Defending the Faith: Sociologist explains how religion benefits even atheists | Deseret News

Defending the Faith: Sociologist explains how religion benefits even atheists | Deseret News: Regardless of their age, he says, religious people are much less likely to commit crimes. Accordingly, the higher a city’s church membership rate, the lower its rates of burglary, larceny, robbery, assault, rape, sexually transmitted disease and homicide. In a cleverly designed test at Pepperdine University, a disappointing 45 percent of weekly church attenders turned out to be honest, but that was still more than three times the 13 percent rating of non-attenders.