It is a debate that has raged between scholars for more than a century: does a country become less religious after it grows richer or does secularism help capitalism to flourish?
Now a study has provided an answer: rejecting God can significantly boost a nation's wealth. Academics at the universities of Bristol and Tennessee set out to test the theory that nations become more secular after becoming more prosperous and found that the process takes place in reverse.
They noted: “A century ago, Émile Durkheim, [the French sociologist] proposed that technological and socioeconomic advances come to displace the functions of religion, whereas Max Weber [the German philosopher] contended the opposite, that monotheistic religion, the so-called Protestant ethic, made the development of capitalism possible.”
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