Friday, February 22, 2008

Secularism, wealth and religiosity







And hopefully he is right about the increasing influence of secularism:


Matthew said...
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Matthew said...

There is an interesting anticorrelation between religiosity and GDP, but what about other social indicators like religiosity versus life satisfaction and mental health and wellbeing? I suspect things like life span and physical health correlate with GDP, but happiness doesn't necessarily. GDP is a good indicator of the relative health of a nation's net economic output, but I think a poor indicator of happiness.

I thought it was interesting that the article suggested religiosity was higher in America because we are essentially a "free market" for religious thought, moreso than other parts of the world.

Edited from my previous post:

Last point: the article mentions briefly Eastern Europe, but they really do not follow the same trend, nor would I expect them to. The lack of religiosity there is more likely a consequence of state-mandated suppression of religion for more than one generation, and their comparatively low GDPs are also due to poor past economic policies and lack of competitiveness in world trade. Unfortunately, in those countries, religious fervor is being replaced with nationalism and/or racism which do not seem to be moderating.

Salman Hameed said...

Oh yes, happiness makes it more complicated. Here is a short piece by Michael Nelson that talks about the religion-happiness correlation and its possible reasons. But then Wolfe's article is more about the moderating influences on religion.

Which makes your comment about Eastern Europe really interesting. Wolfe doesn't really address nationalism as an equal replacement for religion. But, won't globalization and dependence on world market also moderate nationalism? So for example, it is getting exceedingly difficult for countries to go on their on (even if they are unhappy about the major economic players). At least, they have to form on alliance with some major player (for example how Iran, Russia, China have been operating). Does this sufficiently moderate nationalism? Don't know.

Matthew said...

There was a story on the BBC's Reporting Religion this morning about the return of the Russian Orthodox Church following the fall of Communism, and they made the interesting point (which contradicts my post) that over the past ten years membership in the Church has gone from something people belonged to either out of post-communist political expediency or just out of a reaction to being free of Soviet ideology, to something more deep seated and genuine. Those who belong to the Orthodox church are increasingly there because they believe in it and want to be there.

But I still think nationalism has always been part of the Russian identity, and there's an "Us versus Them" mentality in their culture that was there before, during, and after communism. (And given their history, some of it is justified.)

I don't know if economic globalization necessarily moderates political nationalism, particularly for countries where the economies are controlled by relatively few people, and where the press is subject to state control (official or not). Both China and Russia are hugely important to the global economy now, but nationalist sentiment in both is very high.

I expect Russia to become much more involved in the world political stage in the coming years, though whether it wants to become a global, Soviet-style military power again remains to be seen. China may or may not, though I don't think they have as much desire for global political influence as they do for economic gain.

Unknown said...

European religions will restructure and make a comeback, at least among this chunk. Unlike in times past, I doubt if this segment will have the social status to pressure many others to go along, but it would still represent a fundamental shift in the European intellectual climate. This development would probably happen immediately, if not for the European fear of becoming too much like the United States. In any case the identity of reasonableness is not a sustainable time for so many people in the long run; it doesn't demand enough from its adherents. Hume wrote of cycles between monotheism and polytheism, had he lived later he could have tossed secularism into that mix.
john edwin

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