Does belief in God increase crime?

[faethor]

http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn21966-is-gods-mercy-to-blame-for-high-crime-rates.html

The short answer is yes. Belief in a God increases the amount of theft in experiments.

 

[robert l. bentham]

it always struck me as funny that religion offers you "forgiveness" for "sins"... and then claims that without god you've no incentive to be good...

 

[faethor]

"As a child I used to pray to God for a bicycle. I soon figured out it doesn't work that way. Instead I stole a bike and prayed for forginveness."

Don't remember who the quote was from and don't care to Bing it right now. Funny and true.

 

[FluffyMcDeath]

"As a child I used to pray to God for a bicycle. I soon figured out it doesn't work that way. Instead I stole a bike and prayed for forginveness."

Don't remember who the quote was from and don't care to Bing it right now. Funny and true.

Emo Philips probably wrote that one.

On the other hand, it's not just forgiveness (get out of jail free) that religions have. They also mandate or allow doing pretty nasty things to other people depending on who they are/what they think.