Why Religion Is so Weak in Maine

[cbayer]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/nigel-barber/maine-religious-belief_b_6145782.html

Nigel Barber
Biopsychologist; blogger, Psychology Today's 'The Human Beast'

Posted: 11/13/2014 10:01 am EST Updated: 11/13/2014 10:59 am EST

Recent research has clearly shown that religion is much more important in poorer countries. The same principle is true of states as I report in a paper to be published in Cross-Cultural Research. Yet, Maine stands out as a poor state where religion is relatively unimportant. Why?

Poverty Predicts Religion
Around the world, religion serves as a salve for life's miseries. That phenomenon is illustrated by the fact that natural disasters and traumas of all kinds evoke a strong religious reaction. Such events remind people that much of what happens to them is outside their control and they resort to religion as an emotional security blanket.

In poorer countries, life is a great deal riskier thanks to vulnerability to natural disasters, infectious diseases, poor harvests, death during childbirth, and so forth. In developed countries, many of these risks are better controlled thanks to improved public health, better hospitals, social welfare programs, earthquake-proof buildings, and so on.

For that reason, religion is weakest in developed countries having the best quality of life, such as Sweden and Japan. It is strongest in places like sub-Saharan Africa where the quality of life is extremely low and life expectancy is short. In these countries about 95 percent of people say that religion is important in their daily lives.

more at link

[muriel_volestrangler]

1. It's latitude. There is a genuine correlation

Both in US states, and in countries.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Importance_of_religion_by_country





Argentina is less religious than Brazil. South Africa is less religious than Tanzania. Canada is less religious than the USA. And so on.

[cbayer]

2. That's really interesting. What do you make of that?

Is there any correlation between latitude and economic status that you are aware of?

[muriel_volestrangler]

3. Could be. Or could be things like prevalence of tropical diseases

More early deaths might focus the mind on an afterlife. Could be coincidence too, of course. But with the northern US states being less religious, it reminded me of the international data.

[rug]

4. That looks more like coincidence than correlation.

That band also marks where colonialism lasted longest.

[cbayer]

5. Having looked closer, there really is no analysis of this data either in the article

or in the references. It is a rather simplistic color coding of some maps.

There may be a correlation but there is no statistical information provided that would support that.