Religion Discussion

1, 首先，分清楚广义基督教和狭义基督教（新教）的区别。广义基督教Christian 包括天主教Catholicism，东正教Orthodox和新教Protestantism(直译为“抗罗宗”，也俗称基督教)。狭义基督教徒们的宣传有这个毛病：当提到教徒很多，信教的科学家很多的时候，就用广义基督教的含义；当提到基督教对科学的发展、社会和平的促进的时候，就用狭义基督徒，把天主教在中世纪的罪行跟自己割离开。下面我如果提到基督教，都是指广义的基督教。

2, 你说信教之后更幸福，更懂得生活。我要提醒的是：信教的人并不比其他人更有道德，更遵纪守法。这个链接里(http://www.adherents.com/misc/adh_prison.html#altformat)给了美国监狱里的信仰分布，跟整个美国的信仰分布对比，信教的人并没有优势:

The data was compiled from up-to-the-day figures from Federal Bureau of Prisons on March 5th, 1997.


Response Number % National***
---------------------------- --------
Catholic 29267 39.164% 23.9%*
Protestant 26162 35.008% 51.3%*
Muslim 5435 7.273% 0.6%
American Indian 2408 3.222%
Nation 1734 2.320%
Rasta 1485 1.987%
Jewish 1325 1.773% 1.4%
Church of Christ 1303 1.744% 1.3%
Pentecostal 1093 1.463%
Moorish 1066 1.426%
Buddhist 882 1.180% 0.5%
Jehovah Witness 665 0.890% 0.7%
Adventist 621 0.831%
Orthodox 375 0.502% 0.3%
Mormon 298 0.399% 1.7%*
Scientology 190 0.254%
Atheist 156 0.209% 0.5%**
Hindu 119 0.159% 0.4%
Santeria 117 0.157%
Sikh 14 0.019%
Bahai 9 0.012%
Krishna 7 0.009%
---------------------------- --------
Total Known Responses 74731 100.001% (rounding to 3 digits does this)

Unknown/No Answer 18381
----------------------------
Total Convicted 93112 80.259% (74731) prisoners' religion is known.

Held in Custody 3856 (not surveyed due to temporary custody)
----------------------------
Total In Prisons 96968

*Wiki: Roughly 51.3% of Americans are Protestants, 23.9% are Catholics, and 1.7% are Mormons
** the National Survey of Religious Identification (Kosmin, 1990) shows 0.5% of the United States population are atheists.
***National data: American Religious Identification Survey (ARIS) 2001, from wiki.
社会上0.5%的无神论者，而监狱中只有0.2%的无神论者，说明无神论者成为罪犯的可能性低。

3,