Ethics

Does Economic Security Reduce Appeal of Religion?

By Ed Brayton

Ronald Bailey has an interesting post at Reason's Hit and Run blog about a new paper (PDF) by Gregory Paul in the journal Evolutionary Psychology. Bailey sums up Paul's thesis:

In his article, "The Chronic Dependence of Popular Religiosity upon Dysfunctional Psychosociological Conditions," Paul argues that evidence strongly shows that as socioeconomic conditions improve secularism/atheism increases. Paul is a thorough-going progressive who fully endorses the economic security policies found in most western European countries. According to Paul, religious belief remains more prevalent in the United States largely because of Americans experience higher levels of economic and social insecurity than do the citizens of other rich countries. Paul asserts that the fact that secularism increases with perceived economic and physical security undercuts the argument that religious belief is natural (genetic) to human beings.

Full post as published by Dispatches from the Culture Wars on September 25, 2009 (boomark / email).