Rationally Speaking #129 - Would the World Be a Better Place Without Religion?

Rationally Speaking Podcast

New York City Skeptics

Society & Culture, Skepticism, Science, Philosophy

4.6 • 787 Ratings

🗓️ 8 March 2015

⏱️ 52 minutes

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Summary

Atheists often take it as a given that the world would be better off without religion. But what does the evidence so far really say? In this episode, Massimo and Julia discuss a recent article in the Skeptical Inquirer presenting research that shows a moderate correlation between religiosity and prosocial traits like altruism. Should we doubt the research? And if not, are there other reasons to suspect that religion's net effect on the world is negative?

Transcript

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0:00.0	Rationally Speaking is a presentation of New York City skeptics dedicated to promoting critical thinking, skeptical inquiry, and science education.
0:22.6	For more information, please visit us at NYCCEPtics.org.
0:35.6	Welcome to Rationally Speaking, the podcast where we explore the borderlands between reason and nonsense.
0:41.0	I'm your host, Massimo Pilucci, and with me, as always, is my co-host, Julia Gallif.
0:45.6	Julia, what are we going to talk about today?
0:48.4	As if I didn't know.
0:49.0	Well, Massimo, today, you and I are going to tackle a question that is often discussed in debates about religion or, you know, conversations at skeptic or atheist conferences.
0:59.3	The question is, would the world be better off without religion?
1:02.9	Ah.
1:04.0	And so, so this is often discussed, but I hope that in our discussion, we can get into some of the like common fallacies or like common
1:13.8	problems with the way that people usually discuss it because I think there are a bunch.
1:18.1	Yes, definitely.
1:18.9	I mean, in fact, what prompted this topic is a really interesting, sort of in-depth article
1:24.4	that appeared recently, a few months ago,
1:27.8	in skeptical inquired
1:28.8	by Scott Lillenfeld
1:30.1	and Rahel Amirati.
1:32.5	And Scott actually has been one of our guests.
1:35.9	If you remember,
1:37.1	he was with us,
1:38.9	together with Sally Sattel,
1:40.8	talking about the seductive appeal
	...

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