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Comment by mixmax | Hacker News Reader

As an interesting aside, there's a strong negative correlation between GDP per capita and religion; the richer a country is the less religious it is. America is the exception that sticks out like a sore thumb on a graph.

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Really? That's actually very interesting, if you have source material for that I'd love to see it. Though I wonder if it's biased by very religious middle eastern states lacking in natural resources other than oil (which benefits a very small group).

Here's a graph: http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/137/religion-god-theology/...

Looking at it I noticed that I'm from one of the least religious countries in the world (Denmark).

I think GDP might be a proxy for education here. A graph of educational standards vs religion might be even more revealing

You also have to consider that there is a possible correlation between being poor and being religious. As bad as that may sound, religion brings hope to a lot of people who do not have many other sources of it.

But Karl, surely the masses can afford genuine opiates now that we have boosted the supply so effectively ?

And how might that graph look if you take each state in the union as a sovereign entity and map it accordingly? It might actually make it fall in line with the trend, as I think the fact that these disjointed states are taken as a group is what's making the USA stick out like a sore thumb.

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