The 2008 election is quickly becoming characterized by the pathetic scramble of almost all the candidates involved to prove the intensity of their religious fervor. Republican presidential candidate Fred Thompson’s contribution to the group: “A healthy society is predicated on belief in God.”
That’s not just an off-the-cuff statement made on the campaign trail. It’s a statement that Thompson and his advisors decided to put on the issues page of their campaign’s web site. It’s declared as one of the principles at the heart of Fred Thompson’s presidential campaign.
Of course, the idea that a healthy society is predicated on belief in God is easy to prove false. European countries, on the whole, have a much better health care system than the United States. Those European countries, where there is universal health care from birth to death, are characterized by a much lower rate of belief in God than the United States.
More broadly, a recent study by Gregory S. Paul at Creighton University, a Catholic university, found that a high national rate of belief in God is actually correlated with unhealthy social phenomena. Paul summarized, “In general, higher rates of belief in and worship of a creator correlate with higher rates of homicide, juvenile and early adult mortality, STD infection rates, teen pregnancy, and abortion in the prosperous democracies.”
Besides being factually wrong, Fred Thompson’s statement constitutes an insult against Americans who don’t believe in God. Thompson is implying that we non-theist Americans, who make up somewhere between 5 and 15 percent of the population, depending upon how one defines non-theism, are to blame for the social maladies afflicting the United States.
Practically speaking, what does Fred Thompson intend to do to solve the problem as he perceives it? Does he plan to use the power of the White House to discourage disbelief? Would he expand George W. Bush’s failed government bureaucracy of Faith-Based Initiatives, and use it to promote belief in God among American citizens?
As usual, Fred Thompson is short on details.
(Sources: Fred08.com; Journal of Religion and Society, Volume 7, 2005)
