Prediction of behaviour of 1/2 the human population based on a single biological attribute. I assume that you see it as insignificant to their welfare in society..?
Yet you consider his 'assumption' invalid because he chose to associate behaviour with a biological attribute?...Inconsistency, inconsistency..Broad generalizations are a hallmark of today's athiest/feminists/etc..and despite being easily destroyed through logic, persist only because of weak individual morals and character...
And I assume in your book, 'religious belief' is synonymous with counter-productivity and immorality...Explaining everything about a believing person in the context of religion makes them lesser than athiests I see.
If I were to apply the same method to blacks, could I say they are performing worse politically, socially and economically, simply because of rampant poverty, disease and poor education in their community. PC works only in one way I see..
Sorry to smash your beliefs, but all of our broad generalizations are, in fact, based on many individual statistics tracked over an unimaginable number of circumstances. These are documented everywhere in reputable journals, if you were to open your eyes - and mind for that matter.
What you see as broad generalizations are sometimes, yes, as you say; of course, your generalizations are equally moronic, and patently false according to the truly intellectually-minded research community. However, I'd argue a good portion of the vocal crowd that fits your criteria, are actually fairly knowledgeable of which they speak - but they make the point in as short of form as they can, but refuse to put in the effort going through all the hoops to properly cite everything to prove it properly, to have such a small crowd read it.
However, perhaps I am wrong? I've only dedicated both my undergrad degree (which now I regret), and a surprisingly large amount of my free time beforehand, during school, and continuing after graduation [~2yrs], deep in the annals of the vast journal archives, while also following ongoing research (this I do not regret).
And yes, I've read, thought it was genius, then later determined it was moronic at best. I've also learned not to voice intelligent-sounding points unless I've personally taken in a good amount of data that strongly asserts itself.
At times, I wish I could revert to the more simple-minded view of things, coupled with an ignorance of all that documented data that is waiting out there. It's usually wise to subscribe to the majority, because the majority are in fact such individuals. The total number of vocal religious (and factually wrong on key points) and biased-researched far outnumber us fairly educated, well-versed types (especially Atheist types, but this isn't entirely about that this time). And worse, a lot of those people have yet to bother even stumbling upon the vast amount of information that is now freely and easily at hand.
I think, however, the minority might have a chance...
The more interconnected the global community at large becomes, I think it's going to get pretty ugly for awhile - especially with all this debt and threat of power shifts [another specialty of my time-wasting and part of my degree focus] hanging over half the world - yet ultimately will rebound as more and more people, thanks to a few generations time for the mindset to expand influence, eat up as much information as they can basically get. The "globally-conscious" and educated human might even be numerous enough to have a fair shot at a few good ones having enough power across the globe to actually make some positive changes to lead the way toward the dawn of the, what I am officially calling, the New Age Enlightenment. Not that hippie shit, mind you, simply the start on the right track on man's progress. It'll be a massive epoch in man's history.
Of course, I actually have little expectation we'll make the right choices at crucial moments sure to land on us doorsteps in the next generation if not this one... which will either seriously delay if not ruin any hopes of us surviving ourselves. The longer we hold onto our old ways, coupled with the global community becoming more and more meshed in many ways, the worse it'll get. Not doomsday (though possible) levels, mind you, but it could end up with even more poverty and strife than the world at large has now, even if things improve quite a bit for a few decades prior to that.