A Year with the Institutes, Day 9

" . . . there is . . . no nation so barbarous, no people so savage, that they have not a deep-seated conviction that there is a God." (1.3.1)

" . . . it is worship of God alone that renders men higher than the brutes, and through it alone they aspire to immortality." (1.3.3)

This is hard. The abundance of wars and atrocities executed in the defense of Godly worship make it appear that this is actualy the thing that makes people lower than the brutes. And as for the handing over to savagery those peoples lacking a "deep-seated conviction that there is a God," the Phil Zuckerman's of the world are loudly protesting.

Here's a Publisher's Weekly blurb about Zuckerman's recent book Society without God: What the Least Religious Nations Can Teach Us About Contentment, a study of Denmark and Sweden.

While many people, especially Christian conservatives, argue that godless societies devolve into lawlessness and immorality, Denmark and Sweden enjoy strong economies, low crime rates, high standards of living and social equality. What emerges is a portrait of a people unconcerned and even incurious about questions of faith, God and life's meaning.