Religiosity vs Everything Bad
For almost every measure, the more religious a region is, the worse off the people are...
First and foremost, I want to point out that correlation does not imply causation. However, looking at the data, we can throw out any idea that religion has correlation with positive social gains.
I frequently hear religious people claiming that religion is a positive thing. Or that a person can not be good without god. And the ever popular "You deny god just so you can sin".
But outside of the question of the source of good, it seems clear from many sources that people are much better off the lower the overall religiosity of an area is. From poverty to education to life expectancy, religion has a highly negative correlation.
So, if we want to encourage a better and happier society, a good first step would be to push religion out of its central square and stop it from dragging us all down.