The [inverse] correlation between religiosity and well-being among U.S. states.

[웃 910]

The correlation between religiosity and well-being among U.S. states

Dr. Harry Roy, a professor of biology at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in New York, saw my talk on evolution, religion, and science, and societal dysfunction, which proposed not only that antievolutionism in most countries is motivated by religion (duh!), but religion itself is promoted by societal dysfunction, so that those societies with higher levels of income inequality, child mortality, incarceration, and lower levels of health care (all embodied in Greg Paul’s “Successful Societies Scale”) are the most religious. My suggestion was that if we want to promote acceptance of evolution, in the end we have to build healthier societies.

In that talk, I showed a slide from Greg Paul’s work documenting a pronounced (and statistically significant) negative correlation between the degree of religiosity of 17 Western nations (and Japan) and their “success” as measured by the SSS. This was supported by other studies showing a striking positive relationship between income inequality (as measured by the Gini Index) and each of 12 separate measures of religiosity. A tentative conclusion is that people are more religious when their societies fail to give them the support or feeling of well-being that, for example, is enjoyed by inhabitants of countries like Sweden and Denmark.

Anyway, Harry found some relevant data in the United States, crunched the numbers, and did a statistical analysis. He left comments and a link to the analysis, after my post. And he’s kindly done a bit more analysis and allowed me to reproduce it here. What he found is precisely the same relationship among states (using the HDI) as I found among countries: American states with lower HDIs are more religious.

First, a portrait of American religiosity taken from a 2009 Gallup poll:

As we know, the south is really religious (just go there if you doubt that!), and the northeast and west coast states much less so.

And below is a national map of the Human Development Index (HDI) fromWikipedia. This index is a measure of societal well being that differs from the “Successful Societies Scale” (SSS) that I used in my talk at Harvard. The HDI uses a set of traits that differ from those used in the SSS: the former amalgamates three traits (life expectancy, education, and income), while the latter combines 25 traits, including corruption, income disparity, child mortality, access to medical care, suicide rates, and so on. Unlike the SSS, under which the U.S. ranks very low among first-world nations, the HDI places the U.S. at the top when the index isnot adjusted for inequality among residents, but falls much lower when adjusted for inequality (see the Wikipedia article on the HDI at link above). The disparity may be due to the inclusion of income inequality in the adjusted HDI; income inequality is highly positively correlated with religiosity across 71 nations.

The south is not so great here, the northeast (and two states on the west coast) are better. That suggests a relationship between religiosity and well being as measured by the HDI.

After crunching the data, Dr. Roy produced this correlation between the religiosity of the 50 states and their ranking on the HDI:

As you see, we have the same negative relationship between well-being and religiosity that we saw for different countries of the West. The correlation here is r= – 0.66897, and the probability (“p”) that this correlation would arise by chance is p = 0.00000012. (A value of p less than 0.05 is conventionally used to show a significant relationship.) This relationship, then, is not only striking but very highly significant in a statistical sense. Harry put a least-squares regression line through the data; its slope is also highly significant.

Why the correlation? Again, it could mean—but I am not pushing this interpretation as dogma—that people tend to either become more religious or retain a historical religiosity in areas where they are not very well off. There may also be ethnic differences that contribute to this (the population of blacks in America is concentrated in the south, for instance, and educational attainment is lower in general), but education itself is likely negatively correlated with indices of well being, and poverty is a component of both the HDI and SSS. Although I’m not a Marxist, Marx may have gotten it right when he said, “Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the heart of a heartless world, and the soul of soulless conditions. It is the opium of the people.”

Finally, here’s another figure, which I’ve

reproduced before, on the correlation between poverty and religiosity:

http://whyevolutionistrue.wordpress.com/2012/05/13/the-correlation-between-religiosity-and-well-being-among-u-s-states/

[mawilson 2,133]

So what?

[웃 910]

So what?

The more religious our country gets the more we will drift to the top left on the last chart. GDP per capita will drop and wellness also...god likes the poor and unhealthy

Edited May 14, 2012 by ☠

[mawilson 2,133]

The more religious our country gets the more we will drift to the top left on the last chart. GDP per capita will drop and wellness also...god likes the poor and unhealthy

Correlation does not imply causation.

[james&olya 1,121]

Correlation does not imply causation.

The correlation seems well established. The chicken and the egg are likewise well correlated. I will let you explain to me which came first!!

[unlockingsky 94]

i guess that also explain why the 0.0000001% elite don't have any moral values and it is okay to take our tax dollars by deceptive force.

[웃 910]

Correlation does not imply causation.

You're right.

In this case correlation proves causation!

[웃 910]

i guess that also explain why the 0.0000001% elite don't have any moral values and it is okay to take our tax dollars by deceptive force.

What does 1 elite person divided into 3 parts have to do with anything?

[unlockingsky 94]

What does 1 elite person divided into 3 parts have to do with anything?

religion in general have moral codes and values.

[웃 910]

religion in general have moral codes and values.

Than 1 elite American chopped into 3 pieces?

Edited May 14, 2012 by ☠

[mawilson 2,133]

In this case correlation proves causation!

Religion is not the problem, poverty is.

[웃 910]

Religion is not the problem, poverty is.

Ok, but they go hand in hand.

The majority of the super poor roll around on the floor and think thoughts inside of their own brains up to 5 times a day. They believe they are communicating with A Spirit World and doing so will help them escape poverty and improve their lives.

At one point the Middle East was the epicenter of everything science. One thousand years ago Iraq, Syria, and Egypt were the top places to be.

What happened?

[mawilson 2,133]

At one point the Middle East was the epicenter of everything science. One thousand years ago Iraq, Syria, and Egypt were the top places to be.

What happened?

Exactly - which disproves your point. During the Islamic Golden Age (750-1300), Islamic philosophers, scientists and engineers made significant contributions to scientific knowledge and arts. They were all religious people.

[웃 910]

Exactly - which disproves your point. During the Islamic Golden Age (750-1300), Islamic philosophers, scientists and engineers made significant contributions to scientific knowledge and arts. They were all religious people.

Well the world was only a few thousand years old back then and if you traveled far enough you would fall off the edge of the flat earth. Point is they were religious but every 5 year old in the world was smarter than them in many aspects (most know the earth is not flat).

Nowadays if you show me a top scientist I would bet anything he is agnostic.

...You don't get too much done in the laboratory if you are busy rolling around on the floor all day long!

[mawilson 2,133]

Well the world was only a few thousand years old back then and if you traveled far enough you would fall off the edge of the flat earth. Point is they were religious but every 5 year old in the world was smarter than them in many aspects (most know the earth is not flat).

Huh? A 5 year old today is smarter than the Islamic Golden Age scientists and engineers?

Could a 5 year old have designed and built this?

Nowadays if you show me a top scientist I would bet anything he is agnostic.

Lots of scientists and otherwise rational people believe in God.