Last night Bill O’Reilly named the five most religious and five least religious states in America. Among the most were Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana; the least, Washington, New Hampshire, and Maine. He then went on to proclaim that spirituality is good. Why? It would be one thing if he could point to some positive benefit for those most religious states. But the contrary is often true: super-church-going states like Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana generally have higher crime rates, higher high-school dropout rates, more teen pregnancy, less literacy, etc. Now, of course these things are caused by many factors, but religion doesn’t seem to be helping much, does it?

Dan Turner
DOC #767569