Adrian, I had it over the Times article, which stated:

RELIGIOUS belief can cause damage to a society, contributing towards high murder rates, abortion, sexual promiscuity and suicide, according to research published today.
Which is hardly a valid conclusion. It is not surprising that a newspaper is misinterpreting a scientific paper in an outragous way.

The hypothesis that religion makes society better is indeed undefendable, but comparing different nations for which is least dysfunctional is not a reliable method. There are too many factors in it.