This Boston Globe piece about a new breed of researchers interested in the relationship between secularity and societal health relates their finding that "some of the world's healthiest societies have the lowest levels of piety." Which shouldn't, but of course will, come as a surprise to most.
The article also suggests that the influence of the New Atheists has done more good than harm. From page 3 of the article:
[S]ome [of the researchers] cite the influence of "New Atheist"
polemicists like Richard Dawkins and Christopher Hitchens, who have
spurred nonbelievers inside and outside the academy to be more
strident. But the researchers say they're eager not to replicate the
errors of wishful thinking that [Columbia University psychiatrist Richard] Sloan pointed out in the work on
religion.
No, I didn't think "strident" was the right word either.
(Via 3 Quarks Daily.)
