Unfortunately our population is small. To do it right they need to take a sample of each population and then divide it by how many are in prision.

I like this one from Penn.

Isn't the country about 93% Christian? Wouldn't that mean the prison population reflects the population as a whole?

I think the whole confession and forgiveness thing works against believers. It gives them an easy out. They feel they can do whatever they feel like, and it is OK if they confess and their religion forgives them. That is all they need to convince themselves that they are good people.

Atheists don't have it so easy. They have to do right pretty much all the time, because there is no easy out, like confession and forgiveness, to make them feel good about themselves if they do wrong. So, they don't do wrong anywhere near as often.

That is what the statistics reflect.

Of course it could be argued that atheists are just smarter and are just a lot less likely to get caught. That may be a factor to a very small degree. But generally, I think that having the easy way out, of confession and forgiveness, to feel good about yourself, makes doign wrong seem like it is not that big of a deal to believers.

I particularly liked this study on the subject.
[sciencemag.org]

Morality is a subjective term,What is good to one culture might be entirely different to another .Morals and values are generally formed by a combination of the culture you are surrounded by and by your own traits and characteristics.Religion is part of this equation,so if part of a religious persons moral beliefs are derived from their religious upbringing what does this say.

By saying morals are determined by religion one is saying that, without a system of rewards and punishments humans are basically bad and cannot do the right thing on their own.

I made up an analogy of 2 kids at this time of year. One behaves (usually just before the season starts) so as to get more gifts from 'Santa'. The 2nd child does not believe in Santa (or doesn't care) and behaves because they feel it is right. What happens with the 1st child right after the holiday is over? (usually back to the same old behavior). What happens to the 2nd (no change).

My question is: if Heaven is the ultimate reward what kind of behavior do those who get there practice? Will they go back to their natural 'bad' behavior (is there religion in heaven?). What about us Atheists; where do we go? Does that make sense?

what a huge pile of poop

if you have to follow the principles of what is right and wrong,and form your moral beliefs from what a religion or what a god dictates you are thinking this way out of fear from your dictator in the sky. A non believer forms his moral beliefs from his own conscience and conclusions

Interesting. Don't most non-believers find faith in prison? However yesterday I received a message from a new member of this site who is imprisoned. Maybe the trend is changing?

It depends, like most things, on how you were raised. I was personally raised to be catholic but then I started to think for myself and ask question. Side note, I had a religion teacher gives us both sides and he was a brother.

As much it may be true. Don't believe every meme you see. I'd like to see the actual study or statistics this came from. Cognitive dissonance and confirmation bias is often employed to spread disinformation. I've seen articles and memes claiming the exact opposite. Do some more research when you see information like this even if it seems like something you want to be true.

What I noticed is as long as you say sorry to god you should care what anyone else thinks. "You molested my child" Offender: "its ok god forgave me yesterday, today, forever".

These are statistics that 'look nice' and are interesting - but I personally don't have the greatest confidence in.

In a society that is 'strongly religious', someone on the verge of incaceration in prison is not going to want to declare themselves 'unusual' by stating they are an atheist. They are not going to want to attract the extra attention that such a declaration would bring.

Being a 'normal person' would be very tempting indeed, with all the other pressures of jail - and saying 'christian' on the odd form is very easy.

So yes, it does look from the figures as if atheists are 'morally better' than theists - and they may be - but I suspect these figures are skewed in favour of that appearance by social pressure.

In appearance, yes but in reality it is more complicated than that, since there is more black and all kind of people proportionally to white people, this would mean that white people have higher moral than any other Category '' of people which is not the case.

many people get religion when the get incarcerated.WOnder about the source of the stats

Basing this off the prison population, then looking at the ratio of non religious compared to religious, the stats would automatically be higher due to the amount of so called christians in the prison system. I honestly can't think of 1 highly profiled child molester that was recognized as being non religious/non theist. Personally, my morals and values have always been something I place in high regard to who and what I am. I do take pride in that. Is this post a good debate to use when talking to christians that say Atheists have no morals?

Well places like Denmark have the lowest crime rate of most developed countries. Same with STD'S. Denmark is one of the most secular