[Mars]

I can definitely see it becoming the realm of uneducated people - much like superstition (black cats, etc) is now. I could see a world where people might say a prayer, much the same way a normal person might throw a coin in a fountain. It's not really religion that people worry about, it's faith in them.

[Fearless Leader]

I disagree with the article, also don't some of those countries have the highest suicide rates? (poor Finland)

[Mars]

I disagree with the article, also don't some of those countries have the highest suicide rates? (poor Finland)

Okay, a couple things:

A) although the topic of this article is controversial, it doesn't make sense to just "disagree" with it; you can certainly disagree with the results of the study, the article itself is just reporting.

B) According to wikipedia:
Australia is 45th
Austria is 29th
Canada is 34th
Czech Republic is 30th
Finland is 14th
Ireland is 35th
The Netherlands are 52nd
New Zealand is 28th
Switzerland is 23rd

[Fearless Leader]

Can too, and a website that isn't Wikipedia puts Finland in the top 10

[Mars]

Can too

Okay, would you please be specific with your disagreement?

and a website that isn't Wikipedia puts Finland in the top 10

Finland was already pretty close. . . your point? Your random google search page isn't really helpful. That wikipedia article is well documented, if out of date.

[Mikes]

I bet they wont, religions will be replaced by other religions or forms of extremist belief we don't know of yet.

Before you know it people will start to believe in space aliens..... oh wait.


It's kinda sad how gullible our fellow humans can be if you ask me. And even if one religion does or did find the universal truth... simply going by the number of available religions it's a given that the majority of us picked the wrong one.


As for the current development in industrialized nations... i think it's similar to politics... a lot of people simply stopped to care.

[Dilmah G]

well if science says so it must be true amirite

[guitarfan01]

I always like it when Science Itself speaks up.  Makes me feel kind of like Moses on the mountain, you know, except scientific.

[Luis Dias]

Finland's suicide rate has more to do with its climate than with its religiosity, I think this should be ****ing obvious to anyone with half a neuron.

[NeoKnight]

The climate looks fine to me, I'd rather vacation than commit suicide here. 

[Luis Dias]

Yeah, cause a picture will tell you exactly how the climate behaves the whole year round, doesn't it.

Bah, whatever. If that's the level of reasoning in this thread, let's just /end it.

[Mika]

  ?

 

 

I would like to mention one thing: not all countries are that honest with suicide statistics as Nordic Countries.

But please go on...

[Luis Dias]

Yeah wtv. The dude is saying that the climate in Finland is unproblematic, perhaps it's as good as say... ahhh... the country I'm living in... Portugal.

Cause the sun's presence, or lack of it, hasn't any bit of influence in your mood.


But I wanted to add another thing. If the best some people can do at pointing how atheism/agnosticism produces depression is to point to a single country's statistics that is in the top ten of suicidal rates (or 14th or wtv), then I would say that's pretty poor for a bloody simple reason:

Most countries in the top ten are incredibly religious.

Am I now to conclude that religiosity produces suicides?

Come on.

[Mars]

Religious people actually do have lower suicide rates. Places like Japan, South Korea, and the former Soviet bloc countries are largely secular, and also have, comparatively, perfectly good reasons to kill themselves. In the United States atheists killing themselves could easily be a result of persecution, or because the highest demographic of atheists (white males) also has the highest rate of suicide.

[Luis Dias]

Religious people actually do have lower suicide rates. Places like Japan, South Korea, and the former Soviet bloc countries are largely secular, and also have, comparatively, perfectly good reasons to kill themselves. In the United States atheists killing themselves could easily be a result of persecution, or because the highest demographic of atheists (white males) also has the highest rate of suicide.

So you meant to say, people who merge better in their environment has lower suicide rates.

In wikipedia's list, the first country is flooded by catholics (79%), with only 12% stating otherwise. The third country is 96% religious. I have no numbers on Belarus, 4th, but from the text I would call it over 70%. Number 7 has 3% "non-religious people". Ukraine is heavily religious, Hungary accounts for 14% "non-religious" and Sri Lanka is also heavily religious.

So I haven't the faintest idea of what the hell you are bull****ting about.

And what the hell do you mean by "perfectly good reasons to kill themselves"?

[General Battuta]

Religious people actually do have lower suicide rates. Places like Japan, South Korea, and the former Soviet bloc countries are largely secular, and also have, comparatively, perfectly good reasons to kill themselves. In the United States atheists killing themselves could easily be a result of persecution, or because the highest demographic of atheists (white males) also has the highest rate of suicide.

So you meant to say, people who merge better in their environment has lower suicide rates.

In wikipedia's list, the first country is flooded by catholics (79%), with only 12% stating otherwise. The third country is 96% religious. I have no numbers on Belarus, 4th, but from the text I would call it over 70%. Number 7 has 3% "non-religious people". Ukraine is heavily religious, Hungary accounts for 14% "non-religious" and Sri Lanka is also heavily religious.

So I haven't the faintest idea of what the hell you are bull****ting about.

And what the hell do you mean by "perfectly good reasons to kill themselves"?

calm

down

[Shivan Hunter]

itt correlation = causation trololol

[Luis Dias]

itt correlation = causation trololol

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t6FUR_nhGX8

(More evidence of atheistic lack of content/meaning, "sufficient reason" to commit suicide, perhaps?)

[Mongoose]

I have no idea where this thread is going now.

[Mika]

Yeah wtv. The dude is saying that the climate in Finland is unproblematic, perhaps it's as good as say... ahhh... the country I'm living in... Portugal.

Cause the sun's presence, or lack of it, hasn't any bit of influence in your mood.

I never said the climate doesn't affect your mind. But note that how the climate affects you depends also on your point of view and what you are accustomed to - I wouldn't be able to live in Portugal for a long time. I become very sluggish and lazy after +25 degrees and can't get half of the things done at that temperature when compared to what I can do in the slightly colder times. Four completely different seasons are a great plus here! Few know that the city I live in has the largest sand beach in Northern Europe, large enough to be a holiday resort, with relatively nice temperatures of +30 degrees on best of the times and a sun that doesn't set down...

Instead what I said was that Northern European countries are brutally honest in reporting the suicides, something what should really be considered when reading the those statistics.