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I think the causality is backwards; as countries become more prosperous they become less religious as the people become more cosmopolitan.
by beaconstudios 5y ago
I think the causality is backwards; as countries become more prosperous they become less religious as the people become more cosmopolitan.
- megous 5y agoNo for all the countries on that list. Communism also had a role...
- maerF0x0 5y agounfortunately I couldn't find the methodology, but it's very important to realize that self reported data is fraught with many many issues. In many communist countries religion (or at least freedom to choose from foreign or other religions) is suppressed. People which might have been religious do not become, and those that are might not tell the truth. Similarly in religious nations I'm sure we'd get a far lower "religious" rate if you went through a set of beliefs for each religion and see what things they actually practice. Eg: church attendance most weeks, prayer, reading the bible, taking communion, monogamy/marriage, etc... I'm sure if you go down that checklist the number of people who say they're "Christian" for whatever reason, would actually sharply decline when we consider their actual life practices. to make a HN analogy I can put CEO on my linkedin profile, but unless I incorporate something, sell something, hire people, build a business etc. am I really the CEO of anything the way that people interpret when they hear "CEO" ?