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In the Age of Em, Robin Hanson claims that "...religious people tend to be happier, healthier, and more productive. They live longer, smoke less, exercise more, earn more, get and stay married more, commit less crime, use less illegal drugs, have more social connections, donate and volunteer more, and have more children."

Are these claims affirmed by a consensus experts in the relevant fields of study?

Jayson Virissimo
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  • That's a lot of claims, but I wouldn't be surprised if they were all true. – Coomie Sep 28 '16 at 04:47
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    I wouldn't be surprised if none of them is true. At least "earn more" part is definitely not true. – sashkello Sep 28 '16 at 06:58
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    Interestingly enough, in the book the author gives a citation for first three claims, yet none for any of the following ones. – sashkello Sep 28 '16 at 07:03
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    The number of claims makes this too hard to answer, and some of these claims (e.g. atheists committing fewer crimes) are duplicates. Please limit your question to one claim so we can reopen it. – Oddthinking Sep 28 '16 at 08:46
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    Not only are these doubtful, but they don't necessarily mean anything. Most atheists live in religiously-dominated communities, so they would be more isolated and depressed purely because of that. There are no atheist-dominated countries so nothing to compare with. – PointlessSpike Sep 28 '16 at 11:58
  • @PointlessSpike *cough* USSR *cough* DPRK *cough* – user5341 Sep 28 '16 at 13:18
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    @user5341- I actually did my research on this. The former USSR is still over 50% religious and the DPRK... well, I'm not sure if their personality cult counts as a religion, but even if not, you won't find a survey happening there. – PointlessSpike Sep 28 '16 at 13:20
  • @PointlessSpike - I didn't say "former", did I? I meant *actual* USSR. Before the resurgence of RPTz – user5341 Sep 28 '16 at 13:32
  • @user5341- Are you in a parallel universe or something? I don't know what RPTz is, but the USSR disbanded in the 90's. Can you give me a link to explain? – PointlessSpike Sep 28 '16 at 13:34
  • @PointlessSpike - Russkaya Pravoslavnaya Tzerkov'. aka Russian Orthodox Church. Prior to its resurgence in 1990s (and especially 2000s) a vast majority of Russians in USSR were atheist (the picture gets a bit muddier in Muslim-majority republics) – user5341 Sep 28 '16 at 13:38
  • I see what you mean. I was thinking of more recent surveys, as a survey taken in '28 wouldn't hold much relevance compared to modern surveys. – PointlessSpike Sep 28 '16 at 13:42
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    @user5341 don't confuse the worship of the state over self as "atheism" per se. While it is true that the state (USSR) isn't a deity, they employed the same mechanisms religions do to reach their objectives. The best you could claim for atheist countries would be the Nordic ones (especially amongst the younger segments of the population). – JasonR Sep 28 '16 at 14:15
  • @JasonR - conceptually, I happen to agree with you re: USSR. Worship of the state was indeed quite theistic, if you review it carefully. But technically speaking, in the context of the question, they were atheist. – user5341 Sep 28 '16 at 14:16
  • @PointlessSpike - true but surveys in 1980s and 1970s would be pretty valid (and far more atheistic - there were still tons of old religious people in 1928 from older pre-revolution generations) – user5341 Sep 28 '16 at 14:18

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