Is religion for the poor?

In Europe and America, the pattern is clear: As American and European societies become more prosperous, their religious attachment is declining. In contrast, in Africa, where poverty is widespread, religiosity is on the up. So is poverty religion’s bedfellow and best friend? BRIGHT MHANGO deals with the issue.

If you are reading this and you are a very religious person, you are probably poor, with little education or you are an African.

This is in light of what German philosopher Karl Marx alleged a long time ago that religion is the opium of the poor.

Belief in the supernatural is fast declining as societies get wealthier and enlightened. Is religion a poor man’s element, then?

Back in 1844, Marx wrote in one of his essays that religion is a thing for the poor.

“…Man makes religion, religion does not make man. Religion is, indeed, the self-consciousness and self-esteem of man who has either not yet won through to himself, or has already lost himself again. Religion is … the fantastic realisation of the human essence since the human essence has not acquired any true reality…Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the heart of a heartless world, and the soul of soulless conditions. It is the opium of the people.”

Marx called for the abolishment of religion if society is to live harmoniously. But that is beside the point. What is interesting is that what he said in the 1800s is silently becoming reality in the modern world.

A study of 14 countries by RedC Opinion Poll has found that 13 percent of the world holds no belief in a higher power. The level of atheism is simply shocking. In China, for example, 47 percent of the population says they are convinced atheists.

Fifty-nine percent of the world, according to the poll, still believes in the supernatural. In collecting the data, according to theblaze.com, WIN-Gallup International interviewed more than 51 900 men and women from 57 countries on five continents.

The research has brought together some fascinating finds. To begin, there is a disparity among the rich and the poor when it comes to religiosity.

“It is interesting that religiosity declines as worldly prosperity of individuals rises,” the report reads.

“If citizens of each of the 57 countries are grouped into five groups, from the relatively poor to relatively rich in their own countries, the richer you get, the less religious you define yourself.”

For confessed atheist George Thindwa, who heads the Secular Humanist Association in Malawi, there is nothing strange about the pattern as the world is slowly discovering the fantasy that is religion.

“Religion is for poor and unenlightened people who have this misconception that some Big Brother called God is looking down on them and is likely to sort out their problems. “The world is becoming more enlightened and religious beliefs are making no sense and are irrelevant to solving people’s social problems.

“The more educated, the more people become irreligious. The best examples are Norway, Sweden and Denmark—educated and very irreligious. They have not been punished by God for not believing,” said Thindwa.

The poll, for example, lists Ghana as the most religious with 96 percent of the respondents reporting that they are religious. Nigeria, Armenia, Fiji, Macedonia and Romania are all in the 90 percent category and, (coincidentally?) all are not in the G20 major economies.

According to an Eurobarometer Poll of 2005, only 23 percent believe in a god in Sweden, 47 percent in Germany and 43 percent in Germany.

Legal and social discrimination against atheists in some places may lead some to deny or conceal their atheism due to fears of persecution.

A 2006 study by researchers at the University of Minnesota involving a sample of 2 000 households in the United States found atheists to be the most distrusted of minorities, more so than Muslims, recent immigrants, gays and lesbians and other groups.

Many of the respondents associated atheism with immorality, including criminal behaviour, extreme materialism and elitism.

So, while you may be telling your neighbour that you are a believer, you might be doing so just so you are not labelled an atheist, but only you know if you believe or not.

Next time you go to church, just look at the pews and see how many people look like they have cars parked outside.