There is an argument running about our world that because atheists do not believe in a god who doesn't want them to commit crimes, they will commit crimes.

Do any non-atheists here believe that atheists commit the most crimes? If so, why? (I'm not saying that you are necessarily wrong or anything.) Does anyone have a source for a statistic that says that the majority of criminals are atheists?

What about the similar idea that the majority of atheists are criminals?

Law resigned! Hooray!

Now you just know a question like that is going to get people riled up. I can already visualize the angry responses your going to get. I haven't been studying crime stats, so I am in no position to answer that question. The best I could give you is my own speculation, and who wants to hear that?

Religion didn't stop many Catholic priests from sexually abusing children.

Maybe religion might keep someone on track who felt they had less to live for so it doesn't mater if they commit a crime. I do not believe in any god though I do attend holiday services at my temple. I am extremly ambitious (flying lessons, horse back riding, and much more). I do not need to hold on to one beliefe system of some greater being that will protect me. I feel that leeding a life of religon might be very beneficial to others who need to have a constant like a god to religh on. But this certainly does not aply to all athiests because some of us can set ambitions and stay out of trouble to reach their goals. I think this applys to me. Maybe few criminals could use relgion to help themselves but this certaily does not mean people without religon are criminals or bad people, or that people with religion aren't criminals.

This accusation, that most iner-city crimes are comited by African Americans is a bit unfair. Frist of all if that spesific area has a greater population of African Americans then yes their will be a certain ratio of criminals to non criminals and if 8 out of ten are of African American decent their will be more of them who comit crimes. I also think it is very close minded to say any thing bad about a big group unless you personaly know every person in the group and have an unbiased opinion so to say every African American living in a big city in the US is more likly to commit a crime than any other race is totally unfair.

actually they've found that about 75% of inmates have antisocial personality disease. which often correlates with sociopath\psychopathic tendencies as well as a higher levels of testostorone. which is why males are more likely to commit violent crimes than females.
this has nothing to do with religon, but oh well. eatsnackysmores.

Muslims in the U.S. live in poverty?? Strange... most of the Muslims here in California are pretty well off.

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I'm sure you would find Muslim crime rates extremely high in Israel, Syria, and Jordan.

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Depends what crime. Also most Muslims live here in poverty.

Then there's the types of crime. Murder, serial murder, rape, robbery, so on. Serial murders aren't usually bu muslims.

No joey your not racist, your a bigot!

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The majority of inner-city crimes are committed by blacks.
You can't dispute that.

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Joey~
why is this even relivent. So more blacks commit crimes, you can't say that, it doesn't matter what there skin color is, anybody can commit a crime and anybody will commit a crime despite there race.

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I'm sure you would find Muslim crime rates extremely high in Israel, Syria, and Jordan.

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Right, places where Muslims make up the vast ajority of the population one would assume they also cmmit most of te crimes. That's like saying whites and christians commit most of the crimes in the US. It's not really going out on a limb. As for Israel, I would contend that teh mojority of crimes are committed by Jews there.

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Joking around using racial slurs, yeah, I've done that too (but who honestly hasn't?)

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Me. Maybe I just have too much of that christian morality...

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You can't dismiss crime statistics though, if they're biased or engineered or not.

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Actually you can dismiss them when they're biased or engineered to give a certain outcome.

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The majority of inner-city crimes are committed by blacks.
You can't dispute that.

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The majority of the "inner-city" populatoin is minority. When it isn't (like Salt Lake City for example) most of the crimes aren't committed by minorities.

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I'm sure you would find Muslim crime rates extremely high in Israel, Syria, and Jordan.

As far as high rates among Muslim terrorists in the states, aside from 9-11, nah, I wouldn't think so.

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Think about it: A) The vast majority of people in those places are Muslim, B) Poverty breeds crime, and C) Muslims in those nations are poorer than hell. If you put any group into the same situations that they're in, there'll be an extremely high crime rate, period. It has nothing to do with Muslims.

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You can't dismiss crime statistics though, if they're biased or engineered or not.

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You do however, have to try to understand the reasons behind statistics. You can't just point at a statistic and declare it absolute truth. You have to look at the methods used to arrive at the statistics, and the CONTEXT of said statistics as well. Context explains more than statistics alone.

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The majority of inner-city crimes are committed by blacks.

You can't dispute that.

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See above explanation for Muslims, substitute "blacks".

Yeah, and about the racist "joking"; that's sick man. I'd never even think of doing such a thing, and I live in a very conservative area.

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Joking around using racial slurs, yeah, I've done that too (but who honestly hasn't?)

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Um.... me.

And *******s who even joke around like that make me madder than hell. It's sick, and it's not funny.

I'm sure you would find Muslim crime rates extremely high in Israel, Syria, and Jordan.

As far as high rates among Muslim terrorists in the states, aside from 9-11, nah, I wouldn't think so.



Well, the people on death row clutching Bibles are either trying to get off of death row, or they are seriously trying to be forgiven by God and by the victims' families.

Any attempt to use the Bible and new-found "religion" to get out of death row is unacceptable in my view.

And I'm not racist when I state my Biblical viewpoints of my faith being right and the others' being wrong.

I speak the Truth and I stand by the Truth.


And yes, I have sounded racist and I want to make it perfectly clear that I love all people, regardless of their color, gender, etc. (don't distort that gender statement)

Joking around using racial slurs, yeah, I've done that too (but who honestly hasn't?)

You can't dismiss crime statistics though, if they're biased or engineered or not.

The majority of inner-city crimes are committed by blacks.

You can't dispute that.

Anyone have a clue how many serial killers claim that god told them to do it? So my answer would be NO. And that it doesn't matter.

It has nothing to do with religious beliefs at all.

Out of society, there is no such thing as right or wrong. We enter a structured society through the consent of all, and agree on a set system of government. The only purpose of this government is to protect the property (life, liberty and property)of those individuals who are in the society. Thus there are laws. God has nothing to do with these laws, only the interests of the individuals in society.

Pete
"There are some words that I have never really understood, such as sin...For if there is sin against life, it lies perhaps less in despairing of it than in hoping for another life and evading the implacable grandeur of the one we have." -Albert Camus

Joey -

When you refer to a "wave of Muslims," do you mean to say that the agencies would be racist and warp the results so that they indictated such a wave?

Or that you actually feel that Muslims commit more crimes than other religions? The second belief will need some defending.

I don't think so.
I'm pretty much an athiest but that doesn't mean I don't have moral standards.
And how many crimes have been commited by Christians throughout history, their only excuse being that it was 'in the name of God'?
Seen a fair amount of pictures of Death Row convicts clutching their bibles. This is probably because they think they're going to hell and want to repent. If they were thoroughly athiests they wouldn't believe in hell in the first place.
In some cases I think religion CAN encourage prejudice and superiority, somebody thinking their religion is better than anybody elses therefore it is okay to beat the other religion up.
In some cases I think extreme religion can encourage racism in this way.
*Cough* Joey *cough*.
Racism leads to people getting beaten up, which is crime.
So while religion provides some people with a good moral standard, it provides others with enough arrogance to commit worse crimes than they would have done otherwise.
But hey what do I know? I think I'm starting to waffle on a bit now.

Norrow:

Your statement may be somewhat true, as a large majority of criminals in the US break minor or moralistic laws, much more than those involving harm to others, etc. In otherwords; without threat of some eternal punishment, people will not follow pointless laws and religion based morality, but will form their own moral systems based on their own beliefs of right and wrong.