>>1086308
Continued
Published research suggests that poverty, unemployment, and mobility are among the strongest macro-level predictors of crime.
(Pratt and Cullen 2005, p. 397; see also Peterson and Krivo 2005)
>Religious Contexts and Violence in Emerging and Traditional Immigrant Destinations
A Meta-analysis in 2001 of all times found that religion appears to be a moderate deterrent of crime.
>We examined data from 60 studies and we found that religion had a statistically significant, moderately sized effect on crime of about r=-,12... Our findings give confidence that religion does indeed have some deterrent effect."
>“If You Love Me, Keep My Commandments”: A Meta-Analysis of the Effect of Religion on Crime
Meta-analysis take all studies publish across a time period on a specific topic to find the overall trend.
They are often more reliable than individual studies
In 2010, a systematic review found that 90 percent of the studies (244 of 270) find an inverse or beneficial relationship between religion and some measure of crime or delinquency. Only 9 percent found found no association or mixed findings, and only 2 found it was positively associated with a harmful outcome.
>Crime and Religion: Assessing the Role of the Faith Factor
A 2014 study with a sample size of 93,710 adults and 90,202 adolescents found that religious involvement was associated with lower rates of drug selling and theft
>Buffering Effects of Religiosity on Crime: Testing the Invariance Hypothesis Across Gender and Developmental Period
A 2015 meta analysis of 62 relevant studies over four decades which provided 145 effect sizes from 193,656 adolescents found an inverse relationship among all correlations between religious involvement and delinquent behavior including Alcohol use, illicit drug use, theft, robbery, assault, and murder,
>Religion, Delinquency, and Drug Use: A Meta-Analysis
A 2001 study sampling over 13,017 men and women aged 18 and older in the US found that religious practices bears a strong and statistically significant inverse association with the perpetration of domestic abuse.
>Religious Involvement and Domestic Violence Among U.S. Couples
Religiosity also corresponded with lower levels of direct and indirect aggression
>Religiousness and aggression in adolescent: The mediating roles of self-control and compassion
Was found to facilitate an increase in self-control
>Religiosity and Moral Identity: The Mediating Role of Self-Control.
Was found to have a positive effect on psychological outcomes in adolescents and emerging adults
>The relationship between spirituality and religiosity on psychological outcomes in adolescents and emerging adults: A meta-analytic review
Religiosity/spirituality is associated with reduced risk of substance abuse
>A Systematic Review of Recent Literature on Religiosity and Substance Use
Findings from 669 studies on the effectiveness of organic religion and 97 studies concerning the diverse interventions of religious groups found greater involvement in religious practices is associated with reduced hypertension, longevity, reduced depression, lower levels of alcohol and drug consumption, less engagement in risky social behavior, reduced risk of suicide, reduced delinquency, and reduced criminal activity.
>Objective Hope: Assessing the Effectiveness of Faith-Based Organizations: A Review of the Literature
The existential effects of religion tend to reduce behaviors analogous to crime, prison misconduct
>Religion, Spirituality, and Desistance from Crime
Religion and spirituality are associated with lower frequency and severity of depressive episodes
>Religion and Mental Health During incarceration
Several studies found that spiritual and religious practices of prisoners help them have less prison infractions and adjust in a psychologically healthy way to prison life and support making a shift in their lifestyle.
[Expand Post]
>Women's Engagement with Humanist, Spiritual, and Religious Meaning-Making in Prison: A Longitudinal Study of its Impact on Recidivism
Extrinsically Religious people, those who use it as a means to an end rather than holding to its core tenets, are more likely to commit the negative actions that give religion a bad name
Intrinsically Religiosity, it actually holding to the religion's core tenets, tends to correlate with desirable variables (mental health, altruism, religious commitment)
>The Religious Orientation Scale: Review and Meta-Analysis of Social Desirability Effects
Intrinsic religious motivation are associated with higher self-control and self-regulation.
>Religion, Self-Regulation, and Self-Control: Associations, Explanations, and implications
In other words, out of all religious folk, the least-religious ones are more likely to commit crime and less likely to perform altruistic actions.
Islam would be a notable exception where this is reversed since as mentioned its core tenets are murder-rape, But that's a side discussion.
As for people "not caring about stuff" because of the rapture...
Religious teachings, including Christianity, are found to positively relate with giving to out-groups and secular organizations
>How Does Religion Affect Giving to Out-groups and Secular Organizations? A Systematic Literature Review
Religious people are also found to be more likely to give to charity
>Faith, Secularism, and Charity
While Pol Pot, Joseph Stalin, and Mao Tse Tung all followed an ideology, it doesn't change the fact they were atheists.
Maybe Atheism didn't cause them to tally tens of millions of deaths, but it certainly didn't protect them from developing "fanatical" beliefs that lead to those deaths.
My point in all this isn't even to say that atheism is definitively bad. But you've been making out that religion definitively is when, as you can see and frankly what's obvious even without all these studies that is far from definitively being the case for most religions.