And yet Christians make up the largest population in the prison system with Atheists among the lowest. Ask him to explain that.

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Psychology Today isn't an academic journal and apparently sometimes publishes bullshit.

Oh so that's why the prisons are full of them

Religious fanatics Killing people in the name of religion what can be more vile than this .

That’s an absurd claim not worth debating.

Definitely not. Sometimes, they are worst humans. How many of us in this forum need to subscribe to a deity before we know the right from wrong?
I don't.

So....all Plante has truly "proven" is that he's biased, opinionated asshat with no scientific data, but a with a public platform that kind of lessens the credence of Psychology Today overall, no?

Anyone who looks at the stats for prison inmates will find that in terms of incarceration, if we assume everyone inside is guilty and ignore racial lmbalance that is unrelated to actual guilt, will find that Christians make up by far the largest number of criminals. I think if we adjust for the aforementioned factors, Christians will still be in the majority of, let's call them misbehavers, shall we? And let's ask, of those who say the religious are better people, whether they think their judgment applies to only one religion. I don't think we need to ask them which one.

g

Ken, a 66-year-old psychologist from Portland, Oregon. His first message to me:

"I really like your playful, creative, giving being. You're more "spiritual" than most religious people. I'm curious how an "atheist" can live that way."

My response after Skyping with him:

Ken,

Yesterday a man I used to date, Rich, dropped by as I was kneading four loaves of bread. With a master degree, Rich is highly intelligent and an atheist. Unlike you, Rich immediately saw the insult in your message.

I told Rich you could not understand how I can have loving kindness without attending church and believing in a god. "I get asked that by Christians all the time," Rich replied.

Treating people with kindness and respect is a series of daily choices. I don't need a book or fear of an invisible deity to teach me to behave. At age four, I realized when I am nice to people, they are nice in return.

I would never corner Christians and demand that they explain themselves. Yet you and your compatriots think this is acceptable behavior.

Christians who don't know me often demand, as you did, that I explain:

1. Why I am an atheist.

2. How the universe began (as if being an atheist automatically makes me an astrophysicist). "Nobody knows," I reply. "Science is advancing every year."

3. What happens when people die. "Nobody knows," I reply.

4. What is "spirituality."

You may think your questions were unique. They were not. Rich and I both find being grilled by Christians rude and tiresome.

Low life Mafia dimwits tended to be very religious and go to church the same week after rubbing someone out .Talk about sociopathic,hypocrisy and sadistic all rolled up into one bunch of religious scumbags.

Most of the respectable studies I have seen have proved just the opposite. Certainly on an international scale, there is a direct link between nearly all factors of social health, such as crime, to the degree to which a country is secular.

NO.I would like to think that believers and non believers are about equal in regards to this .

I haven’t read the other responses, but I’m sure “This is a crock of shit” is somewhere among them. Is there even a need to explain that religious folk including Catholic priests and Orthodox Jewish-Israeli Settlers commit heinous crimes? I’m not the least defensive about my non religiously.

If I believe that a green leprechaun looking alien took a giant crap and thus created the universe. Is that belief enough to make me a better citizen. That is unsubstantiated bullcrap.

My purely unscientific and probably biased survey based on 20 years working in prisons tells me that "believers" are certainly no more law-abiding than atheists; indeed, markedly less so. I have never, to my knowledge, encountered an atheist behind bars, and only 5 or 6 Buddhists in that time; whereas I've known countless, extremely devout Christians, Jews, and Muslims, along with several Wiccans, Odinists, and Satanists for good measure.

Whether they were religious prior to committing their particular crimes, or became religious in prison, is a factor that no doubt varies from one to another. But as far as their behavior as "citizens" in the prison environment, I've seen no difference between those who go to the chapel every chance they get, participate in religious groups, and get bible publications in the mail, and those who don't. In fact, some of the most religious are also the worst to deal with, since they seem to feel they're "above man's law" and the rules of the prison because God has forgiven them. And I wager they felt that way before they broke the law, too.

Bullshit

I believe that atheists and agnostics are better citizens. They are free from the bonds of religious ideology, and many of us are also free of doctrinaire political ideologies. That makes more critical and rational thinkers. Also, knowing that we will be scrutinized much more heavily by religious believers, more of us take care that our decisions and actions are more truly moral and democratic.

Bah, Humbug!

Unconscionable claptrap.

Believers and nonbelievers are equal in this regard . To say otherwise is ridiculous.

Christians, as all religionists, commit more crimes, rape more, steal more, beat wives more,...than non-believers.

At least for now. Non-belief is not a basis for good behavior. Yet, it does seem jail/prison inmates are more likely believers, even the 30 percent who are most likely psychopaths.

Believers think that 6 days a week they can do all bad and get these bad whipped out on Sunday.
They think all the bad they will do will be forgiven by god that is a sign that these people are dangerous

Such a conclusion, stated that way anyway, is really unscientific. Terms like "Better citizens" or "more well-behaved" are far too vague, not to mention subjective.

What is Plante's first name? Could you tell me the date of that particular issue of the magazine?