic extremism is linked to the recent rise in international terrorism? And since the history of Christianity is every bit as blood-drenched as the history of Islam, why should we doubt that extremist forms of modern American Christianity have their own pernicious and measurable effects on national health and well-being?
"Arguably, Paul's study invites us to conclude that the most serious threat humanity faces today is religious extremism: nonrational, absolutist belief systems that refuse to tolerate difference and dissent. My prediction is that right-wing evangelicals will do their best to discredit Paul's substantive findings. But when they fail, they'll just shrug: So what if highly religious societies have more murders and disease than less religious societies? Remember the trials of Job? God likes to test the faithful.
"To the truly nonrational, even evidence that on its face undermines your beliefs can be twisted to support them. Absolutism means never having to say you're sorry. And that, of course, is what makes it so very dangerous."
