This US gallop poll makes the interesting point that the high levels of religious belief in the US are inconsistent with global trends that show the most intense religious beliefs in poor countries. The US is a religious outlier. The graph at this link illustrates this proposition clearly. Quote:
“65% of Americans say that religion is an important part of their daily lives. That is compared with just 30% of the French, 27% of the British and 24% of the Japanese”.
Australia isn’t listed in this survey here but the last Australian Census in 2006 shows that claimed religious belief here of 65% is about as high as it is in the US. So Australia is a religious outlier too. Australia is mainly protestant (45% of the population) and Catholic 26%. It might be argued that this is the reason Australians elected John Howard and Kevin Rudd but Julia Gillard is an non-believer and it looks like she will survive as PM.
The theory that religion reduces transaction costs and promotes a strong economy is rejected by the global evidence but supported for Australia and the US. My alternative theory is that religion is strongest among the poor and the ignorant. Australians and Americans are not (on average) poor.
Thanks Bernd
I don’t think that census data on religious affiliation have much to do with whether “religion is an important part of their daily lives”. And I can’t figure out what “Australia isn’t listed here but the last census in 2006 shows that religious belief here of 65% is about as high as it is in the US.” means. Which Census data are you referring to?
I have recast the sentence hopefully to make it clearer. The 2006 Australian Census is the census being referred to.
“Australians and Americans are not poor”
In fact many ARE poor, especially in America. And they’re the most religious.
What I’m saying is that religiosity may correlate with inequality of outcomes as well as mean income.
That’s fair comment DD. I added a qualifier in brackets. I haven’t seen evidence on intranational links between income and the extent of religious belief.
Some interesting data about diversity of religiousness, and correlations with other social indicators, in the US.
http://globalsociology.com/2010/05/05/religion-in-the-us-a-sociological-overview-with-lots-of-visuals/
Figures from a National Church Life Survey estimate that Australian weekly church attendance in 2001 was for Anglicans and other Protestants 759,000, up 1% from 1996 (largely due to increases in Pentacostal and Evangelical churches); for Catholics it was 764,800, down 13%.
The bottom line was 1,524,700, down 7%. Regular church-going is not synonymous with “religion is an important part of their daily lives” but is surely a great deal closer than the way people classify themselves in the census.
So by religious you mean identified as Christian (which makes sense in this context)? I looked up the UK census data and it’s an interesting contrast – 71% Christian identified, 15% no religion. Which are higher levels of religious identification.
If you asked the question in Australia ‘is religion an important part fo your daily life’ I suspect you’d not get US levels of yes.
I guess Australia would be somewhere near Britain on this chart and nowhere near the US.
hc – opium of the people etc
You need to add in the numbers of people adhering to the new climate change religion as described here http://biggovernment.com/cmay/2009/12/26/climate-change-the-religion-of-copenhagen/
“This unquestioned adherence to the theory of Global Warming bears all the markings of what traditionally would be recognized as a religion. Complete with sin (the emitting of carbon dioxide), scriptures (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change assessment reports), commandments (drive a Prius, use Compact Fluorescent Light bulbs, do not eat meat etc.), indulgences (carbon offsets), proselytism, prophets (Al Gore), priests (scientists), prophecy and apocalypse (floods, hurricanes, dead polar bears), infidels (Warming skeptics), and salvation (the halting of carbon emitting industrial progress) the religion of Global Warming fits the mold”.
Extending your point MAGB 100% of the population are religious because they believe in the vital religious precepts: (i) that the sun will rise tomorrow and (ii) that the moon is not made of tasty cheese.
The traditionally most religious countries of Europe are the southern-tier, Mediterranean countries. Furthermore these nations are denominationally fairly homogeneous (Catholic in the west and Orthodox in Greece). They are also the economic laggards and the countries most prone to corruption.
Wilbur, correlation – even if it existed – does not prove causation. According to figures from the World Values Survey quoted here, church attendance, by country, is:
Ireland 89%
Poland 55%
Italy 45%
USA 44%
UK 27%
Spain 25%
France 21%
Australia 16%
Do you see the correlation here between religiosity and economic lag? Neither do I.
The WVS is reporting answers to a different question from the one whose answers Harry reports. Even so, discrepancies between the sets of responses make me wary about placing too much weight on any of them.
http://www.bertelsmann-stiftung.de/cps/rde/xchg/SID-4FBC49F1-563C64F2/bst_engl/hs.xsl/nachrichten_99201.htm
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