Quote Originally Posted by lucy View Post
What's the connection between the ratio of natural resources to population got to do with the percentage of people who declare themselves as religious?
Coming to think of it, what has colonialism to do with it?
I'm really just curious.
This is just off the top of my head, but it seems to me that countries with a high ratio of natural resources to population would have a higher per capita income than a country with a low ratio. Higher income generally means better health and better living conditions, which reduces the hold which a religion can gain on the population. Historically, religious organizations have been used to control the poor to keep the rich happy. A financially stable population has more reason to enjoy their lives and less need to look to an afterlife.

The same applies, to some extent, to colonial countries. Most of the resources are taken by the colonizing people, with little remaining for the natives. Coupled with generally repressive missionary activities, the poor population becomes heavily religious.

Sorry, no evidence to support this, just my take from what I know of history.