Do You Need God to be Good? Rich Say “No,” Poor Say “Yes”

Religion Today | Updated: Mar 14, 2014

Do You Need God to be Good? Rich Say “No,” Poor Say “Yes”

The Pew Research Center has released new data from their Global Attitudes Project revealing that wealthier nations are less likely to believe that morality is inextricably linked to religion. Christianity Today reports that, while the trend is “far from universal,” definite patterns did emerge to point to the this conclusion, with countries such as Egypt, Jordan, Ghana, Pakistan (low in global GDP rankings) asserting that morality is not possible without faith or religion. On the upper side of the economic scale, wealthier nations like France, China, and the UK had a much higher percentage of respondents asserting that godless people are capable of morality. However, the United States broke from this trend and gave a split response, with 46% of people viewing belief in God as a prerequisite for morality, and 53% who don’t.

These findings are just some among the research the Pew Research Center conducted among over 40,000 people in 40 countries since 2011.



Do You Need God to be Good? Rich Say “No,” Poor Say “Yes”