Why the poor are more religious

Anthony Sacramone gives a good answer to those studies–like this one–that show that poor states and countries are more religious than the rich and secular ones, implying a correlation between secularism and success. He also deals with studies about how socially virtuous the arch-secularist countries are. Yeah, if you consider abortion, promiscuity, and euthanasia as virtuous. From Strange Herring:

Poor people, sick people, desperate people will, by and large, be among the most religious for a very good reason: Those on the ragged edge have the most acute sense of the fragility of life, of their own contingency. Wealthy, educated folk have a much more profound sense of being “in control.” What do they need with a heavenly father or benign providential care or direction? They have an AMEX black card.

Also see this Chronicles of Higher Education article that makes way too many assumptions and offers too few definitions of what it means to be a “good” society” or, for that matter, a “religious” society. Did the author mention abortion/euthanasia rates in Sweden or Denmark? Or the markedly high suicide rate in Denmark (and Finland, for that matter) compared with that in the U.S.? No? Wonder why. Also, I’ll bet street crime was markedly lower under Joe Stalin than the under the czar.

So with the current economy, I guess we can expect a religious revival.