How true / false is the claim that economically developed countries are atheistic?

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Opponents of religion believe that atheism is a necessary condition for the well-being of the country. The arguments they give are economically developed countries where the majority of the population are atheists.
85 percent of Swedes are atheists, 80 percent of Danes, 72 percent of Norwegians, 65 percent of Japanese , 60 percent of Finns are atheists .
But we should not forget that all these countries except Japan have a Christian past. That is, their grandparents and great-grandparents THANKS TO CHRISTIAN INSPIRATION were paving the road the foundation for future prosperity, isn’t that right ?
 
You can’t wipe away a thousand plus years of Christian culture in one generation. Even if 80% of Danes call themselves atheists, they are still culturally Christian.
 
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Consumerism caused by a prosperous economy led to hedonism, which led to atheism. Atheism is a product of the prosperity, not the cause.
 
The opponents of Christianity do not reject the “background” tradition, which emerged the cultural specificity, and an entire paradigm which was developed on two sources (ancient civil somestatement and Christian ideas about identity as “the image and likeness of God” and its main attribute – freedom) the laws of political values, forms of relations in the triad "state-human-society…
that is, they do not exclude “background tradition”, but the argument is that - the level of spirituality and ethical-moral state of society, public welfare and tolerance – does not depend on the level of religiosity.
 
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Since you can’t serve God and mammon, it makes sense that people who only serve mammon would have more mammon.
 
For example, if we compare Russia, it seems that the emphasis on mass religiosity bears a more degrading effect than positive.
(I may be wrong, if someone will give me strong arguments that the Russian society is really on the right track.)
But in a case with Russia, is it a problem of religion ?
The ideas of Great-Russia, New Russia, Holy Russia, Orthodox civilization, it’s all religious ideas.🤔
 
Atheism is a religion in of itself. Just look at communism and the wonders it did with it. It makes the state god and man the one who creates its own gods in their own image to suit their own ends. Anything Satan can do to turn people from Jesus the Savior is a win for him.
 
It’s pretty true, but there are exceptions like America.
The thing is, what else do you notice? They’re all Western countries (you may say, “but Japan”, but really Japan is demi-Western after WW2; very strong reformation to Japanese society was done by Christian America after WW2. It can be said they adopted just about everything Western except belief in Christianity).

But notice they also are all culturally Christian or with a deep Christian past except Japan, which was still affected by Christian morality and culture severely.
 
According to this statement the religiosity is connected up with the idea that here and now cannot be improved so we should be more spiritual and focus on next world instead. Whereas in rich countries people are great believers on their capacity to make a change in the society and improve their lives and people around them through effort and talent.

https://www.quora.com/Is-there-any-correlation-between-religion-and-wealth
 
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Here’s my take on it. In my perspective, “weak men” is synonymous with “men of weak (or no) faith” and “strong men” is synonymous with “men of strong faith.”
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Right now, I think we’re in the “good times create weak men.”
 
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Athanasiy said:
What do you think ?

Studies of religiosity are consistent in that countries with higher levels of religiosity have lower levels of GDP per capita
Freedom of Religion, Religiosity, and GDP per Capital - Research leap
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Although i agree, as i did a similar study on this back in my university years, it is not necessarily just because the low income/developing countries have less education, but also being at that level one naturally has more of a child-like faith due to the sheer circumstances of life, feeling more dependent on God (like a true Father). Stereotypically speaking, It is also noticeable how culturally or sub-culturally happier are those who come from lower social classes in comparison to the elite - almost in every under-developed/developing nation. You think they have less problems in life? On the contrary… but there is an element of what you might call ignorance (hence the saying, “ignorance is bliss”) which allows them to enjoy every day with whatever cards they are dealt in life.
 
Consumerism caused by a prosperous economy led to hedonism, which led to atheism. Atheism is a product of the prosperity, not the cause.
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Very true. Life in a modern, “developed” nation is for the majority of people a routine where one spends much of one’s time performing a “job” (often a meaningless one) so that one can buy means of entertainment to fill up those hours that one isn’t on the job. Both the job and the entertainment are mind-numbing. (And something apparently meaningful, such as raising kids, mostly comes down to teaching children how to participate in this lifestyle.) Profound questions don’t get asked anymore. A need for answers isn’t felt anymore. The relevance of religion, or even just reflection on life, is drowned in a sea of cappucinos. The majority of the people of developed nations are like this: zoned-out, indolent.
 
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Well I think people do look for a way out. Nobody likes the daily grind. But when they ask those tough questions, religion usually presents more work to be happy. Religion isn’t compatible with hedonism and the “instant gratification” culture.
 
Couple of things:
What do you mean by “atheism”? To me its a nonsense word. There is no such thing as atheism. There is such thing as an atheist though.
An atheist is someone’s position about a single question on a single topic. “Have you been convinced of someone else’s bad reasons and evidence that the supernatural exists.” To not believe someone’s claim about reality is the default position that everyone starts from until they have become convinced that the other person’s claim about reality is probably true. No, no they have not. That’s it, that’s all it is. Ok, now tell me their world view? Political stance? education level? anything else about them at all that affects their decisions about how to live and operate in life? You can’t, it’s not possible.
Example: Jury members at a trial start off with a default position of assuming the defendant is not guilty and just some random person not involved with this trial at all. They must become convinced, by the prosecution, that the defendant , not only, is the most likely person that committed the crime, but was the actual person that committed the crime. At the end of the trial, the jury members find the defendant not guilty, the jury members remain unconvinced of the claims by the prosecution. They remain atheists for example. Now, again, tell me what their political views are? Their world views? You can’t. It’s not possible. Also, because they were not convinced of the prosecution’s bad reasons and evidence, they concluded the defendant was not guilty. Does that mean they have a world view of “not-guilty-ism”? No, that’s not a thing that exists. Same with Atheism. That’s how I understand it.
There are world views that tend to have more atheists in them, like skepticism and secular humanism, but you can be spiritual and religious and still have those world views as well. Francis Collins, head scientist of the human genome project is a good example of this.
One thing about these nordic countries and japan is that they are all very homogeneous in their culture. There is not a lot of other subcultures that they are in conflict with or political cultures that they are in conflict with. Yes, there are other religious countries that are like that too, but they are fragmented between the sexes and class. That is one reason why religious countries fail. They force women to be property for men and divide up the culture for power instead of allowing everyone to have that power regardless of sex and lineage. One thing that all religions teach is to be subserviant to a dear leader in the form of a government or a church or a personality. That is not taught in secular countries. The people are taught to be one for solving their problems instead of handing it off to a hero to save them. They don’t require a “dear leader” to come save them. They save themselves as a group.
 
Unfortunately it’s true. On the one hand, to many people being educated/enlightened these days equals believing that science can explain everything so there is no God and Christianity belongs in the middle ages, it is not the spirit of this age, their attitude is we are post-Christian. On the other hand, people have their basic needs covered and have disposable income, so their attitude is why bother with God, we have everything we need to lead a comfortable earthly life. It is both sad and unprecedented.
 
Personally, I point to the country’s Population Growth Rate.

Sociologists often point to a low TFR, or total fertility rate, as an indicator of how developed a society is. If that number is lower than the Crude Death Rate, that society will have a low to negative growth rate, which is identified as a trait of developed nations. Go, compare the growth rates of Germany with those of Africa.

But how do these nations achieve this? Via birth control. I find it appalling how acceptable birth control is becoming around the world. And while that’s a topic for another debate, I do want to briefly touch on it in relation to the topic at hand.

When we take away our freedom and become slaves to our bodies, we tend to lose that feeling of needing God in our lives. Ask anyone who tries to live a chaste life and they’ll tell you how much they depend on ascetism and prayer. When societies allow themselves to freely engage in sexual acts, and cover it via birth control, humans begin to see themselves as the master, that they control themselves. Not to mention how an abortion can be bought via a “morning after pill;” or the pill that destroys the life after conception.

Anyway, you start to see the slippery slope at hand. God - and religion - slowly get pushed to the side.

Also pervasive are people’s views on Church and State. Rather than accepting a society where various religions live in harmony, people are super quick to dismiss any sort of religion in society. There’s this sense that you go to Church on Sunday a Christian, but go to work, school, etc. during the week as a citizen.
 
They may have greater or lesser amounts of Christian “intensity”.
 
My priest mentioned once in a homily that most of us in economically developed countries do not grow our own food. Only a small percentage of the workforce is in agriculture. We forget where our food comes from, and the source of many of our goods, and how much we really rely on God’s providence to live.

Also, when we are more economically well off, it’s easier to think that we can be happy without God. But that’s not the case.
 
I’ve not heard anyone make a claim that atheism is required for prosperity. I’ve heard people point out, in response to someone claiming religion is necessary for prosperity, that there are many prosperous nations that have a majority if non-religious people. But not so much as a ‘so we should too’, simply as a counter point to show it’s not true.
 
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