Quote Originally Posted by leo9 View Post
It's a common experience that interest in formal religion falls as a country gets more prosperous, but the exceptions are more interesting than the rule. My guess would be that the key index is not prosperity in the crude measure of GDP or average income, but material security. Denmark and Sweden, despite falling victim to voodoo economics in recent years, have a history of being leaders in the welfare state. I suggest that the counter-examples are countries where, despite a high GDP, a weak welfare or social security system or an uncertain job market undermines the average citizen's security in life.
While I'm sure that these facets contribute to the lack of religion, I would be more inclined to believe that it is education which is primarily responsible. And politics, of course. In many of the poorer countries religion is at least encouraged by the state, if not actually mandated. Islamic countries, both rich and poor, mandate religion and the penalties for apostasy or heresy are as barbaric as they are deadly.

In the US, in particular, the religious groups have only recently seen their hold on the education systems being contested and diminished. They continue to fight back, sometimes successfully (Texas, for example). But the trend is still downward. Religious organizations are showing steadily declining memberships, with some losing as much as 70% of those children born into the religion.

I think we will find that those nations which have historically been very religious, and in which religion has infiltrated (or taken over) the government will have the higher rates of religious populations. Or perhaps it's just that those populations are more afraid of denying their religion, even in an anonymous poll?

Considering that Scandinavia has such a solid Asatro movement, it would be fascinating if they could refine the study to distinguish between established religions and private spiritualities. I suspect that a lot of people who marked "religion unimportant" simply meant they didn't go to church (or mosque or temple).
Spirituality is different than religion. You don't have to kowtow to a formal religion to be spiritual. Spirituality, like superstition, is inherent in humanity, a part of our genetic make-up. Understanding our world was, and is, an important survival mechanism for humans. Making up stories of gods and spirits and demons was one way to explain those things which we did not have the tools to study. In some religious groups they still do this. They fill in the gaps in our knowledge with their gods.

There was a talk given by the astronomer Neil DeGrasse Tyson where he talks of this. The basic idea is that spirituality, and religion, are basically a means for the human mind to fill the gaps in our knowledge. We create the gods in our own image, and modify them to suit our needs and the world around us.