Quote:Also, I should point out, I'm not only speaking of "religion", but of any social construct that one religiously adheres to which diverts "idle hands" towards constructive social contributions. So, yes, atheists can do this too.The studies you linked, and the general consensus, as far as I know, is that religious belief per se has little to no impact on criminality. That correlates almost entirely with social activities. Get your kid in the band program. Put on a play. Join the Boy Scouts - although maybe not in the US. The social benefits will accrue all the same. The religious component is vestigial, and therefore, this is not a good argument for the benefits of religion.
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But, somewhere, the child needs to be imprinted with societal norms and mores.
From your EU crime statistics, I'm not sure what you want to prove there. The UK tops the list for Europe, but well below it are some of the most atheistic societies in the world, including France, and Sweden, both of which are so disbelieving they make the UK look fanatically religious. Where's the correlation, let alone the causation?
-Jester