Interesting find...

[KukriKhan]

That was my reaction also: interest, but not surprise (except for Turkey, Uzbek and Pakistan being grouped under "Conflict Area", and the rest grouped by continent). And I wondered about the non-representation of Israel, Palestine, etc... until I followed your lead to Pew, and saw they had separate treatments for them.

So the bottom line is (except for US) prosperity = declining interest in religion?

[drone]

Since the US is where the European religious fanatics went to practice freely, this doesn't come as that much of a surprise. Old habits die hard....

[Louis VI the Fat]

the US is where the European religious fanatics went to practice freely

Yep and good riddance.



Edit: Good riddance to the fanatics, not to Drone, to be sure.

[Kanamori]

Those religious fanatics were very strong supporters of education, democracy, and more of an individualistic religion.

The distribution of those w/ less than 40% of the population thinking religion is very important seems pretty uncorrelated to me. They nearly make a straight line. And if it were only those w/ 60% or less in the graph, the line of best fit would maybe even be going upward a bit.

[Reenk Roink]

True, for example, countries with poverty and low education like Vietnam were also quite non-religious, but the biggest difference remains between Europe and America.

Also, if anyone has the patience to read (or skim) the 54 page Harvard study on correlation, it's quite interesting (especially the first few pages).

[drone]

Yep and good riddance.

And now we are stuck with their sexual repression and offended sensibilities...

[solypsist]

you might have had a better initial response if your thread title actually was something helpful regarding what the post/link was about.

[Reenk Roink]

you might have had a better initial response if your thread title actually was something helpful regarding what the post/link was about.

True...I'm not very good with titles...

Oh, and

[Don Corleone]

I'm not surprised by the findings. I think people have done them on the US and shown education level by state versus religious attitudes as well. Apparently, the dumber you are, the more likely you are to go to church is the general message we're supposed to walk away with.

Fair enough, I choose to be stupid...

[Dutch_guy]

That was my reaction also: interest, but not surprise (except for Turkey, Uzbek and Pakistan being grouped under "Conflict Area", and the rest grouped by continent). And I wondered about the non-representation of Israel, Palestine, etc... until I followed your lead to Pew, and saw they had separate treatments for them.

So the bottom line is (except for US) prosperity = declining interest in religion?

Pretty much sums it up for me, Kukrikhan.

Why is Turkey considered a conflict area, surely other nations would have fit under that title better ?

[Hurin_Rules]

So the bottom line is (except for US) prosperity = declining interest in religion?

There seems to be a strong correlation, yes. You could also say more education = declining interest in religion.

[Viking]

For poor people, religion applies much more than to wealthier people. Same is for communism. (they don`t fit together, do they?)

[Reenk Roink]

There seems to be a strong correlation, yes. You could also say more education = declining interest in religion.

I used to think so too, but here is another interesting find (a bit of a paradox):

http://post.economics.harvard.edu/hier/2001papers/HIER1913.pdf#search='education%20religion%20correlation'