Poverty & Religion

I'm sure that's how it is in the United States and I presume it's that way in Australia too, since thump is the one to suggest the idea. It's probably different in other countries, like Russia and China, where there are mostly atheists.JLCrogue

Why do you say mostly atheists? I haven't seen any statistics. Also, there is a difference between atheists and those that just don't care. That's what I've found.

So I decided to go straight to statistics for the answer, and came up with at least some corolation between the two. The top ten poorest states in the union are Mississippi, Arkansas, Utah, New Mexico, West Virginia, Louisiana, South Carolina, Oklahoma, Kentucky and Alabama, in that order. link

The most religious state surprisingly was harder to figure out, but I did find this. Some interesting quotes:

"...the single largest religious group in the US is identified as the Evangelical Protestant Tradition (26%). On a state-by-state basis, that tradition is most prevalent in Oklahoma (about 53%), Arkansas (~53%) and Tennessee (~51%) and least prevalent in Utah (~7%)." Oklahoma and Arkansas are on this, and Utah isn't most likely because their mostly Mormans.

"The most religious state in the country — or at least the one where the most people said they have absolute certainty in the existence of God, demons, hell, what have you — is Mississippi (91%), but theists in other southern states shouldn't despair too much. The southeastern US is a hotbed of absolute faith; Alabama (86%) and South Carolina (86%) are hot on Mississippi's tail." This was probably the best of the bunch because it would indicate mississippi as both the most religious and poorest state in the country. The other two are also on the list of the top ten poorest.

" Missionaries looking for converts would have their work cut out for them in Kentucky (12%), Texas (12%), and North Dakota (12%), the states with lowest numbers of unaffiliated respondents." Again, Kentucky.

I think its important to note though that the largest Catholic populations are located in the Northeast, one of the richest areas in the US. All in all, I think the corolation in the US has more to do with the region one's from then income. Out of the ten poorest states, 6 are considered part of the South and Oklahoma is practically there as well. The other 3, excluding Utah, aren't particularly religious. So basically all I learned was something I already knew (the South beleives in God) and something I already assumed (the South's poor as **** I think their separate issues that have more to do with the South's history more than anything.

This is quite a good question. In my opinion the number of religious believers in a certain area has many different factors but I believe that mainly because religion may provide an escape from difficult and poverty full lives. I am quite admirable of religion in this aspect.felixlynch777

I object to the term "escape", because escaping is not what (In this case, Christianity) is about facing down such problems, not running. Pope John Paul II had something to say on this topic:

"Faced with today's problems and disappointments, many people will try to escape from their responsibility. Escape in selfishness, escape in sexual pleasure, escape in drugs, escape in violence, escape in indifference and cynical attitudes. I propose to you the option of love, which is the opposite of escape."

Sums up the Christian message pretty well.

On the note of the correlation and the statistics, I remember reading Harris's book "Letter to a Christian Nation" and he blamed the South's relative poverty on religion; I stopped reading at that point. There are enormous socio-economic factors that contribute to such problems (Just look at the South's turbulent history) that transcends religion.

[QUOTE="felixlynch777"]This is quite a good question. In my opinion the number of religious believers in a certain area has many different factors but I believe that mainly because religion may provide an escape from difficult and poverty full lives. I am quite admirable of religion in this aspect.STWELCH

I object to the term "escape", because escaping is not what (In this case, Christianity) is about facing down such problems, not running. Pope John Paul II had something to say on this topic:

"Faced with today's problems and disappointments, many people will try to escape from their responsibility. Escape in selfishness, escape in sexual pleasure, escape in drugs, escape in violence, escape in indifference and cynical attitudes. I propose to you the option of love, which is the opposite of escape."

Sums up the Christian message pretty well.

On the note of the correlation and the statistics, I remember reading Harris's book "Letter to a Christian Nation" and he blamed the South's relative poverty on religion; I stopped reading at that point. There are enormous socio-economic factors that contribute to such problems (Just look at the South's turbulent history) that transcends religion.

It does provide an escape, they can imagine how nice it will be in heaven once they die. Escaping from the every day grind to go to church to hear about nice happy things (from the NT), and that Jesus loves you. It is an escape in that sense.

The world is much harder to swallow without a God figure running things, that's what I think most people have trouble with. This is because there is so much that you have no control over whatsoever in this world, and thinking that an all knowledgeable figure that has its eye out for you, makes one feel much better. I mean, even though I'm an atheist and don't believe in a god, I do need to escape some times as well which is why I play videogames, read fiction, etc to take my mind off this fact.

[QUOTE="STWELCH"]

[QUOTE="felixlynch777"]This is quite a good question. In my opinion the number of religious believers in a certain area has many different factors but I believe that mainly because religion may provide an escape from difficult and poverty full lives. I am quite admirable of religion in this aspect.SimpJee

I object to the term "escape", because escaping is not what (In this case, Christianity) is about facing down such problems, not running. Pope John Paul II had something to say on this topic:

"Faced with today's problems and disappointments, many people will try to escape from their responsibility. Escape in selfishness, escape in sexual pleasure, escape in drugs, escape in violence, escape in indifference and cynical attitudes. I propose to you the option of love, which is the opposite of escape."

Sums up the Christian message pretty well.

On the note of the correlation and the statistics, I remember reading Harris's book "Letter to a Christian Nation" and he blamed the South's relative poverty on religion; I stopped reading at that point. There are enormous socio-economic factors that contribute to such problems (Just look at the South's turbulent history) that transcends religion.

It does provide an escape, they can imagine how nice it will be in heaven once they die. Escaping from the every day grind to go to church to hear about nice happy things (from the NT), and that Jesus loves you. It is an escape in that sense.

The world is much harder to swallow without a God figure running things, that's what I think most people have trouble with. This is because there is so much that you have no control over whatsoever in this world, and thinking that an all knowledgeable figure that has its eye out for you, makes one feel much better. I mean, even though I'm an atheist and don't believe in a god, I do need to escape some times as well which is why I play videogames, read fiction, etc to take my mind off this fact.

Ah, ok, different forms of escape here, then.

I dislike the general populace's notion of God as the guy "up there, who has a white beard, and has an eye on you." As a Christian, such a notion was gradually moved away from with the advent of New Testament books, where the ethnocentric, immanent God of some of the OT cannon was graduated to a transcendent diety. Such notions of a Zeus type God are extremely damaging to the Christian message, in my opinion.

[QUOTE="felixlynch777"]This is quite a good question. In my opinion the number of religious believers in a certain area has many different factors but I believe that mainly because religion may provide an escape from difficult and poverty full lives. I am quite admirable of religion in this aspect.STWELCH

I object to the term "escape", because escaping is not what (In this case, Christianity) is about facing down such problems, not running. Pope John Paul II had something to say on this topic:

"Faced with today's problems and disappointments, many people will try to escape from their responsibility. Escape in selfishness, escape in sexual pleasure, escape in drugs, escape in violence, escape in indifference and cynical attitudes. I propose to you the option of love, which is the opposite of escape."

Sums up the Christian message pretty well.

On the note of the correlation and the statistics, I remember reading Harris's book "Letter to a Christian Nation" and he blamed the South's relative poverty on religion; I stopped reading at that point. There are enormous socio-economic factors that contribute to such problems (Just look at the South's turbulent history) that transcends religion.

Sorry, I worded it wrong. I meant as in a kind of 'beacon of hope' thing. I believe people can find many other alternatives to religion in times of despair.

Yes they are related up to some extent. Religion is quite a big thing in some Asian countries especially which are underdeveloped. Poverty lowers their literacy rate and pretty much leaves them without a moral compass. So they have to bow to religion for guidance. Some of these places are so out of touch from the world that they don't even realize or care that their actions are regarded as barbaric and inhuman by the rest of the world.

I've never seen any statistics to prove that, but I would say that yes, there is a correlation. I don't know why that is, but it does seem to be the case for the people I know, who are all in the lower-middle class, most of which are non-practicing Christians. But when I see poor people on TV, I mean REAL poor people, they always seem to be extremely religious.ElectronicMagic

Eh, see, this is a where the split comes. Personally, it is amazing to see these people have faith after there entire lives; descent into being jaded and cynical is a quite common road that people take when dealing with problems. And many times, that means giving up on religion in general (Outright cynicism is kinda...opposed to, say, the Christian ideal). The fact that they haven't is open to interpretation; sure, some people use it as purely as a crutch, but I believe that many of those people are able to recognize something transcendent in their situation.