A STRENGTHENING of religious faith is often raised as the answer to society's ills. Peter Costello has said, for example, "that a recovery of faith would go a long way" to solving many of our society's problems. The Prime Minister, too, has publicly argued for the societal benefits of religiosity, claiming that "the Christian religion is the greatest force for good in this nation". Labor's Lindsay Tanner, a self-described agnostic, seems to agree, stating that "without some kind of sustained spiritual input" our society will "degenerate into a bleak utilitarian shell that debases us all".

Many ordinary Australians share the belief that religious faith is an indicator of morality, and it is accepted wisdom that high rates of religious practice correlate with lower rates of crime, promiscuity and abortion.

However, a study published in the Journal of Religion and Society, an American academic journal, set out to test this hypothesis and found there is an inverse relationship between religiosity and public health and social stability. The study, "Cross-National Correlations of Quantifiable Societal Health with Popular Religiosity and Secularism in the Prosperous Democracies", compared social indicators such as murder rates, abortion, suicide and teenage pregnancy using data from the International Social Survey Program, Gallup and other research bodies.