To that idea, I say nonsense. People who run their mouths like that are demonstrating their own stupidity.

But this idea of a relationship between religion and the life of the people got me thinking about this issue from another direction.

I took a map, and marked those countries where the people have a high degree of political and religious freedom, a stable society, high levels of economic and educational opportunity, and a high material standard of living. Generally, it’s western Europe, North America (U.S. and to a lesser degree Canada), and perhaps Japan. And even western Europe is spotty, with a great difference between Germany, for example, and Portugal.

Then I looked at the same map, and outlined the areas that had their roots in the Protestant Reformation. In other words, what areas had a population that in general has a Protestant Christian heritage?

It’s interesting that there seems to be a fairly close correlation between Protestant Christianity and the more “advanced” cultures. One exception might be Japan. However, post-war Japan was the creation of a Protestant American, Douglas MacArthur. And in fact, Japan is in the past decade or two having serious problems, and one might ask if the influence of the “transplanted” Protestant roots are wearing off, and without that foundation, the culture cannot sustain an American-style free-market economy and democracy.

I don’t know if this holds water. But it seems that there are some very interesting coincidences. Perhaps it’s really true that “Happy is the people whose God is the Lord.”