Gledhill, Ruth. “Societies worse off ‘when they have God on their side’.” Times online, September 27, 2005.

Summary: A comparative study of various social indicators in developed nations reveals that religious belief is directly correlated with high rates of violent crime, murder, suicide, sexual promiscuity, and abortion.

According to the study, belief in and worship of God are not only unnecessary for a healthy society but may actually contribute to social problems. ...

The study concluded that the US was the world's only prosperous democracy where murder rates were still high, and that the least devout nations were the least dysfunctional. Mr Paul said that rates of gonorrhoea in adolescents in the US were up to 300 times higher than in less devout democratic countries. The US also suffered from “uniquely high” adolescent and adult syphilis infection rates, and adolescent abortion rates, the study suggested. ...

[According to the study's author,] “The non-religious, proevolution democracies contradict the dictum that a society cannot enjoy good conditions unless most citizens ardently believe in a moral creator.

“The widely held fear that a Godless citizenry must experience societal disaster is therefore refuted.”