Is There A Connection Between Religion And Standard Of Living?

Hmm– tough to parse this out without overgeneralizing, but I do think there may be a connection. Religion, especially today, tends to give hope to people who don’t have much in the way of optimism in their local environments. Faith can provide a reason and a context for their struggle that otherwise would be very hard to understand and all but impossible to bear. Very often (and religions have exploited this fact effectively), churches also provide people with the tangible resources and support they need to lead better lives: they bring people together in community, may provide food, education, clothing, and the like.

I’m on the same page as Julie. Poor socio-economic conditions spawn a need for hope – religion fills that need for many.
However, just because something provides hope does not mean that it is true.
To steal an idea from Matt Dillahunty: I want to hold as many true beliefs as possible and as few false ones. Religion seems to be good at bringing small groups of people together but great at dividing larger groups.
While the religion/standard of living article was interesting, I feel that it is just as worthwhile to draw a comparison between religion/science and religion/peace (and science/peace- just for the heck of it.) Maybe the author of this article will tackle that assignment next. Of course, I must note, that just because a belief shows a correlation with peace, it does not mean that it is true.
It is interesting to note that only about 7% of members of the National Academy of Sciences believe in a personal god- according to a 1998 article in the peer-reviewed science journal “Nature.” Maybe we’ll some day see philosophy replace religion just as chemistry replaced alchemy and astronomy took the place of astrology. Science is our best means of determining truth/reality. In this quest, faith is of little use.

This strikes me as logical.
I would be interested to see the socio-economic vs religion comparison take place within the U.S, by state, and also by income level.
I am pretty sure you would find that the higher the household income – the lower the correlation to religion.

Correlation works both ways, right? So how about saying – as the standard of living increases, religion starts to play a less important role. But it’s not so simple – the role of the state is important (e.g. in post-communist countries religion was banned for a long time, so naturally people stayed away from it), while in other countries religion is actively promoted by the state … also, religious organizations are more likely to recruit the poor into their ranks by offering them e.g. healthcare or education or at least some spiritual consolation – the Catholic Church and their involvement in 3rd world countries is a classic example.

Great, Cindy, can’t wait to hear what you come up with!

@Scott – Depends which religion! There are some that believe God favors the righteous with bling. I wonder how that attitude affects the overall standard of living of everyone else in the community…

“It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.” – The Bible.

“Send money, or God will call me home!” – Oral Roberts (paraphrased). He ended up raising over $9 million. Hallalujah!

Maybe in these wealthy countries, people don’t have time for God. They’re too busy working.

Hi Matt,

Actually, I did mean to ask the question of correlation, using the United States as an example of the fact that this purported correlation doesn’t necessarily always hold up.

But I do think the answer to why that is the case has to do with the casual relationship, and that this is the larger, and probably more important, question of the results of this study, and one to which people have been pondering in this thread.

Thanks for your feedback!

Maybe the analysis needs to consider a broader time frame, to wonder what the lingering effects of past religiosity are. The Evangelicalism of Northern Europe was not so long ago pretty severe, and my guess has always been that even if children there today don’t go to church or consciously even think about religion, they are still affected by a culture that was formed by it. I think this would be true of almost any culture. I’ve certainly seen it in families and individuals.