Scientific American - Is Religion Good for Society?

I know this is one of our favourite subjects here, so I thought I'd post this article from Scientific American. Given the subject matter, it's surprisingly brief, mostly (I suspect) because the research points in all different directions at once:

"independent scholar Gregory S. Paul found an inverse correlation
between religiosity (measured by belief in God, biblical literalism,
and frequency of prayer and service attendance) and societal health
(measured by rates of homicide, childhood mortality, life expectancy,
sexually transmitted diseases, and teen abortions and pregnancies)"

...and then again... "In general, religious people are more than three times more generous
than secularists to all charities, 14 percent more munificent to
nonreligious charities and 57 percent more likely than a secularist to
help a homeless person."

So there you have it: a definite maybe.