Do we really need religion to progress in Nigeria, or is it the element drawing us back? Just the other day, my friend and I were discussing on how the most religious countries in the world, like Nigeria and some other African countries appear to be most backward and poverty stricken; why is this so? And why do countries like China, where 90% of the population are atheist seem to be world powers? America might claim to be religious, but me and you know, from their acts, that they are very non religious...and see how far they have come?


I stumbled upon the article on the Washington Post that helps buttress my point.




"The world's most populous country is also the globe's least religious. According to a new study, 90 percent of all Chinese consider themselves to be atheists or not to be religious.

The survey of 65 countries, conducted by Gallup International and the WI Network of Market Research, is based on 63,898 interviews. China tops the list of the world's least religious nations by far; it's followed by countries in Europe — about three fourth of all Swedish and Czech also said that they were either atheists or not religious.

Although China's society has deep religious traditions, decades of Communist rule have installed a widespread atheistic materialism that still surprises many visitors.

Sweden's top spot among the world's least religious nations is astonishing, as well. The Scandinavian country has increasingly become more secular in recent years and observers have noticed a disconnect between the popularity of religious traditions such as Christmas or Easter and true religious commitment.

Only eight percent of all Swedes regularly attend religious services, according to the Swedish government. Its Web site provides further explanations why the nation is much less religious than its neighbors.



With its high numbers of atheist citizens, China and Hong Kong appear to be outliers in Asia. Western Europe and Oceania are the only regions where about 50 percent of the population or more either consider themselves to be atheists or not religious, as well.

In Western Europe, the U.K. and the Netherlands top the ranking, followed by Germany, Switzerland, Spain and Austria. In France, about half of the population is not religious or atheist — despite the fact that it is generally considered to be the birthplace of Western secularism.

With 65 percent, Israel has surprisingly many citizens who consider themselves not religious or to be atheists. According to Israeli newspaper Haaretz, atheism is deeply entrenched in the country's society. Many Jews furthermore practice some religious acts, but consider themselves as secular. In the West Bank and Gaza, only 19 percent of all respondents said that they were not religious.


The study also sheds light at other differences in religious habits that are unrelated to national borders. The survey's authors found that people younger than 34 tend to be more religious than older respondents. This is particularly surprising from a U.S. perspective where an increasing number of younger citizens do not identify with any religion at all — contrary to older Americans.

The researchers also examined other variables apart from age. "Those without what is considered an education are the most religious but religious people are a majority in all educational levels," they concluded.

According to their analysis, education plays a smaller role in determining the religiousness of an individual than income. "Among those with a medium high and high income less than 50 percent say they are religious, against 70 percent of those with low, medium low and medium income."

This observation reflects an earlier study by the Pew Research Center which found that a country's level of religiosity tracks closely with a nation’s GDP per capita. In other words: Richer countries also tend to be less religious than poorer nations. The only outliers of this observation were China and the United States.

This list of the world's least religious nations does not indicate a decline of belief. Worldwide, six out of 10 people say that they are religious. Most believers can be found in Africa and the Middle East where eight out of 10 people would consider themselves to be religious, followed by Eastern Europe, America and Asia.

"With the trend of an increasingly religious youth globally, we can assume that the number of people who consider themselves religious will only continue to increase," Jean-Marc Leger, president of Win/Gallup International, was quoted as saying by the British Guardian newspaper.

Among the 65 countries surveyed by Gallup International, Thailand led the list of the most religious nations with 94 percent of the population considering itself to be religious. Armenia, Bangladesh, Georgia and Morocco followed Thailand in the ranking."



http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/worldviews/wp/2015/04/14/map-these-are-the-worlds-least-religious-countries/?tid=sm_fb&hc_location=ufi

Religion has blinded so many people in the world. ?. It's the root of conflict and confusion in many parts of the world including our beloved Nigeria and the sad part is, people don't seem to realise this, they still blindly follow religion.
Jesus came to abolish religion, and introduce us to grace but people are too blind, too ignorant and they are too busy fighting a lost cause....

Mustik, you said it all. Jesus really came to free us from the mental slavery of religion, but people don't understand and are still living a blind life.

it's not as if Africans wont be liberated from religiosity but it will take centuries before it happens and you and I know its not going to be in our life time. but the foundation can be laid down starting from me, you and other people who are free thinkers. how that can happen is by enlightening our future generation and yet to be generation.

K9blunt:
it's not as if Africans wont be liberated from religiosity but it will take centuries before it happens and you and I know its not going to be in our life time. but the foundation can be laid down starting from me, you and other people who are free thinkers. how that can happen is by enlightening our future generation and yet to be generation.

So so true. About enlightening people, you do know that is really hard though...people are so close minded and feel you are "evil" if you are a free thinker, so they don't even give you a chance to talk them into knowing the truth.

kay29000:




So so true. About enlightening people, you do know that is really hard though...people are so close minded and feel you are "evil" if you are a free thinker, so they don't even give you a chance to talk them into knowing the truth.

as a person I don't know how to explain my mindset to such people so I tend to keep that info to myself. what annoys me the most is when some people knows and startsvasking me foolish questions like " what happened to you that makes you say such?" , " my dear you are still a believer, you're just angry, pray about it and god will answer" and another infuriating statement like " you weren't praying harder ", "your faith wasn't strong enough"
what arrant rubbish!

so I just keep mum and let them bask in their intellect. I no fit shout am too old for that.

K9blunt:

as a person I don't know how to explain my mindset to such people so I tend to keep that info to myself. what annoys me the most is when some people knows and startsvasking me foolish questions like " what happened to you that makes you say such?" , " my dear you are still a believer, you're just angry, pray about it and god will answer" and another infuriating statement like " you weren't praying harder ", "your faith wasn't strong enough"
what arrant rubbish!

so I just keep mum and let them bask in their intellect. I no fit shout am too old for that.

lol! I feel you. Earlier own, I used to try and let people around me understand why I am the way I am, but now I just keep quiet and keep my belief to myself.

kay29000:


lol! I feel you. Earlier own, I used to try and let people around me understand why I am the way I am, but now I just keep quiet and keep my belief to myself.

mybdear continue like that and you will live long. the only way one can change he/her mindset is if they look within

Both the government and people have roles to play in de-emphasizing religion and encouraging knowledge through formal and informal education.
Religion gained so much ground as a result of biting poverty in Nigeria . Poverty blossomed in nigeria because of failure of government to provide for the people. And because religion offers fake hope to the ignorants, they are attracted to it consciously and unconsciously.
Whenever the govenment wakes up to its responsibilities of providing basic necessities of life to the people, more people will recognise the fake hopes in religion and gradually embrace change to practical living.
Furthermore, the government must start to treat religious centers as commercial entities that must be subject to statutory regulations. Failure of government to do this has been partly responsible for many challenges we have in nigeria today.
Finally, nigerians have to be purged of this lazy belief that prayer is enough to adress all challenges of life.