One thing I've noticed is that it doesn't matter what the foundations of your beliefs are. Within every group there are people who are materialistic and selfish, and then there are people who value honor, decency, and the well-being of others. Christians and other religious groups are no exception. This also, of course, applies to atheists and agnostics.

Fair enough.

I divided people into two camps regardless of religion, race, creed or anything else.
Decent and Indecent, and catzmeow had a problem with that also.

Apparently she has a problem with my World view.

That's because the data goes directly against your world view, yet you continue clinging to it.

__________________
I wasn't born with enough middle fingers.

It is you who denies the data.

I've provided AMPLE empirical evidence.

This is your World view.



http://www.impactlab.com/2007/03/08/...are-declining/

Actually from Catz data it seems like

1. The US has issues, we all know this and blame different things.

2. There is a general "peak" at a midrange of religiousness particularily as measured by attendence.

I.e. if I did a least squares fit of the data points I'd get a curve that goes up and then back down. Go on and look at the figures yourself.

A recent study on cohabitation concluded that after five to seven years, only 21 percent of unmarried couples were still living together. — The Boston Herald


Divorce statistics don't reflect this.

Here's another statistic~

The proportion of the population made up by married couples with children decreased from 40% in 1970 to 24% in 2000.

and more statistics~

An American study found that juvenile offending was affected not just by whether a particular child’s parents were married, but also by the prevalent family structures in his neighbourhood. It has been suggested that this might be the case because two-parent families are better able to monitor anti-social behaviour which often leads to more serious crime.94
A review of 17 developed nations indicated that nations with higher rates of births outside marriage, teenage parenthood, and divorce also had higher rates of child homicide.95

Quoting a newspaper article~

The current morality of many people in the United States regarding honesty, integrity and values is in serious decline, said David Callahan, author of "The Cheating Culture: Why More Americans Are Doing Wrong to Get Ahead."

Callahan spoke to students and faculty at the Reynold's Center Wednesday. He cited several examples of everyday dishonesty.

Studies show that two-thirds to three-quarters of high school students admit to some cheating, he said. Employee theft accounts for losses of more than $60 billion each year, while dollars lost to tax evasion totals are roughly equal to the U.S. gross domestic product.

Like I said the US has problems and everybody points the finger at whatever they feel like for why that is.

Personally I think a big part of our problem is that while slavery was practiced by most westen nations when the US did it, they had low slave populations at home, mostly owning remote slaves working in places like the Caribbean. So when they stopped slavery the small number of released slaves probably managed well enough and integrated into society.

The US however had our slaves right here by the millions, in some states making up about half of the population. And then we free them and treat them like absolute crap.

But I'm sure everybody has their favorite theory why.