Happier Abroad Forum Community

Here are articles I have read before that describes the trend between religious countries and not so religious countries.

http://www.gallup.com/poll/142727/relig ... tions.aspx

http://www.ritholtz.com/blog/2010/09/re ... h-poverty/

Countries that are socioeconomically wealthy and/or have less inequality tend to be more secular and less religious..

Countries that are socioeconomically poor and/or very unequal are more religious.

What do you think? I wonder why more religious countries tend to be poor?

First of all, the wealthiest, most equal countries today were the most religious countries in the world 150 years ago. There is a time lag on the effect of religion on wealth and equality. There are two reasons that these countries are unreligious today. First, wealth causes arrogance which causes the decline of religion. And second, only rich countries can afford to lose religion since loss of religion causes decline and decline can only be tolerated if one starts from a high level.

That is true. Good point.

While these countries are less and less religious today, I know what shapes their culture, way of life and lifestyle today was based on their "religious" foundation long ago. Basically its ingrained that is passed on from time to time, even though it may not be obvious.

Just like one time when I met this NZ guy in CHina, he told me that tho he isn't religious, he told me that these countries in the west (NZ, Oz, USA, Canada) were founded on christian values where when we were young, we were taught values based on that.

Its not to say that I believe while people may not be religious, its the "value" that shaped society then the religion itself.