re: #14 team_fukit

I agree that the author is being really squishy (“some say”), but according to the UN Survey of Crime trends four of the five leading nations are whiteys. The US and UK (leading by far), France, Germany, Japan, and Russia. It’s not a racist slippery slope unless you assume most crimes happen in non-white nations. I’d make the connection between industrialization and criminality, though.

I don’t make any assumptions about crime statistics because I haven’t looked them up. Mr. Westerfield was the one who used statistics from anonymous worldwide studies to assert that “criminality and religion go hand in hand”—I was simply following his logic. I would think that industrialized countries also tend to be less religious overall, but I could be wrong as, again, I haven’t looked up the statistics.

As for the slippery slope part of my comment, crime statistics (among other things) are used by racists in this country to “prove” racial inferiority, which is why I consider it dangerous direction to go in.

And there’s been plenty of studies over the years that have tarred non-Christians as untrustworthy or more likely to lie. During the Red Scare, it was Jews and Commies. Nowadays it’s Muslims and atheists. But the author should definitely cite his source there.

Yep, that’s basically what I was referring to in my #9.