[Buddha-l] NYTimes.com: Let Us Pray for Wealth

[Joy Vriens]

>More money means less religion. Could it be that more money means more education as well? Erik 

On an indivudal level I am convinced that more money means less religion. If one has money and doesn't use it to help others, one isn't taking religion seriously. I know the tendency for wealthy people is to want to have the best of both worlds through conscience stilling charity, but that's not an option. Paying loads of anonymous taxes is a much more religious thing to do than "do charities". It's a combination of real generosity and humility, so more impact. 

I don't agree with Pew who found that "there is “a strong relationship between a country’s religiosity and its economic status.” He forgets that we are living in a world where the split between the haves and havenots, including in the same country, is growing very fast. So we can end up with countries filled with poor people and every here and there forteresses with all comodities (schools, golf courses etc.) for the wealthy ones. The funny thing is that both the poor and the rich in such countries will need religion, but for different reasons. The poor need it for comfort and hope and the rich to still their pangs of conscience and guilt and fear of the future.

As for more education, I don't think so. At the rate the public services including schools are sacrified to lower taxes, the only education will be the one that people can pay for. And with the increasing split, that will be less and less the case. Rich *nations* have never existed and will never exist as long as Mammon rules the world.

Joy  


>TECHNOLOGY | November 3, 2007 
>What’s Online: Let Us Pray for Wealth 
>By DAN MITCHELL 
>Globally, the wealthier you are, the less likely you are to be religious; It's a Small World, a Disneyland water ride, will be refurbished next year and more. 
> 
>http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/03/technology/03online.html?ex=1194753600&en=c6bcfbc6b82ff715&ei=5070&emc=eta1 

Pew found that there is “a strong relationship between a country’s religiosity and its economic status.” The poorer a country, the more “religion remains central to the lives of individuals, while secular perspectives are more common in richer nations.”