>I know I'm right because if these were the cure to society, religion would be growing, not shrinking, regulation would be decreasing, not increasing, and racial tensions would be decreasing, not increasing.

..why would that be? As if people know how to anyways act in their own self interest?

I'd say it has more to do with both sides being so certain that the other is wrong. I will say the one thing conservatives have on their side is that it is true suicide rates for teens used to be much lower. So there's a plenty strong argument for religion, maybe. Then again grouping all religions into one makes no sense-- I don't know if any people have evaluated how many Buddhist, Muslim, and jainist teens are suicidal to actually see the comparative difference between them rather than just assuming it's all identical. So I don't think there's enough evidence to say anything useful about that