ohhhh.....fair enough, I misunderstood your implication.  I'd generally agree that I don't think there's any evidence for a wide spread harmful effect from decrease religious adherence.  

Someone might want to find some pieces written by Fredrich Hayek on evolution of morals and ethics, and defense of religion and tradition, and post them here. It is a defense for how morals came about by means of social evolution and not intellectual planning.

All you have to do is look at america or most western countries to see how fucked up the generations of kids have become. We are in a generation of kids/teens, young adults who barely go church or give a damm about their religion/God. They show no respect to their parents, do what they please and follow what media teaches is right and wrong. And you got idiots who say religion is doing harm. Let me put it bluntly, if everyone believed in a religion and just followed the examples of morals and way of life, for example jesus' story and teachings, or budha, than we would be living in a perfect world right now. Religion doesnt make a good person bad, its all down to personality and how they've been raised. For all those radicals or gay bashers saying God hates fags, they're using religion as an excuse to ride on. If they didn't follow a religion they would have been fucked up anyway,deranged minds. It's humans to blame not religion on a society that's broken. The most loving people i know who lead near perfect lives are some catholics i've met. They love their kids and families so much, believe in God, follow what jesus taught, are thankful for what has been given to them, and are successful. Chuck norris is another christian, who believes in jesus, is very loving and embracing to his family. There was a video of him on youtube where he talks about his family, religion. He has kids who are in their late 20's boys and girls, who love him and respect him.They are really close, He hugs and kisses his kids and isn't asfraid to show it. This is what every family should be like. It all starts from a young age. I believe all kids should be taught faith and good examples from a role model such as jesus. That way respect will be bought back to this world, no more racism etc.. The problem with this world right now are kids just don't give a damm and once these people have kids, i fear a nxt generation will get even worse,

This continued movement away from faith and the belief that man can set its own moral values will only lead to negative outcomes for society as a whole. The lefts egalitarian movement is based too much on the idea that man is inherently good, but this flawed idea is what will eventually lead to its own failure. After all, man is not inherently good he must be taught and disciplined to be good and religion has been a useful tool to effect this end.

personally I am glad religion exists, though I don't believe in god. It is a useful tool to keep people in line.
I mean, if a person believes that there is some kind of supernatural being (like a ghost) watching them all the time, and will torture them for eternity if they do bad things, like, would you want someone like that out and about making decisions for themselves?
I am glad that there is a set of rules that people who need guidance can defer to in times of difficulty.

I'm not saying religious people are dumb, I'm saying it's good that there is this pretty big part of our social group that goes out of their way to be a leader for people who need to be led.

Religion is dominant in less educated and less sophisticated societies. The more educated and advanced society becomes there is little or no need for a belief in a superstitious, corrupt backwards religious belief system. Islam is widely linked to global terrorism/jihad. Widespread corruption, religious crusades and child sex abuse scandals have plagued Christian religions and sects. 

Considering the fact that most prisoners/criminals tend to believe in a God, I doubt belief is an effective method for controlling individuals. It can be effective for the extremely devout religious. But when it comes to merely having belief in a higher power, I doubt there are any considerable benefits on behavior and morality in general. It's as if people don't think about the afterlife consequences of their actions; or deep down, they secretly don't believe in a God. The thing that keeps people in line today are society's laws, since they have consequences in this life.

Based on the subject of this thread, and posts in here, I can say either I have no clue what Christianity is about, or numbers of people posting in here don't. Considering how much I know of the development of Christian theology, the Bible, Church history and so on, I would say most likely it is people in here who don't have a clue. I mean this seriously. Flat out, you don't. What you have is simplistic and erroneous understanding of things, based upon cliches of bad preaching. It is seriously and completely lacking, in a very, very bad way.

Take what I said also about other posts involving Christianity also. Pretty much those who are voting that "religion is EVIL" end up pretty much holding that people who are religions are depraved individuals, who are that way because they either are mentally deficient, scared about reality, or a mix of both. Look at the subject header's writings to see the bias in there. It is full of contempt.

I'm not saying it's particularly effective...just that it's there.

Atheism is as much as belief as Catholicism. We all have beliefs and to some extent the basis for belief is genetic.

Also, I believe most atheists are atheists because they believe it's a sign of being intellectual. Atheists believe they're enlightened by science but science doesn't . have anything to do with the existence of God.