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Permalink Reply by Tom Thompson on August 4, 2010 at 6:29am

"Richard say's Atheists are more intelligent, which is the obvious."

Always remember that correlation does not imply causation.

Religion creates an environment where people are made to feel guilty for merely existing, for being human. This causes them to act out in bad but predictable ways. This is reinforced by the fact that any wrong thing they do can be forgiven by a higher power. An unbeliever does not have these influences and therefore does not have these reasons to behave in the same way.

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Permalink Reply by Jennifer Nicole on August 4, 2010 at 11:43am

A prior study showed that 0.2% of people in prison are considered atheists. However, don't forget that a lot of people "find" religion while in prison in an attempt to get out early for good behavior.

Also remember that the majority of people are the majority religion, regardless of location. In the U.S., Christianity is the majority religion, so it would be the most represented anywhere, including in prisons.

Intelligence has no correlation to crime, but rather the types of crimes. Intelligent people are more likely to commit white collar crimes than blue collar -which means more are in minimum than supermax security, and abuse happens equally in all strata.

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Permalink Reply by Richard Parker on August 8, 2010 at 12:12pm

There's also a very low rate of Mormons in US prisons. It probably has to do with the gang mentality of the prison system. To survive in Prison for the most part you need to quickly become a part of a group, the groups are usually based on gang alliance, race, or religion.

Religious conversion can also assist in parole hearings, so there's an obvious benefit to being religious in Prison.

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