Wealth and Religion

[Ponder This]

There appears to be a negative correlation between belief in God and household income in the U.S.
Belief in God by household income (2014)

On the other hand, household income appears to vary according to religious group with Jews and Hindus topping the list in the U.S.

The negative correlation between income is somewhat loose as seen by looking at Wikipedia here. Outliers like China with low religiosity and per capita income compared to the USA with high religiosity and high per capita income exist, but the overall negative correlation appears to hold: lower income, higher religiosity.

How do we make sense of the ideals of religion as they relate to the ideal of prosperity?
Is religious freedom and tolerance a more important factor in determining the wealth of a country than the particular faith of it's population?

Discuss.

 

[Father]

this can be due to church rules also. some religions require teething or paying to the church.

though another reason is the correlation of faith and intelligence, most with a high amount of wealth are normally quite intelligent so they are more reflective of their beliefs and ideals. they, after all, can afford books and such on other faith's and ideals so they are more likely to be skeptical about their own.

It can also greatly be based on how the religion looks at the world and life. Judaism greatly focuses on what you can do here on earth unlike Islam or Christianity which seems to worship Death, and so their members not really putting as much energy or progress into Life as some of the others.

Hinduism in India plays a big roll in their caste system if I recall and I believe they still have it or it is still greatly embedded in the culture. you must look at the culture's that surround the religion as well. india has most the human population next to China so their people are encouraged and forced to excel to stand out.

the area's where baptist Christianity and the other small Protestant forms of it are huge here in America is mainly the south and mid-west. are agricultural so the base level of intelligence is not that high

for Buddhism, I am pretty sure the way of happiness for them is not being rich or poor but finding a balance so getting wealthy and driving a Bugatti does not seem like their goal.

Mormonism is really helpful to its member's and while you still have to pay in it pay's out quite a bit as well in other way's.

there are many factors that have to be evaluated for.

 

[ADigitalArtist]

We talked about this a little in a thread about Jehovah's Witnesses and why they had low incomes. One thing that came up was personal values. JWs see higher education and high paying jobs as 'worldly' and detracting from the time spent in religious service. Whereas higher learning is an integral part of both Judaism and Hinduism. Higher education correlates with better paying jobs, less unemployment.
However, there's not going to be any single factor that would tie it up with a nice bow. It's more complicated than that.