Does porn cause a better world?

Ed Brayton pointed this one out. If you correlate various statistics of crime and sexual violence against the rise of the availability of pornography, you find a drop in those statistics... well, it's not really a proper study, but coming so closely on the heals of discovering that there is an inverse correlation between the religious vigor of a society in the west, and the usual indicators of a dysfunctional society, it is certainly suggestive.

Should we suggest to the second world that if they want to become less violent to each other and to women and children, and want to raise the education level of their children, they should abandon religion and promote a healthy pornography?

Of course not, but if you want to argue from consequences that evolution is a bad thing, at least make sure that the beam in your eye isn't obscuring the mote in ours.