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| Godless Icelanders in violent rampage. |
You know, if you listen to Christians, you would expect a country in which most people say they are not religious, 40% of young people say they are Atheists and non-one believes God created the world, to be a pretty grim, 'godless' place.
You should expect to see bands of marauding rapist, thieves and cutthroat murderers roaming the streets in an orgy of selfishness and greed with no regard for the sanctity of human life. The last thing you would expect to see would be peace, brotherly love, a high level of social responsibility and good neighbourliness.
And that's exactly the situation in godless Iceland - apart, that is, from the bands of marauding rapists, thieves and cutthroat murders and the absence of social responsibility and good neighbourliness.
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| Birthday party, Chicago, USA. 7 Aug 2016 Chicago homicide rate hits 20-year high |
A recent poll (regrettably in Icelandic) found that, of young Icelanders under 25 years of age, 0.0% (sic) believed that a god created the world. 93.9% believed the Universe was created in the Big Bang and the remaining 6.1% thought it had come into existence some other way or expressed no opinion.
The same poll found that only 46.4% of Icelanders even identify as religious (the lowest figure to date).
This poll makes sorry reading for the official Icelandic Evangelical Lutheran Church, despite it recently hurrying to keep up with public opinion and agreeing to conduct same-sex marriages. The generational difference is profound with the younger generation, the generation rearing the next generation of Icelanders, massively rejecting religion compared to their parents. Young people are simply not conforming to former firmly held cultural convictions.
Of Icelanders over 55 years of age, 80.6% identified themselves as Christian with only 11.8% identifying as Atheists. Of this generation only 46.1% believed in the Big Bang while 24.5% believed God created the world. This generation were far less certain of this however, with 16.6% saying they either didn't know or had no opinion on the matter in contrast to only 6.1% of those under 25 years old.This increasing rejection of religion in Iceland now puts serious doubt about the continuing status of the Icelandic Evangelical Lutheran Church as the state church as 77% of Icelanders now think there should be a complete separation of church and state with only 28% in favour. In protest at the continued state funding of religious groups thousands of people have been signing up as members of the Ancient Sumerian religion, Zuism, making Zuism the fastest growing 'religion' in Iceland and now outnumbering Islam and the local pagan, Ásatrúarfélagið religion.
Perhaps one of my religious readers would like to have a go at explaining this curious paradox of religious people who live in comparatively violent and lawless societies believing their religion makes their society peaceful and law-abiding while 'godless and immoral' selfish atheists who have no regard for the sanctity of human life appear to live in peaceful and law-abiding societies.
Could this be another example of religious beliefs being at complete variance with observable reality and religious people making false claims about their own morality and respect for the teachings of their religions' founders?
Of course it would be unkind to assume that religious people assume Atheists would rape, steal and go on an orgy of selfishness and greed because that's what they would like to do if only fear of their god wasn't stopping them because the evidence is that when people lose religion they don't do those things. What it would be kinder to assume though is that they simply assume that other people need the fear of punishment or the hope of a reward to make them behave well. Not them of course, just everyone else! What they fear is other people not being kept under control.
They don't believe in God; they believe in other people believing in God!
'via Blog this'
Marvelous post!
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