BREAKING NEWS
Religious people think atheists are immoral heathens.
Atheists think religious people are backwards nut-jobs.
The difference is, however, that whenever something bad happens religious people assume they must be a non-believer because, crikey, a person of faith would NEVER do anything bad. Atheists generally know c*nts are c*nts, no matter what their personal beliefs.
Did we really need a significantly flawed experiment for us to get to this conclusion?
No, but the Templeton Foundation need headlines linking atheists and immorality to promote their religious views.
The Mesreyside Skeptics do some great work analysing news stories based on studies like this.
Let's take Avocados for example. What's the chance there's a positive study that shows Avocados are beneficial to health? Do a quick Google and bingo:
Avocado consumption is associated with better diet quality and nutrient intake, and lower metabolic syndrome risk in US adults: results from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) 2001–2008https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3545982/Have a look down the study and find who sponsored the study:
"This study was supported by the Hass Avocado Board."
Surprisingly, the sponsor of the study appears to be a promoter of the consumption of avocados...
https://www.hassavocadoboard.com/and
"VLF as Senior Vice President of Nutrition Impact, LLC performs consulting and database analyses for various food and beverage companies and related entities. MD is a nutrition science consultant for various food companies and related entities including the Hass Avocado Board. AJD is an analyst for School Nutrition Programs within the Michigan Department of Education and also serves as a freelance nutrition consultant."
"Nutrition Impact is a small consulting firm that specializes in helping food & beverage companies develop and communicate aggressive, science-based claims about their products and services. "
http://www.nutritionimpact.com/Whenever you see 'a study shows' always look at the original study and who sponsored it. It doesn't mean the study is flawed in its methodology but it will often have been designed to produce a particular headline. And the headline will be drafted by PR companies like Nutrition Impact LLC.
And if the study gives the wrong answer it won't be published.