42% of Americans believe creationist view of human origins. They believe god created humans in their present form 10,000 years ago. Such a shocking and depressing news!
The poor countries are the most religious countries. Most people living in the poor countries say, religion is an important part in their daily lives. Some of the poor countries are not religious though, because their governments restricted religious expression for decades. They grew up as non-religious.
The United States is one of the rich countries that is an exception.
About two-thirds of Americans — 65% — say religion is important in their daily lives. Among high-income countries, only Italians, Greeks, Singaporeans, and residents of the oil-rich Persian Gulf states are more likely to say religion is important.
Most high-income countries are further down the religiosity spectrum. In 10 countries, no more than 34% of residents say religion is an important part of their daily lives. Six of those are developed countries in Europe and Asia with per-capita incomes greater than $25,000.
We can see that religiosity is strongly related to poverty. Not long ago, Bangladesh was created as a secular country, now people of Bangladesh are more religious than people of Saudi Arabia.
But still it is hard for me to find correlation between poverty and religiosity. I think, religion is most able to thrive in seriously dysfunctional societies. Most poor countries are having dysfunctional societies. Religion is popular in dysfunctional societies where people are anxious about their daily lives, so they’re looking for god’s help to end their misery.
Highly religious countries are not highly successful socially.
A researcher said, ‘it’s not fear of death that drives poor people to be religious, and it’s not a god gene or a god module in the brain or some sort of connection with the gods, it’s basically a psychological coping mechanism.’ Probably he is right.
The USA is a highly technological science-based country, but almost half of its citizens deny basic science. Unlike poor countries, it does not have dysfunctional societies, but its citizens are religious. Maybe not only societal dysfunction, but some other reasons make people believe in creationism, not in evolution. The gap between the rich and the poor in the USA is bigger than that of Europe. There is a 3rd world inside the wealthy USA. That poor 3rd world is dangerously religious. The people living in that 3rd world don’t have proper education and good standard of living. Most likely that is the reason for huge number of Americans to become religious, in order to improve their condition with the help of god.
“[USA] does not have dysfunctional societies, but its citizens are deeply religious.”
Interesting question; after all the homicide rate in the US is nearly five times as high as in Western Europe. From our perspective east of the Atlantic Ocean, the whole US society seems to be completely steeped with archaic violent traits…
The poverty in 3rd world is due to Ignorance & Illiteracy. Sense of religion is a good thing but overwhelming sense of religion is dangerous for any society. Many violence in these countries is due to distribution of religions,extremism & lack of tolerance. Education is very important solve these issues.
Islam gives more importance to education as compared to any other religion. In western countries people say that education is the right of every human but according to Islam it is the duty of every human to get educated.
To seek knowledge is a sacred duty, it is obligatory on every Muslim, male and female. The first word revealed of the Quran was “Iqra” READ! Seek knowledge! Educate yourselves! Be educated.
In a society where religion and knowledge in general and science in particular do not go hand in hand, it seems necessary to briefly describe the position of Islam vis-à-vis knowledge, Islam, in theory as well as in practice, has always promoted knowledge. Distinctive mark of human beings over the angels is knowledge:
“And Allah taught Adam all the names…” (2:31)
The first verses of the Quran began with the word:
“Read. Read in the name of thy Lord who created; [He] created the human being from blood clot. Read in the name of thy Lord who taught by the pen: [He] taught the human being what he did not know.” (96: 1-5).
The Qur’an says.
“Are those who have knowledge equal to those who do not have knowledge?!”(39:9).
The Prophet of Islam (peace be upon him and his progeny) has also emphasized the importance of seeking knowledge in different ways:
(a) Time: “Seek knowledge from the cradle to the grave.”
(b) Place: “Seek knowledge even if it is far as China.”
(c) Gender: “Seeking of knowledge is a duty of every Muslim”
(d) Source: “Wisdom is the lost property of the believer, he should take it even if finds it in the mouth of a mushrik.”
The Prophet did not only preach about importance of knowledge, he also gave examples of promoting knowledge. In the very first battle between the Muslims and unbelievers or Mecca, known as the war of Badr, the Muslims gain victory and caught seventy kuffars as prisoners of war. One of the criteria of releasing the POWs devised by the Prophet was that those who were literate among the prisoners could go free if they teach ten Muslim children how to read and write.
Our wealth may be taken away; but if we have knowledge, no one will be able to deprive us of it. With knowledge, we may regain our wealth; but with wealth, you cannot buy knowledge
Sweet denial.
Your post is a good example as to why knowledge alone is not enough. Simply put, knowledge is not the same as wisdom, and you are conflating the two. I could collect lots of knowledge on conspiracy theory websites and not be any wiser.
Faisal – you said:
“Islam, in theory as well as in practice, has always promoted knowledge.”
Of course! Just look at Boko Haram. Just look at all the mosques where
memorizing verses of the Quran is more important than asking real questions.
Or Saudi Arabia and Iran and other Islamic countries where women are
denied education or badgered and harassed if they seek it.
As you did not mention any of the above real-life contradictions to knowlege
promotion in Islam, I can only assume that, either you yourself do not have
such knowledge (or ignore it), or that, rather than promoting knowledge, you
are using your Quranic and prophet quotes to try to obscure such knowledge.
Yeah, Islam promotes knowledge – NOT!
…oh, and cue the “no true Muslim” comments in 3…2…1
I’d point out, though, that the USA isn’t really as rich as it appears. We have a lot of income inequality here, where much of the wealth is in the hands of only a few. (You have hopefully seen references to the “1%” or the “99%.”) So, we have a good sized poor population. Sure, not necessarily as poor as Bangladesh, which seems to be poor all around from what I’ve heard. But, with having the wealthy few, that inequality would seem to correlate with dysfunction. It’s hard to be satisfied with life as a poorer person here with the rich beating you down.
So true. I always say that money is the most powerful hallucinogen ever invented. The billionaires constantly crying for more and the politicians lined up to kiss their arses can’t see that they are destroying themselves in the long run.
“which leaves a very small percentage of Americans who are right“, in the words of the inimitable Tim Minchin.
whoever believes in god let them so. if not its your choice. no force in religion