Religion influence in the economy of a country

Does religiosity degree of a people can affect the economy of a nation?

According to research conducted by Gallup in 114 countries, the answer is yes. There would be a strong correlation between income "per capita" of a nation and its more or less attached to religion. The reading of the research is summarized in the following sentence: The more religious, more likely to be a poor country.

The exception is the United States, the world's largest economy, where 65% of Americans attach importance to religion in their daily lives, a rate well above the average of the richest countries, which is 47%.

You can not dispute the figures presented by Gallup, but it is important to mention that some people make the results of this research a different reading.

In the field of sociology, for example, traditionally has been said that it is poverty that facilitates the expansion of religion. It would not be religion that determines a country's poverty, but rather, the lack of a country that favors the expansion of the religious.

This statement is given to us by Ricardo Mariano, PUC-RS. Here's what he said in an interview with Folha de S. Paul (27/09/2010 edition): "In general, religions help their followers to deal with poverty, explain and justify their social position, offer hope, emotional satisfaction and magical solutions to address immediate problems of everyday life." "The salvation religions also promise compensation for the sufferings and shortcomings of life in another world."

Another aspect that ought to be highlighted in the Gallup research is the undeniable decline of religious fervor in the richest countries, with the notable exception of the American nation.

In some countries, such as those that were part of the block led by the former Soviet Union, the restriction on freedom of religion and atheism state contributed to the low importance the population attaches to religion, as it is the case in Estonia and Russia.

In Western Europe, according to Ricardo Mariano, it would be other reasons. Modernization, State secularism and cultural relativism, would have eroded the people's religiosity.

Different religious polled by Folha de S. Paulo (edition cited) understand that wealth can, in fact, reduce the tendency of people to religion.

For the Jesuit priest Eduardo Henriques, "open to God is inversely proportional to the security offered by the economic and financial stability, with exceptions, of course. Spiritually speaking, the poor become the most eloquent signs that anyone, rich or poor, just himself. That is why Jesus called the poor blessed."

The Adventist theologian Mark Noleto not only supports such thinking, but becomes even more radical: "There is a mismatch of practical faith with wealth. Just as no two bodies can occupy the same place in space, in the mind of man has no place for two total affections. See that God chose a carpenter and not a banker to be the father of Jesus. "

The discussion, as it sees, involves two known evidence that the spirits cannot escape, if they really want to progress.

According to Spiritism, God gives a proof of wealth to some people and poverty to others, to try them in different ways.

Both tests are very difficult, because if the Spirit in poverty may be tempted to rebellion and blasphemy against the Creator, in wealth he exposes himself to abuse of the goods that God gives him, misrepresenting, with this behavior, purposes for which the wealth was granted.

Poverty is, for those who suffer, the proof of patience and resignation. Wealth is, for those who have it, the proof of charity and selflessness.

We need to understand: the corporeal existence is fleeting and death of the body deprives man of all the material resources eventually available in the earthling plan. Rich and poor return, because the spiritual life in similar conditions, which shows that the social position of the rich or the poor is only transient expression and has no importance that the Gallup research apparently suggests.