Perhaps these "abnormal" results stem from the testimony of Edmund D. Cohen (Free Inquiry, summer 1993), whose research revealed that born-agains tend to be depressed and suffer from emotional distress. This seems to be due to the suppression of feelings and thoughts considered inappropriate, salvation doubt, nagging fears about death, and so on.
Adding that Christians seem to be predominent in prisons, most likely for drug use, and that high-profile preachers tend to be involved in scandals, this permits us to make a hypothesis on the data that we have. Could it be that born-agains are torn apart by the pressure of reconciliating the anti-man morality of the Bible and the demands of real life ?
A way to test this hypothesis would be to examine other behaviour patterns of born-agains or strong Christians versus atheists. Do we see a gradation of stress-induced aberrative behaviour - higher crime rates, concrete percentages of mental problems, propensity to abnormal sexual behaviour or overeating, and so on ?
While I do not have such data, Barna Research did publish divorce rates data for various beliefs, which seem to indicate that religiosity influences pressure on couples. While atheists and agnostics show a divorce rate of 21%, this rate rises to 24% for Christians and 27% for born-again Christians. Small independent Christian groups have a divorce rate of 34%, Baptists 29%, Protestants 25%, Mormons 24%, Catholics 21% and Lutherans 21% (Barna Research, December 21st 1999).
While these results do indicate a proportionality like I have indicated, they are not conclusive.
At any rate, whenever my hypothesis is true or not, I am grateful for the honesty of Barna Research. Despite being Christians, their integrity has never been put into question by atheist organisations. George Barna has come to be considered a black crow of disaster for Christian congregations, because they keep bringing bad news. It is little surprise, since religion is based first and foremost on self-delusion.
Let's just hope that the priests and preachers of North America keep ignoring Barna's message, and that we keep heeding it.
What is your opinion on the subject ? If you have questions you'd like to see featured here, email me. Don't hesitate to post on the message board (go back to the main page and scroll below the articles list, or if no thread on the subject you want is available yet, see the link below called "Start a discussion on this article"), and happy thinking.
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