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Sources · A world without religion

This house believes the world would be better without religion.

Fact bank v1 · 12 cards

  1. REL-01Mostly false

    “Religion has caused most of the world's wars.”

    Most of these wars were not mainly about religion. A study of 420 armed conflicts inside countries (each one a government against a rebel group) from 1975 to 2015 found that in 56%, the fight was not about religion and both sides came from the same religious background. Only about a quarter (15% plus 11%) were fights over religious issues.

    Religion's part in wars has grown, though. The share of active conflicts fought over a religious issue rose from 3% in 1975 to 55% in 2015. Most of these religious-issue conflicts (75%) involved rebel groups making Islamist demands. Another 18% of all the conflicts were between groups from different religions but were not about religion. The study only covers fighting inside countries, not wars between countries, and it does not cover earlier history.

    “Nonreligious issue conflict between parties from the same religious traditions 235 (56 percent)”
    Journal of Conflict Resolution (full text via PubMed Central, US National Library of Medicine)·Disputes over the Divine: Introducing the Religion and Armed Conflict (RELAC) Data, 1975 to 2015 (Journal of Conflict Resolution)Government / parliament · 30 Oct 2017 ↗
  2. REL-02Mixed

    “Religious people are less intelligent than non-religious people.”

    Studies do find a link, but it is small. A 2022 review of 89 studies with 201,457 people found that more religious people scored slightly lower on intelligence measures on average. The link scored -.14 on a scale where 0 means no link at all.

    This is an average across large groups, so it cannot tell you how clever any one person is. The link was stronger with proper intelligence tests than with school grades, and weaker in children and teenagers still at school. It also does not prove that religion makes people less clever. A 2020 review of 83 studies found a somewhat stronger link between intelligence and religious beliefs, between -.20 and -.23.

    “Random-effects analyses showed a small but robust negative association between intelligence and religiosity”
    PLOS ONE·Meta-analyzing intelligence and religiosity associations: Evidence from the multiverse (PLOS ONE)Peer-reviewed research · 11 Feb 2022 ↗

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  3. REL-03Mostly true

    “Most scientists don't believe in God.”

    Mostly right for scientists in the US, but it depends on what counts as belief. In a 2009 Pew survey of members of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, only 33% said they believe in God. But another 18% believed in a universal spirit or higher power, so just over half (51%) believed in some kind of higher power.

    41% of the scientists believed in neither. The general public was very different: in a 2006 Pew survey, 83% of Americans said they believe in God. When Pew asked scientists again in 2014, 32% believed in God, 17% in a higher power and 47% in neither. Both surveys only cover scientists in the US.

    “just over half of scientists (51%) believe in some form of deity or higher power; specifically, 33% of scientists say they believe in God”
    Pew Research Center·Scientists and BeliefIndependent research institute · 5 Nov 2009 ↗

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  4. REL-04True

    “Many countries still punish people for blasphemy, and some can even sentence them to death.”

    Confirmed: in 2019, 79 of the 198 countries and territories Pew studied (40%) had laws or policies banning blasphemy, which means speech or actions seen as insulting God or sacred things.

    22 countries (11%) also had laws against leaving your religion. In Afghanistan, Brunei, Iran, Mauritania, Nigeria, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia, breaking blasphemy laws could carry the death penalty. In Pakistan, at least 17 people were sentenced to death for blasphemy in 2019, although the government has never actually executed anyone for it. The laws were most common in the Middle East and North Africa, but 14 countries in Europe had them too.

    “79 countries and territories out of the 198 studied around the world (40%) had laws or policies in 2019 banning blasphemy”
    Pew Research Center·Four-in-ten countries and territories worldwide had blasphemy laws in 2019Independent research institute · 25 Jan 2022 ↗
  5. REL-05Mostly false

    “Religion is dying out around the world.”

    Most people in the world still have a religion: 75.8% in 2020. The share with no religion grew only a little, from 23.3% in 2010 to 24.2% in 2020.

    In some countries the change is big. People with no religion became a majority in the Netherlands (54%), Uruguay (52%) and New Zealand (51%), and Christians fell below half in the UK (49%). Most of the growth in people with no religion comes from people leaving religion, mainly Christianity. But in the same decade the number of Muslims worldwide rose by 347 million, more than all other religions combined.

    “Collectively, 75.8% of the world’s people identified with a religion as of 2020.”
    Pew Research Center·How the Global Religious Landscape Changed From 2010 to 2020Independent research institute · 9 Jun 2025 ↗
  6. REL-06Unsupported

    “A big study proved that children from religious homes are less generous than other children.”

    That 2015 study did not prove it. Its own authors retracted it (officially withdrew it) in 2019, so it can no longer be used as proof either way.

    The study tested 1,170 children aged 5 to 12 in six countries. In 2016, other researchers re-checked its data and argued that, once quirks in the analysis were fixed, the results could be read differently. Looking more widely, a 2024 review of 237 samples found that religious people were, on average, slightly more helpful and generous, not less, though that link was very small when people's actual behaviour was measured.

    “Retraction Notice to: The Negative Association between Religiousness and Children's Altruism across the World”
    Current Biology (record via PubMed, US National Library of Medicine)·Retraction Notice to: The Negative Association between Religiousness and Children's Altruism across the World (Current Biology, 2019)Government / parliament · 5 Aug 2019 ↗

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  7. REL-07Mixed

    “Religious people are happier than non-religious people.”

    It depends on whether people actually take part. People who go to religious services at least once a month were happier than people with no religion in almost half of the 25 countries studied outside the US (12 countries). But people who belong to a religion and go less often were about as happy as people with no religion in 24 of 26 countries.

    In the US, 36% of actively religious adults called themselves very happy, compared with about a quarter of both less active believers and people with no religion. In no country were active members clearly less happy than others. Pew says the link may partly run the other way: happier, healthier people may be more likely to join in. Active members also tended to smoke and drink less, but they did not exercise more or have lower obesity.

    “actives report being happier than the unaffiliated by a statistically significant margin in almost half (12 countries)”
    Pew Research Center·Religion's Relationship to Happiness, Civic Engagement and Health Around the WorldIndependent research institute · 31 Jan 2019 ↗
  8. REL-08Mostly true

    “Going to religious services regularly helps people live longer.”

    There is a strong link, but it is not full proof of cause and effect. In a study of 74,534 US nurses, women who attended religious services more than once a week had a 33% lower death rate over the study than women who never attended.

    The researchers took account of lifestyle, health and other risk factors, and the link held up. Part of it seemed to come from more social support (23% of the link) and less smoking (22%), with less depression (11%) and more optimism (9%) playing smaller parts. But this kind of study watches people rather than randomly assigning some to attend services, so other differences could still matter. All the women were US nurses, so results may differ elsewhere.

    “attending a religious service more than once per week was associated with 33% lower all-cause mortality compared with women who had never attended religious services”
    JAMA Internal Medicine (abstract via PubMed, US National Library of Medicine)·Association of Religious Service Attendance With Mortality Among Women (JAMA Internal Medicine, 2016)Government / parliament · 1 Jun 2016 ↗
  9. REL-09Mostly true

    “Religion protects people from suicide.”

    Mostly right, but it depends on the setting. A 2015 review of 9 studies (2,339 people who died by suicide, compared with 5,252 others) found religious people were less likely to die by suicide overall. The link was clear in Western countries but not in Eastern ones.

    The link was also clear in older people (45 and over) but not in younger groups. A large US study of 89,708 women nurses found that those who attended religious services at least once a week had about a 5 times lower suicide rate than those who never attended. These studies show a link, not proof that religion is the cause.

    “Religion plays a protective role against suicide in a majority of settings where suicide research is conducted.”
    PLOS ONE·Religion and Completed Suicide: a Meta-Analysis (PLOS ONE)Peer-reviewed research · 25 Jun 2015 ↗

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  10. REL-10Mostly true

    “Religious people give more to charity than non-religious people.”

    Mostly right. In a 2025 study of 202,898 people in 22 countries, 51% of people who attended religious services more than once a week had given money to charity in the past month, compared with 29% of people who never attended.

    The pattern showed up in 17 of the 22 countries, but not clearly in Egypt, Nigeria, Kenya, South Africa or Turkey. The survey only asked whether people had given money to a charity, so it cannot tell whether the money went to religious or non-religious causes. It is a link, not proof that religion causes giving. Religious people also join more community groups: in a 2019 Pew report, 58% of actively religious US adults were active in at least one non-religious group, such as a charity, sports club or union, compared with 39% of people with no religion.

    “More religious service attendance was associated with more charitable giving: 29% of those who never attended religious services gave”
    Scientific Reports (Nature Portfolio)·Demographic variation in charitable giving and helping across 22 countries in the Global Flourishing Study (Scientific Reports)Peer-reviewed research · 30 Apr 2025 ↗

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  11. REL-11Mixed

    “Religious people are kinder and more moral than non-religious people.”

    There is only a small link, and it shows up mostly when people describe themselves. A 2024 review of 237 samples (811,663 people) found a small overall link of .13, on a scale where 0 means no link. It was weaker when people's actual behaviour was measured (.06) than when they rated themselves (.15).

    The researchers say this gap could mean religious people describe themselves more kindly, or that lab tests miss real-life kindness. A 2014 study that checked in with 1,252 people during their daily lives found religious and non-religious people did good and bad deeds about equally often.

    “Religiosity correlated more strongly with self-reported prosociality (r = .15) than with directly measured prosocial behavior (r = .06).”
    Psychological Bulletin (abstract via PubMed, US National Library of Medicine)·Religiosity predicts prosociality, especially when measured by self-report: A meta-analysis of almost 60 years of research (Psychological Bulletin, 2024)Government / parliament · 26 Feb 2024 ↗

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  12. REL-12Mixed

    “Religious groups provide 30% to 40% of all health care in Africa.”

    It depends how you count. Counting things like hospital beds gives figures of about 30% to 40%. But surveys that ask families where they actually went for care usually find faith-run providers' share is under 10%.

    The researchers found the 30% to 40% figure is now repeated so often that it is frequently given with no source at all. Both numbers are partly right, because they measure different things. In 14 countries with household surveys, the average share was below 6%, but those surveys left out places like the Democratic Republic of Congo, where faith-run care is known to be very large. The researchers thought a fair share in these surveys may be 10% to 15%. A 2015 Lancet review said faith-based providers still play a part, especially where health systems are fragile.

    “estimates from household surveys are typically at less than ten percent”
    World Bank (Open Knowledge Repository)·Market Share of Faith-Inspired Health Care Providers: Reach to the Poor in Africa (The Review of Faith & International Affairs, 2014; authors' manuscript in the World Bank Open Knowledge Repository)Intergovernmental body · 12 Mar 2014 ↗

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