The secular societies you list are small and prosperous. It is possible to know how everyone in your society relates to you. That is, 'not an acquaintance' doesn't mean stranger. Thus ethical behavior is possible.
Larger societies have the stranger problem. The stranger you meet may threaten your safety. And you are probably unaware of decisions being made that impact your life. Paranoia in such a society is to be expected. Religion becomes a refuge because people are answerable to a moral authority.
The Netherlands is a very corrupt government. Look at the childporn issues and the stolen kids issue. And the thesis of losing God is equal to losing morality stands firm as a rock. Yet Dutch society is highly pragmatic and many are very direct wich outsiders confuse for rudeness thats true. But the Netherlands as a whole has a lot of skeletons in the closet. The Dutch are very good at hiding it. I love there and know the corruption runs very, very deep. Its precisely the individualistic ideals that conseils the underlying rot.
Religious people like to say "A priest is worth a thousand policemen." Of course, there's no more evidence to back this up than there is for the Great Flood and Noah's Ark. The idea that religion makes people good is an article of faith--something that people believe simply because they want to believe it.
The secular societies you list are small and prosperous. It is possible to know how everyone in your society relates to you. That is, 'not an acquaintance' doesn't mean stranger. Thus ethical behavior is possible.
Larger societies have the stranger problem. The stranger you meet may threaten your safety. And you are probably unaware of decisions being made that impact your life. Paranoia in such a society is to be expected. Religion becomes a refuge because people are answerable to a moral authority.
Ken je het boek "Hoe God verdween uit Jorwerd" van Geert Mak?
The Netherlands is a very corrupt government. Look at the childporn issues and the stolen kids issue. And the thesis of losing God is equal to losing morality stands firm as a rock. Yet Dutch society is highly pragmatic and many are very direct wich outsiders confuse for rudeness thats true. But the Netherlands as a whole has a lot of skeletons in the closet. The Dutch are very good at hiding it. I love there and know the corruption runs very, very deep. Its precisely the individualistic ideals that conseils the underlying rot.
Are your opinions based on solid data, or are they just a gut feeling?
Solid data, but this data is mostly not found in most available statistics. Most of those statistics come from corrupt institutions.
Religious people like to say "A priest is worth a thousand policemen." Of course, there's no more evidence to back this up than there is for the Great Flood and Noah's Ark. The idea that religion makes people good is an article of faith--something that people believe simply because they want to believe it.