The claim is so often and so boldly made that Infidelity produces crime, and that Christianity, or belief, or faith, makes people good, that the following statistics usually produce a rather chilly sensation in the believer when presented in the midst of an
argument based upon the above mentioned claim. I have used it with effect. The person upon whom it is used will never offer that argument to you again. The following
statistics were taken from the British Parliamentary reports, made on the instance of
Sir John Trelawney, in 1873:
ENGLAND AND WALES.
Criminals in England and Wales in 1873 ............ 146,146
SECTARIAN AND INFIDEL POPULATION OF THE SAME.
Church of England ..................................... 6,933,935
Dissenters ............................................ 7,235.158
Catholics ............................................ 1,500,000
Jews ..................................................... 57,000
Infidels .............................................. 7,000,000
RELIGIOUS PERSUASIONS OF CRIMINALS OF THE SAME.
Church of England ......................................... 96,097
Catholics ................................................. 35,581
Dissenters ................................................ 10,648
Jews ......................................................... 256
Infidels ..................................................... 296
CRIMINALS TO 100,000 POPULATION.
Catholics .................................................. 2,500
Church of England .......................................... 1,400
Dissenters ................................................... 150
Infidels ....................................................... 5
These statistics are taken from the report of the British Parliament, which, for learning
and intelligence, as a deliberative body, has not its superior, if it has its equal, in the
world, and it is surely a sufficiently Christian body to be accepted as authority in this
matter, since a large number of its members are clergymen. These statistics hardly
sustain the allegation that "Infidelity is coupled with impurity."
We are willing to stand upon our record. But, lest it be claimed that this is a British
peculiarity, allow me to defer to the patriotic sentiment of my readers by one other little
set of tables which, while not complete, is equally as suggestive.
"In sixty-six different prisons, jails, reformatories, refuges, penitentiaries, and lock-ups
there for the years given in reports, 41,335 men and boys, women and girls, of the
following religious sects:
Catholics ......................................... 16,431
Church of England .................................. 9,975
Eighteen other Protestant denominations ........... 14,811
Universalists .......................................... 5
Jews, Chinese, and Mormons ........................... 110
Infidels (two so-called, one avowed) ................... 3
These included the prisons of Iowa, Michigan, Tennessee, New York, Pennsylvania,
Connecticut, Indiana, Illinois, and Canada."
Present these two tables to those who assure you that crime follows in the wake of
Infidelity, and you will have time to take a comfortable nap before your Christian
friend returns to the attack or braces up after the shock sustained by his sentiments and
inflicted by these two small but truly suggestive tables.
One cold fact like this will inoculate one of the faithful with more modesty than an hour
of usual argument based upon the assumptions of the clergy and the ignorance of his
hearers.
Infidels are not perfect. Many of them need reconstruction sadly, but the above data
seem to indicate that they compare rather favorably with their fellow-men in the matter
of good citizenship.
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