Just interested, why didn’t you include the United States at all on the lists (Edit: my dad used the fact that the us wasn’t under “the list of Christian nations” to dismiss this video right after I made him watch the one about Islam and he had no qualms with it, smh)
@@chaseharrison5469 The US is 65% christian. For the top ten christian nations, it would need to be somewhere around 95%. The extreme diversity of the country makes it impossible for it to get into any top ten with a religious context ;)
I wish I could like a billion times. I'm African and I have had this conversation a thousand times but few listen. most claim I'm blasphemy. I hope we get out of this one day.
I’m with you on spreading the word to my African friends and family it is hard because they are brainwashed the lost but I will keep on trying . And I’m from Trinidad 🇹🇹
I find the "protestant work ethic" is the same BS as the "boot strap" republican motto I was raised with. And both ignore reality and outside forces on an individual.
@@rowleyj31 Fun fact: The whole "pull yourself up from your bootstraps" was originally conceived as to simbolize a nonsensical and ultimately impossible task; If you tried it, you'd end up falling on your ass. I always find it rather amazing that so many people were scammed into taking it as an ideal to aspire to.
Unfortunatly any christian woepreacher worth his salt will have no problem at all completly derailing this argument. He'll just say that those 99% christian countries are 99% the wrong christians that are cursed by god for worshipping him wrongly and only the woepreachers own congregation is the right christians that is blessed by god.
The counterargument to that: "So your God allowed false practices to be carried out in his name for thousands of years and is now punishing those people because they were lied to all those thousands of years and your God couldn't be bothered to send a 'divine revelation' or two their way to bring them back into his loving embrace... doesn't sound like a very just or loving God to me..."
You could do the same experiment in the US with evangelicals, catholics, other Christians, other religions and non-religious. And I am pretty sure there will a strong correlation between low numbers of evangelicals and prosperity.
@@andrewgause6971 Unfortunatly even this is easily derailed because the woepreacher will just say that they actually knew the right practices (probably because they are "written on their hearts" or some other similiar bullshit) but they "deny the truth in unrightousness". The core problem with such preachers is that they can just make up a justifications on the spot and it doesn't matter how ridiculous or far fetched the explanation is because they don't care about truth and they conditioned their audiance to trust god's word (speak: their word) over reality itself. And even if you can actually nail them down in a discussion or something they will just go back to their congregation, claim they wiped the floor with you in that discussion and maybe even that you converted right there on the spot. They don't care about truth. Either because they know perfectly well that they are running a scam or because their mind is so poisoned by religion that in their mind they are right by default because their god told them they are right and if they are presented with undeniable evidence that they are wrong they instead jump to the conclusion that reality is wrong not them.
umm because Christianity isn't a white mans religion and in certain places in africa Christianity was already practiced for example ethopia and places in africa had a historical christian tradition thats why
@@ZephLodwick You'll find out pretty quickly if you just google him. He's a right wing grifter who likes to "DESTROY the libs with facts!" but isn't very good at it. Here's a long but, imo, very entertaining video about him if you want: ua-cam.com/video/aDMjgOYOcDw/v-deo.html
@@Tahoza Okay, so I watched the video. Wow, that was a doozy! How can one claim that facts don't care for emotion while still believing in the gods, which is based entirely on emotion? Also, isn't it a bit dishonourable to 'debate' college students who don't have any formal training in rhetoric instead of actual experts who have had time to prepare their arguments?
@@ZephLodwick Yes. You're right and it is that simple. Now watch how his supporters tie themselves in knots to defend him when anyone says what you just did. Just search Ben Shapiro on YT. There's a whole community of people who are trying to show how little sense he and others like him make.
Considering how it ruined Japan and South Korea internally. I think this so-called 'Protestant' work ethic actually destroys the children in these countries.
@@ousamadearudesuwa I think you’ve missed the point being made. Ometecuhtli was saying there is no “Protestant work ethic” in Japan, Taiwan and South Korea.
To be fair, I think the idea of the protestant work ethic is that there is something about Protestant (as opposed to Catholic) values that encourages industry and productivity, and this meant that protestant countries industrialised before and became richer than Catholic ones. Certain non-christian countries also becoming successful doesn't necessarily disprove it.
The "Bible belt" in the US contains most of poorest states, some of the most dependent on federal funding and some with the highest level of per capita poverty.
Lol! Someone gave it a thumbs down before it was availability to view. What a half ass effort that is. Can't even wait until it airs to pretend they gave it an opportunity.
@Joe McIlroy A prayer study was done where they found that prayer works no more than random chance and the people who knew they were being prayed for did worse. Also, Yahweh is fictional.
"Blessing don't come from above, if you want your country, your family to be prosperous, you have to do it by yourself. " A strong echoing agreement from China.
@Jaco Filozofka before making the distinction between energy and a spiritual being. one must first define what they mean by energy and what they mean by spiritual being. Presumably, when someone says "energy" and "spells" they are talking about a supernatural force without agency being activated like a programming script, while a "spiritual being" and a "prayer" involves a supernatural agent capable of deciding to assist with your request. But given that such a magical system would require an intelligence to set up, the only distinction between a spell and a prayer is that spells work every time like gravity, while prayers are subject to the whims of the agent you pray to.
I really liked the method you used for secular versus religious and specifically christian nations and how explicit you were with it. It was a great way to deal with complicated situations like "are the scandinavian countries christian countries or not" and "Is the United States secular or not" which can often complicate stuff like this
Anytime i hear people talking about these issues i think back to a bit Jim Jefferies has done about how society is a train, with the intellectuals and academics in the front, and the religious people in the back slowing the train down. And how if we could just pull the pin on the last car, we could all move along faster.
Anon YMouse The only “mass murder” would be the reduced life expectancies created by the denial of science and its advancements, plus the loss of subsidies from the more prosperous secular states. Those are unforced errors. So, the murderers would be those preaching to the victims.
@@honorquest It's quite simple really: if your idea of "logic" is "the world exists, therefore my book that _mentions the world in it_ must be 100% true" then it's very easy to get from "uncouple the last carriage" to "commit mass murder" - it's *astounding* watching how their brains work because somehow they can think like *that* and yet somehow *fail* to go from "god commanded and committed genocide and wiped out most of the Earth's population and rained fire down on two towns" to "the creature described in the bible must be some sort of monster".
That is really very darf, especially if you realise, that a lot of Jones congregation did not drink the kool aid out of their free will, but were shot or forced to drink it at gunpoint.
"If we want our nation to prosper, we have to do it ourselves" Quite ironic, if you think about it. "God helps those who help themselves" is part of christian belief, so they should have known that
@@lolglolblol Nope, that's not a true Christian belief or teaching. Falls into the same category as the Curse of Ham, belief heaven is nothing more than harps and halos, and Satan rules from Hell. It's pop culture trash with an admixture of heretical teachings. God helps those who can't help themselves is a true teaching of the Bible. Otherwise, why pray to God for assistance? It's just awful what pop culture and liberal theologians can do when unchecked or unopposed.
@@grahvis Oh, it happens. It's just that many people on here assume it doesn't or that God uses miracles as his primary means of intervening in the affairs of humans. Some people like myself are just content with His divine providence in our daily lives.
Or how bout this: Jesus said we would be persecuted for our faith, "blessings or curses" aren't generally a thing for nations that follow or don't follow God aside from old testament events. This is like punching air
My rant: A true "Christian" country is like a hippie commune. There's no stock exchange, no multinational companies but lots of volunteer work ethic and non-profit organisations with open border policies. Making lots of profit or even a little is never what Christianity is about. "Heaven on earth" and if heaven is real there's no companies there. But who am I anyway ...
I started making this argument in online discussions with theists 1-2 years ago but I never did the actual work of compiling and analysing the data (made general statements about secular & religious countries / regions and referred to prayer studies). THANKYOU for not being lazy like me and actually doing the hard work to develop this argument which imo disproves the existence (or at least the intervention) of the Judeo-Christian god!
You are being dishonest. The so-called 'secular countries' have a separation between State and Religion, which is fine, but they either have a Christian majority or had a Christian foundation. For example, 63% are still Christians in the USA which you called 'secular country'. Also, you don't offer any better alternative than religion. Southpark was right when they mocked Dawkins: you may end all religions but people will still fight for their political parties, soccer and basketball teams, etc.
Good point. It would be interesting seeing a video on that. I know the top 10 most educated states voted for Democrats in recent presidential elections and the nine least educated states voted for Republicans in recent presidential elections. It isn't even close. The more education a person has, the more likely the person is to vote for Democrats.
My father escaped Haiti in the late 70s. He had helped others escape too. I was Lucky enough to rise out of the church. I can understand why he never went
Loved this video! Thank you from someone who grew in a family that had a Christian nationalist mindset. I was told from a very early age that the US was blessed because of our Christian faith. I obviously no longer believe that. In fact I became so angry when I realized all the fairy tales I was told.
Remember that correlation doesn't mean causation, and the tone of the video makes it seems like it is a causal relationship. Although I agree and can't negate the data you should be more careful because is a point to discredit the argument you are trying to make. Hope you take criticism in a good way!
First of all, the core doctrine of Christianity doesn’t say that Christians are guaranteed anything good on earth. Second, 14/20 secular countries you chose were majority Christian countries. 2/20 were Muslim, 2/20 believed in an East Asian religion (Japan and South Korea), 1/20 was Buddhist, and only one was majority atheist. So you had to use a list where a majority of countries were Christian to talk about how Secular countries are blessed?
Sometimes I dream about how much more advanced the planet would be without religion. Not saying it’s be perfect, as greed, corruption, selfishness, anarchists will always be around. But if a higher percentage of people agreed on “facts,” and worked towards solving the big problems… it’d be a way better place than what we see today.
If anarchist just went and lived alone in the woods I would actually like them. You want to basically whatever you want without government interruption? Sure, do it in your own privacy away from the people who do want or at least tolerate the government. Kinda like Ted Kackzinsky but with out the bombs.
When I left JW and started working hard to achieve my goals without asking anyone, especially god, for help or support - I finally saw some results. Take your god away, I'm fine on my own.
Though i believe in God my self and that there was a man walking around talking to the outcast to tell them about his views of the Jewish God I would say your preacher doesn't talk about christian worth ethics but those of Prussia. Be humble (don't use any money on a big expensive car or phone), work hard and serf your country. Rules many prosperous countries run by.
If all (or even the majority of) Christians followed Christ's teachings, there would be no hunger, no homelessness, and no poor people. Too many people are lovers of self or something even worse. The problem is the church and people...not the Bible or Christ.
@@exmormonroverpaula2319 To be accurate, what I said is I believe in the teachings of Christ. Faith is believing, and everyone has faith or believes as they do. I feel, and always have, in my heart what Christ taught was the right way to live (helping those in need, empathy, kindness, love, and how bad envy and jealousy can be, etc etc etc.) Idk about you, but I do not believe I came from some primate. When a scientist can explain miracles like intuition and love or evil like child abuse and murder, I would be curious to see what they have to say about from where these originate. However, I do not see that happening. There are too many mysteries in this world that cannot be explained by science alone. I do not think a big bang can explain the creation of people, who are very complicated beings in every way. Fun fact: the human body has an estimated 60,000 miles of blood vessels....that's more than two times the circumference of the Earth. Source: National Institutes of Health and NASA. Ps I do not, however, believe in organized religions/churches though. IMO, from personal experiences and what I have seen, read and heard from reputable sources, they pervert goodness to achieve their own agendas (i think they do this for power/influence and to make money.) As a final note, I hope the Bible is true (since man wrote it, I am not 100 percent sure though)
@@Justice4ALL.120, I certainly agree that much of what Christ taught is the right way to live, including helping those in need, empathy, kindness, love, and avoiding envy/jealousy. I also agree that power and money are high on the agenda of organized religion. But why would you hope the Bible is true? The problem with the Bible is that you can find all sorts of different things in it. Want to love your enemies and be kind to your neighbor? You can find Bible verses for that. Prefer to slaughter your enemies, rape women, and kill babies? You can find Bible verses for that, too (Numbers 31:1-18, among many others). Do you hope that the atonement is true? It seems pretty bizarre to me, that even if we repent, God can't forgive us unless an innocent person dies a horrible death. If God feels we deserve forgiveness, why doesn't he just forgive us? I don't understand why a human sacrifice is necessary for God to forgive us. That doesn't sound loving to me. What is wrong with God that he can't live with human imperfection? It sounds like you find evolution troubling. I'm a little hesitant to get into the details of evolution, since it's a huge subject. How much do you really know about evolution? Have you ever taken a college biology class? Have you ever read Jerry Coyne's "Why Evolution is True"? Or any of Richard Dawkins' books on evolution? Is there something about chimpanzees and humans having a common ancestor that troubles you? Do you think evolution can't increase the size of a primate brain? You mentioned that intuition and love seem like miracles to you. I'm not sure what you mean by intuition; maybe you can give an example? As to love, I certainly agree that love is a fine thing. Are you saying that love could not have evolved? Evolution is all about survival and reproduction. Humans are a social species. If humans didn't love their children, and children didn't love their parents, I think a lot of human children wouldn't survive. You also talked about a scientist explaining evil like child abuse and murder and where these originate. I would say that love is more common than child abuse between parent and child, but of course people vary. In evolutionary terms, love is primarily based on kin selection and reciprocity. In other words, humans have genetic instincts which lead them to favor people who share genes with them. That includes their children. They also have genetic instincts which lead them to give favors to people when it seems likely that those people will return the favors later on. That includes children, who may help their parents later when they grow up. For some people these instincts are defective; the usual circuits that produce love of a parent for a child just aren't working well. This certainly can produce child abuse; but being born with a defective social sense is no different than some people being born with a missing hand. Looking at child abuse from the kin selection point of view, we can predict that child abuse will be more common for stepchildren and adopted children than for natural children. And my understanding is that this is in fact what we see; stepchildren and adopted children are more likely to be abused than other kids. Good parenting in humans is also a learned behavior to some extent; some people are bad parents because they were raised badly themselves and maybe don't know any better. What we might think of as child abuse can also sometimes be favored when times are tough. For example, suppose in a bad year a family doesn't have enough food to last the winter. In that situation, evolution might favor parents who are able to be ruthless and reject one of the children, so that the rest of the family can survive. As far as murder, I think it's a pretty similar story. Humans are genetically primed to favor their own relatives, as well as to favor people who might help them in the future. These instincts do vary a lot, though, with some people being kind and loving and others being fierce and aggressive. Which extreme is favored might depend on the situation. Where benefits can be obtained through working together, such as in driving a herd of bison over a cliff, people who cooperate better may be more likely to survive. In other situations, fierce fighters who can defend a village may survive better. But this can backfire when fierce fighters are overly aggressive, such as when two men are rivals for the same woman. This can lead to murder. There can also be people who have defective social instincts, either due to bad genes or to bad parenting. As with child abuse, when times are tough there may be an advantage in the ability of some humans to be ruthless and eliminate someone who is a burden on the group. Looking at murder from a kin selection point of view, we can predict that murder will be more common among people who are not closely related. I think we see this especially in war. Think of the Israelites slaughtering the people of other tribes, such as in Joshua chapter 6 and Judges chapters 1 and 15.
@@exmormonroverpaula2319 Whu does what I believe bother you so much? My original comment was meant to convey my thoughts that if people treated others as they want to be treated, this world would be a much better place in which to live. I also realize this will likely never happen. I am not a mormon (so I do not know what you were taught and why my comment seems to have triggered something in you. From what little I do know, however, it seems mormons treat women as badly as other organized religions and most patriarchal societies do.) I am not bothering you or anyone else. Tbh, I do not feel well and do not have the energy for a debate. I prefer to spend what time I have remaining avoiding arguments (because, in general, I have found no one truly cares what I think at this point, which is why I post my thoughts here) and spending time with my grandchildren, not debating someone over my beliefs (to which I am entitled) or justifying them.
@@Justice4ALL.120, your original post if I understood it correctly, was framed in terms of Christ and the Bible, not in terms of people treating others as they want to be treated. Your post gave the impression that if people only followed Christ and the Bible, hunger, homelessness, and poverty would be solved, which I'm not sure is true. In your second post you brought up questions of evolution and miracles, so I responded to those. You also mentioned that you hope the Bible is true, which I find to be a very strange thing to hope for; so I responded to that. In this most recent post, you asked why your beliefs bother me, since you are not bothering me or anyone else. I frequently do debate with Christians, since Christians have political power in the U.S. and often use it to implement laws I think are unjust. I do not know what you have done as far as voting in accordance with your beliefs, teaching your beliefs to children, and the like, but I think many Christians do harm in such things. Of course, you are entitled to your own beliefs. However, I'm interested in why you believe as you do. It sound like you do not want any more questions from me. If I have bothered you, I apologize. Maybe I read too much into the phrase "Truth Matters".
Time stamp 8:25 if you want Haiti and others, to proposer how about all those "Ex-Xtian" now supposedly Secular Countries pay back the wealth and resources stolen with interest. How about the US pays back to all the countries they stole people from? Then we'd like to see how better and good the atheist secular countries are.
God never promised that Christians would receive blessings in the first place, he promised that Christians would be persecuted and go through trials and tribulations. So the Christian blessings have been debunked by the bible itself.
Thank you for putting together this comparison. The argument I can see arising specifically for the USA is that as Christianity has declined the country has started to decline. It would be amazing to see a whole video dedicated to the USA and its history of christianity
Bad times create religious people. Those countries simply haven't been blessed yet, just like the wicked countries haven't been destroyed yet. It takes time.
A difference between percent values are themselves not in percent but percentage point. If you have a value A 80% and B 40%, B is 40 percent points smaller but 50% smaller
Great video, but as an African in a Christian country I can honestly say Christianity does more good than people in secular countries seem to give it credit for. Most young guys here don’t really care about killing their neighbours, stealing, lying, substance abuse, corruption, cheating, consent or being absent fathers for like 5 different kids. There’s no code of ethics out here and most people don’t give a damn about the law and the truth is no one knows what to do about that fact. Not the schools, government, no one. Religious convention seems to be the only thing strong enough to make people change their ways. Certainly not trying to make the case that all religious people are better or that only religious people are good here. However to believe Christianity is a recipe for economic prosperity seems to be missing the point.
Well, i do not like communism ideas but why talk about it as about evil? I mean its just different ideology for community, there is nothing evil about it, it's just don't really work well. I mean, even if he accepts secular country as communist, he still didn't point that it's bad. I also must say that communist ideas work quite well for not ambitious people. My grandparents do miss USSR. They didn't have any wealth but having home, food, job was guaranteed and that was enough for them. P.S. Yes, i know that there was no communism in USSR, but the ideas (and political party) was communistic.
@Jack W Communist ideology as it was practiced in Soviet Union had much more common with religion than with economics or politics. The books were revered just as scriptures, there were obligatory courses on "scientific atheism" at each high school, every book on any subject had to cite either Marx or Engels or Lenin or, in Stalin times, Stalin. Needless to say, those lessons were more designed as indoctrination. The quality of people doing the subject was varying, but mom told me a story, how a professor of sc.ath. from Kazakhstan forced his son to abandon his already pregnant fiancée on the grounds that marrying the other was against the traditions. In fact, since religious books were on the list of "index librorum prohibitorum", going to the faculty of sc.ath. was the way for religious people to get legal hold on them. In post Soviet countries, communist parties are in fact primarily revisionist imperialists, propagating restoration of USSR as communist empire ("Imperialism, the Highest Stage of Capitalism", anyone?) However, I would not agree with the claim that communism can not be judged as in has never been tried. This claim isn't in any way different from the claim that christianity or islam can not be judged as it has never been tried, because those who claimed themselves christian/muslim were not "true" ones.
@Jack W "To date, no country claiming to be communist has ever been truly so." You're quite right. There has never actually *been* a "communist" - as in everyone is *equal* and _shares equally_ in the resources - country. The supposedly "Communist" countries modelled themselves on the strata of rich entitled nobles and impoverished serfs that they replaced - they just replaced the hereditary leaders with a select few of themselves and left everyone else where they were or even worse off than before. And having successfully overthrown the government themselves, they're usually very mindful that it _could just as easily happen to them_ and take strenuous pains to make sure it doesn't. Frankly, I doubt *actual* communism could work on a country-wide level due to the disparities between the hardship and risk of all the different jobs required to support an economy, some form of inequality would emerge.
Hi, I’m religious but I’m also totally open to separate my spirituality from facts. My concern here is that there is no such thing as a Christian or Muslim or anything country. Or a purely secular one either. We can’t look at political and economic development in any one sided view as either religious or non religious. Haiti is poor due to socioeconomic reasons, not religion or non religious
Perhaps another way of looking at this issue is to ask whether extreme poverty is the fertile breeding ground of organised religion. Religion is very effective at recruiting converts amongst those with the least amount of hope. It’s been their game plan since Adam was knee high to a grasshopper.
Fantastic video Thomas. Every one of your videos contains a treasure trove of information that I can share with my Christian family. Best wishes brotha 👍
Firstly, it's cute that you think God pays any attention to national borders. But more importantly, there is a clear distinction between correlation and causation. My feeling is that as far a causation goes, it is a country's poverty and inequality that provides a stronger motivation for people to accept and cling to religion, not just as a need for hope, but also because of access to education (which promotes more skeptical thinking) and wealth tends to make people act more as individuals rather than as a community.
I wish I could like a billion times. I'm African and I have had this conversation a thousand times but few listen. most claim I'm blasphemy. I hope we get out of this one day.
This legitimately makes me want to cry- I've been taught all the same gross rhetoric about Haiti when I was young, and I never knew any of these things either. 90% Christian. Wow.
Excellent video. A lot of work went into it, and it shows. I do have one concern that I hope you will have addressed in your methodology video. You selected 10 measures of well-being for the comparisons you made between religious and non-religious countries. I am sure there more than 10 measures which could be identified, although finding data for them may be more difficult than for those measures you selected. However, I do feel you really need to make clear (I hope) that you did not cherry-pick your measures after analyzing the data rather than picking all measures you could reasonably identify first and then looking at and presenting all the results.
Good question. I picked the sample of 114 countries (the ones Gallup polled), decided on which metrics I would measure, and picked my methodology all before collecting and analyzing the data. None of it was cherry picked.
A question I’ve had for Christians involves the “power of prayer”. I believe the Bible says that God knew us and everything that would happen to us in our lifetimes. If that is true, should I get seriously ill God knew I would get ill and already knew if I would recover. Given this information, my fate has been predetermined and all the prayers in the world won’t change anything. God decided long ago
You know you're flying under the RADAR when your country isn't on a list that big.... New Zealand. Mostly secular and one of the best countries in the world.
I grew up in a loving supportive Christian home so I know truly good Christians exist, but when I questioned the veracity of the bible I was told that God would never have allowed his “Word” to be corrupted. Even at 16 I knew this idea did not fly. I know now that the bible was put together and exploited as a tool of control, and people like Pat Robertson and Ken Copeland understand that only too well. It breaks my heart.
Most Christians are likely just ignorant just going to what the pastors go by who never really study the bible themselves. It has been altered and changed so many times but many just don't see it sadly.
It's all, about control really. Most Christians are just ignorant or were never really put in a situation where they actually 🛑 and question that idea or belief
True christian believers are not really money focused. They work, give, and are satified to take care of themselves and their families. Some have more money, some dont.
I would argue that the prosperity doctrine isn't Christian at all because it isn't found in Christ's teaching or anywhere in the new testament. It's something that came out of the pentecostal/charismatic movement to gradually infect other churches as well. So while it is found within christianity, it is false to the core teachings of Christ and the Apostles which clearly states that following Christ will bring troubles, rejection, persecution and suffering as sharing in these things with Christ. Prosperity is definitely not promised to Christians. It is promised by these denominations in their sales pitch for membership and it works because "itching ears" and all that.
Don’t seek religion ,seek a relationship with Jesus the one true saviour. Jesus came to put a stop to religion but people decided to keep it and call it from God.
Are you blippin kidding me? Did Pat Robertson SERIOUSLY just equate Slave revolt to a pact with Satan? Is he saying that Anti-slavery is of the Devil? Wtf...
This is fantastic. My family adopted several Haitian children and care a lot about the country. I wish I could share this, but they don't know I'm an atheist. 😭
One of the biggest issues I have with religion is that it turns you into a victim. It's always either "God is in control" or "the Devil made me do it." Religion takes away personal accountability, ownership of actions, and acknowledgment that you are in control. Religion tells you that all you need to do is pray and pay your tithes and sing songs, and somebody else up there will fix everything for you.
I have faith, I am Catholic, however, since I was a kid I liked reading. Even as a child I could see the powerful people and governments used religion to keep us poor people contempt. Thanks for another great vid. Like I said I have faith, however I have always been very careful about it.
All it takes is a pair of eyes and a functioning mind, the more secular society is the better it is in every way. Objectively, on the basis of any reasonable test you choose.
The word 'blessing' comes from the Proto-Germanic 'bleodsen,' meaning 'to sprinkle with sacrificial blood.' Uh, no thanks--keep your 'blessings' to yourself.
Not saying your main point is wrong, but those statistics are bogus. Belarus, Albania appear highly secular, yet are not rich countries. I'm Romanian and I'm not religious, and none of my family members are (not even my grandfather), nor my friends.. That 99% says is about being Christian (as opposed to Muslim or other religions), it doesn't mean 99% of people are religious.
Don't forget to catch part 1 here: ua-cam.com/video/iJkg8S-_CM8/v-deo.html
And here's the link for part 3: ua-cam.com/video/6QRSuAwsA2o/v-deo.html
Just interested, why didn’t you include the United States at all on the lists
(Edit: my dad used the fact that the us wasn’t under “the list of Christian nations” to dismiss this video right after I made him watch the one about Islam and he had no qualms with it, smh)
@@chaseharrison5469 The US isn't towards the top of the most secular nor the most religious. It's way down the list. That's why it's not included.
Holy Koolaid ahh ok, thank you for the answer.
@@chaseharrison5469 The US is 65% christian. For the top ten christian nations, it would need to be somewhere around 95%. The extreme diversity of the country makes it impossible for it to get into any top ten with a religious context ;)
www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2015/05/13/a-closer-look-at-americas-rapidly-growing-religious-nones/
I'm Haitian and I really appreciate it you showing the truth about Haitian history!
Thanks. I'm glad I had the opportunity. It's a beautiful country, although I only had time to visit Cap Hatien and the Citadel. :)
The Haitian slave revolt should be much more recognised than it is. A Sparatcus of the modern era that too many people are ignorant of.
Do you like the new Star Wars movies?
Its safe to assume that whatever comes out of Pat Robinson's mouth is a straight up lie or made up story.
@@rowleyj31
But at least he disagrees with Ken Ham's idea on the 6000 age of Earth
I wish I could like a billion times.
I'm African and I have had this conversation a thousand times but few listen. most claim I'm blasphemy.
I hope we get out of this one day.
Where in Africa are you from?
Same here... Our people were forced into and stay in and stuck in the past. Meanwhile, those who did the forcing have of are moving on from it...
I’m with you on spreading the word to my African friends and family it is hard because they are brainwashed the lost but I will keep on trying . And I’m from Trinidad 🇹🇹
I feel like we are from the same place, Judging from your name
I'm from Africa as well and I honestly can't wait for the day Africans will get out of this paranoia
Ah, yes, the "Protestant Work Ethic" which included having slaves do most of the heavy lifting.
I find the "protestant work ethic" is the same BS as the "boot strap" republican motto I was raised with. And both ignore reality and outside forces on an individual.
@@rowleyj31 Fun fact: The whole "pull yourself up from your bootstraps" was originally conceived as to simbolize a nonsensical and ultimately impossible task; If you tried it, you'd end up falling on your ass.
I always find it rather amazing that so many people were scammed into taking it as an ideal to aspire to.
@@CteCrassus Which shows you that the slave ethic is baked into most 'Christian' belief groups.... Catholic, Presbyterian, Anglican, Baptist, etc.
Nothing screams Protestant work ethic like laziness. Gotta love these people.
Exactly
Unfortunatly any christian woepreacher worth his salt will have no problem at all completly derailing this argument. He'll just say that those 99% christian countries are 99% the wrong christians that are cursed by god for worshipping him wrongly and only the woepreachers own congregation is the right christians that is blessed by god.
The counterargument to that: "So your God allowed false practices to be carried out in his name for thousands of years and is now punishing those people because they were lied to all those thousands of years and your God couldn't be bothered to send a 'divine revelation' or two their way to bring them back into his loving embrace... doesn't sound like a very just or loving God to me..."
You could do the same experiment in the US with evangelicals, catholics, other Christians, other religions and non-religious. And I am pretty sure there will a strong correlation between low numbers of evangelicals and prosperity.
@@andrewgause6971 Unfortunatly even this is easily derailed because the woepreacher will just say that they actually knew the right practices (probably because they are "written on their hearts" or some other similiar bullshit) but they "deny the truth in unrightousness". The core problem with such preachers is that they can just make up a justifications on the spot and it doesn't matter how ridiculous or far fetched the explanation is because they don't care about truth and they conditioned their audiance to trust god's word (speak: their word) over reality itself. And even if you can actually nail them down in a discussion or something they will just go back to their congregation, claim they wiped the floor with you in that discussion and maybe even that you converted right there on the spot. They don't care about truth. Either because they know perfectly well that they are running a scam or because their mind is so poisoned by religion that in their mind they are right by default because their god told them they are right and if they are presented with undeniable evidence that they are wrong they instead jump to the conclusion that reality is wrong not them.
They aren't "real" Christians lol
I've never understood how any black person of African ancestry could follow any Christian ideology in modern times.
People just kept on believing what their parents did.
The first Christian country was in Africa
Religions always pray on desperate people.
@@Nebraska2002 None of the slaves that were brought to the US were Christians. Their heritage was eradicated, then raised as Christians.
umm because Christianity isn't a white mans religion and in certain places in africa Christianity was already practiced for example ethopia and places in africa had a historical christian tradition thats why
I really appreciate the amount of work that you put into your videos. Great stuff. 👍🏼
Can we show this to Ben Shapiro to explain how facts don't care about his feelings?
Who's he?
@@ZephLodwick You'll find out pretty quickly if you just google him. He's a right wing grifter who likes to "DESTROY the libs with facts!" but isn't very good at it. Here's a long but, imo, very entertaining video about him if you want: ua-cam.com/video/aDMjgOYOcDw/v-deo.html
@@Tahoza Okay, so I watched the video. Wow, that was a doozy! How can one claim that facts don't care for emotion while still believing in the gods, which is based entirely on emotion? Also, isn't it a bit dishonourable to 'debate' college students who don't have any formal training in rhetoric instead of actual experts who have had time to prepare their arguments?
@@ZephLodwick Yes. You're right and it is that simple. Now watch how his supporters tie themselves in knots to defend him when anyone says what you just did. Just search Ben Shapiro on YT. There's a whole community of people who are trying to show how little sense he and others like him make.
Guys, do you play starcraft?
The protestant work ethic... looks at Japan, Taiwan and South Korea.
Yes. Also Singapore and Taiwan ...
Considering how it ruined Japan and South Korea internally. I think this so-called 'Protestant' work ethic actually destroys the children in these countries.
@@ousamadearudesuwa I think you’ve missed the point being made. Ometecuhtli was saying there is no “Protestant work ethic” in Japan, Taiwan and South Korea.
To be fair, I think the idea of the protestant work ethic is that there is something about Protestant (as opposed to Catholic) values that encourages industry and productivity, and this meant that protestant countries industrialised before and became richer than Catholic ones. Certain non-christian countries also becoming successful doesn't necessarily disprove it.
The "Bible belt" in the US contains most of poorest states, some of the most dependent on federal funding and some with the highest level of per capita poverty.
I live in the bible belt. I have for 50 years. You are CORRECT 💯
I tried telling this to a conservative and they kept diverting to something else or told me how I shouldn't believe what the government says.
And consistently the worst in education and literacy, not to mention teen pregnancy.
I'm damn sick of our gov't giving these freeloaders money. Tell 'em to rely on Jebus.
Lol! Someone gave it a thumbs down before it was availability to view. What a half ass effort that is. Can't even wait until it airs to pretend they gave it an opportunity.
So true. They are NOT interested in intellectual honesty.
most yt vidos gets thumb down on start :v
I guess somebody really didn't like my thumbnail! 😂
Wow someone did that ! That is awful ! I hope you still can sleep at night !
@Joe McIlroy A prayer study was done where they found that prayer works no more than random chance and the people who knew they were being prayed for did worse.
Also, Yahweh is fictional.
I’m Haitian. Thank you for showing the truth. I’ve been telling my fellow Haitians the same for years
"Blessing don't come from above, if you want your country, your family to be prosperous, you have to do it by yourself. " A strong echoing agreement from China.
In the same way Taliban and Christian evangelicals have similar social goals.
Yes China the great defender of human rights
@@Nebraska2002he’s saying that he lives in China
Thank you, as a Buddhist I've been asking these question myself.
A blessing is nothing more than a spell. Just like praying is nothing more than Wishing on a Star it's just magic.
Praying is merely a placebo effect.
And faith is basically a wish.
@@laxpaint yep faith is pretending you know something you don't know.
Aron ra. Right?
@Jaco Filozofka before making the distinction between energy and a spiritual being. one must first define what they mean by energy and what they mean by spiritual being.
Presumably, when someone says "energy" and "spells" they are talking about a supernatural force without agency being activated like a programming script, while a "spiritual being" and a "prayer" involves a supernatural agent capable of deciding to assist with your request.
But given that such a magical system would require an intelligence to set up, the only distinction between a spell and a prayer is that spells work every time like gravity, while prayers are subject to the whims of the agent you pray to.
“Prayer does jack.”
5:53 the "newscaster" talking to Pat Robertson believes what he's saying almost about as much as we do
I really liked the method you used for secular versus religious and specifically christian nations and how explicit you were with it. It was a great way to deal with complicated situations like "are the scandinavian countries christian countries or not" and "Is the United States secular or not" which can often complicate stuff like this
Anytime i hear people talking about these issues i think back to a bit Jim Jefferies has done about how society is a train, with the intellectuals and academics in the front, and the religious people in the back slowing the train down. And how if we could just pull the pin on the last car, we could all move along faster.
Andrew Advocating for mass murder while insisting atheists have superior morality. 🙄 This Jim fella sounds wonderful.
Anon YMouse what part of the analogy promotes mass murder?
Anon YMouse
The only “mass murder” would be the reduced life expectancies created by the denial of science and its advancements, plus the loss of subsidies from the more prosperous secular states. Those are unforced errors. So, the murderers would be those preaching to the victims.
@@AnonYMouse-ky4sg It was comedy. Comedic analogy. Goodness gracious.
@@honorquest It's quite simple really: if your idea of "logic" is "the world exists, therefore my book that _mentions the world in it_ must be 100% true" then it's very easy to get from "uncouple the last carriage" to "commit mass murder" - it's *astounding* watching how their brains work because somehow they can think like *that* and yet somehow *fail* to go from "god commanded and committed genocide and wiped out most of the Earth's population and rained fire down on two towns" to "the creature described in the bible must be some sort of monster".
It was only a few weeks ago that I understood your slogan "don't drink the kool aid". That is dark.
That is really very darf, especially if you realise, that a lot of Jones congregation did not drink the kool aid out of their free will, but were shot or forced to drink it at gunpoint.
Excellent research, analysis & presentation. Greatly appreciated.
"If we want our nation to prosper, we have to do it ourselves"
Quite ironic, if you think about it. "God helps those who help themselves" is part of christian belief, so they should have known that
If God only "helps" people who help themselves, then what is the point of him? Those people would have already helped themselves without him
@@BrantAxt Yeah, it's just a cheap excuse to justify belief without any benefits
@@lolglolblol Nope, that's not a true Christian belief or teaching. Falls into the same category as the Curse of Ham, belief heaven is nothing more than harps and halos, and Satan rules from Hell. It's pop culture trash with an admixture of heretical teachings. God helps those who can't help themselves is a true teaching of the Bible. Otherwise, why pray to God for assistance? It's just awful what pop culture and liberal theologians can do when unchecked or unopposed.
@@The-Opium-Den .
"God helps those who can't help themselves is a true teaching of the Bible."
It's a pity there is no sign of that ever happening.
@@grahvis Oh, it happens. It's just that many people on here assume it doesn't or that God uses miracles as his primary means of intervening in the affairs of humans. Some people like myself are just content with His divine providence in our daily lives.
oohh but you picked mostly catholic ones. doesn't count /s
they'll try any excuse tbh
Call them a heretic and put on a fancy hat. If discussion is pointless, may as well make it fun.
Or how bout this: Jesus said we would be persecuted for our faith, "blessings or curses" aren't generally a thing for nations that follow or don't follow God aside from old testament events. This is like punching air
My rant: A true "Christian" country is like a hippie commune. There's no stock exchange, no multinational companies but lots of volunteer work ethic and non-profit organisations with open border policies.
Making lots of profit or even a little is never what Christianity is about. "Heaven on earth" and if heaven is real there's no companies there.
But who am I anyway ...
I started making this argument in online discussions with theists 1-2 years ago but I never did the actual work of compiling and analysing the data (made general statements about secular & religious countries / regions and referred to prayer studies). THANKYOU for not being lazy like me and actually doing the hard work to develop this argument which imo disproves the existence (or at least the intervention) of the Judeo-Christian god!
You are being dishonest. The so-called 'secular countries' have a separation between State and Religion, which is fine, but they either have a Christian majority or had a Christian foundation. For example, 63% are still Christians in the USA which you called 'secular country'. Also, you don't offer any better alternative than religion. Southpark was right when they mocked Dawkins: you may end all religions but people will still fight for their political parties, soccer and basketball teams, etc.
things are always more complicated than they seem I appreciate how much work went into this.
Religion does not help people become better, it helps them become more religious.
I am muslim and agree with you religion teach us objective morality which is mostly contrsdicted with mordern morality
Thank you for that eye opening video! I’m from Haiti, religion is the reason why Haiti is poor.
Why isn't the Netherlands in the secular country list? In my 26 years of living here, I have met two or three Christians in this country 😬
The notion of Christian Blessing can also be debunked by looking at the US at the state level.
Good point. It would be interesting seeing a video on that.
I know the top 10 most educated states voted for Democrats in recent presidential elections and the nine least educated states voted for Republicans in recent presidential elections. It isn't even close. The more education a person has, the more likely the person is to vote for Democrats.
Christian here--this is exactly what I've been thinking for years lol
Christianity is not even true at all, look it up
Dude, that old person greeting sound effect from TLoZ: Windwaker really took me off guard
It makes me so happy that someone knew where that sound effect came from. :)
@@HolyKoolaid Hahaha that game was my childhood, all those iconic sfx are engraved in my memory from over 500 hours played
Also that big headed wise grandpa is very memorable hahaha
My father escaped Haiti in the late 70s. He had helped others escape too. I was Lucky enough to rise out of the church. I can understand why he never went
As you see in the clip, it's mostly women. Same in the AA community.
@@WilsonianGarveyite sexist?
@@Nebraska2002
No it's just a demographic fact that, in the black community, it's women who provide most of the support of religion.
Thank you. If only my folks would care or even remotely take this information seriously.
The worst guesser on the planet would get more right than Christian prophecy.
Loved this video! Thank you from someone who grew in a family that had a Christian nationalist mindset. I was told from a very early age that the US was blessed because of our Christian faith. I obviously no longer believe that. In fact I became so angry when I realized all the fairy tales I was told.
Could you do strongly religious vs. not religious areas of America?
Remember that correlation doesn't mean causation, and the tone of the video makes it seems like it is a causal relationship. Although I agree and can't negate the data you should be more careful because is a point to discredit the argument you are trying to make. Hope you take criticism in a good way!
The point is to debunk the claim that christian countries are more prosperous.
Lol vodou tells us that blessings don't come from above. U gotta work the soil. We're on earth here
Facts
I love you and your videos. Thank you for all this good information and data!!
First of all, the core doctrine of Christianity doesn’t say that Christians are guaranteed anything good on earth. Second, 14/20 secular countries you chose were majority Christian countries. 2/20 were Muslim, 2/20 believed in an East Asian religion (Japan and South Korea), 1/20 was Buddhist, and only one was majority atheist. So you had to use a list where a majority of countries were Christian to talk about how Secular countries are blessed?
I'm sure those two data sets would also correspond closely to "science embracing/denying"
Sometimes I dream about how much more advanced the planet would be without religion. Not saying it’s be perfect, as greed, corruption, selfishness, anarchists will always be around. But if a higher percentage of people agreed on “facts,” and worked towards solving the big problems… it’d be a way better place than what we see today.
If anarchist just went and lived alone in the woods I would actually like them. You want to basically whatever you want without government interruption? Sure, do it in your own privacy away from the people who do want or at least tolerate the government. Kinda like Ted Kackzinsky but with out the bombs.
When I left JW and started working hard to achieve my goals without asking anyone, especially god, for help or support - I finally saw some results. Take your god away, I'm fine on my own.
Though i believe in God my self and that there was a man walking around talking to the outcast to tell them about his views of the Jewish God I would say your preacher doesn't talk about christian worth ethics but those of Prussia. Be humble (don't use any money on a big expensive car or phone), work hard and serf your country. Rules many prosperous countries run by.
If all (or even the majority of) Christians followed Christ's teachings, there would be no hunger, no homelessness, and no poor people. Too many people are lovers of self or something even worse. The problem is the church and people...not the Bible or Christ.
Truth Matters, what makes you think the Bible is true?
@@exmormonroverpaula2319 To be accurate, what I said is I believe in the teachings of Christ. Faith is believing, and everyone has faith or believes as they do. I feel, and always have, in my heart what Christ taught was the right way to live (helping those in need, empathy, kindness, love, and how bad envy and jealousy can be, etc etc etc.) Idk about you, but I do not believe I came from some primate. When a scientist can explain miracles like intuition and love or evil like child abuse and murder, I would be curious to see what they have to say about from where these originate. However, I do not see that happening. There are too many mysteries in this world that cannot be explained by science alone. I do not think a big bang can explain the creation of people, who are very complicated beings in every way. Fun fact: the human body has an estimated 60,000 miles of blood vessels....that's more than two times the circumference of the Earth. Source: National Institutes of Health and NASA.
Ps I do not, however, believe in organized religions/churches though. IMO, from personal experiences and what I have seen, read and heard from reputable sources, they pervert goodness to achieve their own agendas (i think they do this for power/influence and to make money.)
As a final note, I hope the Bible is true (since man wrote it, I am not 100 percent sure though)
@@Justice4ALL.120, I certainly agree that much of what Christ taught is the right way to live, including helping those in need, empathy, kindness, love, and avoiding envy/jealousy. I also agree that power and money are high on the agenda of organized religion. But why would you hope the Bible is true? The problem with the Bible is that you can find all sorts of different things in it. Want to love your enemies and be kind to your neighbor? You can find Bible verses for that. Prefer to slaughter your enemies, rape women, and kill babies? You can find Bible verses for that, too (Numbers 31:1-18, among many others). Do you hope that the atonement is true? It seems pretty bizarre to me, that even if we repent, God can't forgive us unless an innocent person dies a horrible death. If God feels we deserve forgiveness, why doesn't he just forgive us? I don't understand why a human sacrifice is necessary for God to forgive us. That doesn't sound loving to me. What is wrong with God that he can't live with human imperfection?
It sounds like you find evolution troubling. I'm a little hesitant to get into the details of evolution, since it's a huge subject. How much do you really know about evolution? Have you ever taken a college biology class? Have you ever read Jerry Coyne's "Why Evolution is True"? Or any of Richard Dawkins' books on evolution? Is there something about chimpanzees and humans having a common ancestor that troubles you? Do you think evolution can't increase the size of a primate brain?
You mentioned that intuition and love seem like miracles to you. I'm not sure what you mean by intuition; maybe you can give an example? As to love, I certainly agree that love is a fine thing. Are you saying that love could not have evolved? Evolution is all about survival and reproduction. Humans are a social species. If humans didn't love their children, and children didn't love their parents, I think a lot of human children wouldn't survive. You also talked about a scientist explaining evil like child abuse and murder and where these originate. I would say that love is more common than child abuse between parent and child, but of course people vary. In evolutionary terms, love is primarily based on kin selection and reciprocity. In other words, humans have genetic instincts which lead them to favor people who share genes with them. That includes their children. They also have genetic instincts which lead them to give favors to people when it seems likely that those people will return the favors later on. That includes children, who may help their parents later when they grow up. For some people these instincts are defective; the usual circuits that produce love of a parent for a child just aren't working well. This certainly can produce child abuse; but being born with a defective social sense is no different than some people being born with a missing hand. Looking at child abuse from the kin selection point of view, we can predict that child abuse will be more common for stepchildren and adopted children than for natural children. And my understanding is that this is in fact what we see; stepchildren and adopted children are more likely to be abused than other kids. Good parenting in humans is also a learned behavior to some extent; some people are bad parents because they were raised badly themselves and maybe don't know any better. What we might think of as child abuse can also sometimes be favored when times are tough. For example, suppose in a bad year a family doesn't have enough food to last the winter. In that situation, evolution might favor parents who are able to be ruthless and reject one of the children, so that the rest of the family can survive.
As far as murder, I think it's a pretty similar story. Humans are genetically primed to favor their own relatives, as well as to favor people who might help them in the future. These instincts do vary a lot, though, with some people being kind and loving and others being fierce and aggressive. Which extreme is favored might depend on the situation. Where benefits can be obtained through working together, such as in driving a herd of bison over a cliff, people who cooperate better may be more likely to survive. In other situations, fierce fighters who can defend a village may survive better. But this can backfire when fierce fighters are overly aggressive, such as when two men are rivals for the same woman. This can lead to murder. There can also be people who have defective social instincts, either due to bad genes or to bad parenting. As with child abuse, when times are tough there may be an advantage in the ability of some humans to be ruthless and eliminate someone who is a burden on the group. Looking at murder from a kin selection point of view, we can predict that murder will be more common among people who are not closely related. I think we see this especially in war. Think of the Israelites slaughtering the people of other tribes, such as in Joshua chapter 6 and Judges chapters 1 and 15.
@@exmormonroverpaula2319 Whu does what I believe bother you so much? My original comment was meant to convey my thoughts that if people treated others as they want to be treated, this world would be a much better place in which to live. I also realize this will likely never happen. I am not a mormon (so I do not know what you were taught and why my comment seems to have triggered something in you. From what little I do know, however, it seems mormons treat women as badly as other organized religions and most patriarchal societies do.) I am not bothering you or anyone else. Tbh, I do not feel well and do not have the energy for a debate. I prefer to spend what time I have remaining avoiding arguments (because, in general, I have found no one truly cares what I think at this point, which is why I post my thoughts here) and spending time with my grandchildren, not debating someone over my beliefs (to which I am entitled) or justifying them.
@@Justice4ALL.120, your original post if I understood it correctly, was framed in terms of Christ and the Bible, not in terms of people treating others as they want to be treated. Your post gave the impression that if people only followed Christ and the Bible, hunger, homelessness, and poverty would be solved, which I'm not sure is true. In your second post you brought up questions of evolution and miracles, so I responded to those. You also mentioned that you hope the Bible is true, which I find to be a very strange thing to hope for; so I responded to that. In this most recent post, you asked why your beliefs bother me, since you are not bothering me or anyone else. I frequently do debate with Christians, since Christians have political power in the U.S. and often use it to implement laws I think are unjust. I do not know what you have done as far as voting in accordance with your beliefs, teaching your beliefs to children, and the like, but I think many Christians do harm in such things. Of course, you are entitled to your own beliefs. However, I'm interested in why you believe as you do.
It sound like you do not want any more questions from me. If I have bothered you, I apologize. Maybe I read too much into the phrase "Truth Matters".
Time stamp 8:25 if you want Haiti and others, to proposer how about all those "Ex-Xtian" now supposedly Secular Countries pay back the wealth and resources stolen with interest. How about the US pays back to all the countries they stole people from? Then we'd like to see how better and good the atheist secular countries are.
God never promised that Christians would receive blessings in the first place, he promised that Christians would be persecuted and go through trials and tribulations.
So the Christian blessings have been debunked by the bible itself.
Thank you for putting together this comparison. The argument I can see arising specifically for the USA is that as Christianity has declined the country has started to decline. It would be amazing to see a whole video dedicated to the USA and its history of christianity
Bad times create religious people. Those countries simply haven't been blessed yet, just like the wicked countries haven't been destroyed yet. It takes time.
A difference between percent values are themselves not in percent but percentage point. If you have a value A 80% and B 40%, B is 40 percent points smaller but 50% smaller
Thank you. Sorry for the mistake. I guess I misspoke.
Great video, but as an African in a Christian country I can honestly say Christianity does more good than people in secular countries seem to give it credit for. Most young guys here don’t really care about killing their neighbours, stealing, lying, substance abuse, corruption, cheating, consent or being absent fathers for like 5 different kids. There’s no code of ethics out here and most people don’t give a damn about the law and the truth is no one knows what to do about that fact. Not the schools, government, no one. Religious convention seems to be the only thing strong enough to make people change their ways. Certainly not trying to make the case that all religious people are better or that only religious people are good here. However to believe Christianity is a recipe for economic prosperity seems to be missing the point.
"The Protestant work ethic."
Don't even start me?!!!🙄🤨
>people walking around a church singing worship songs
>inches away from a homeless boy sleeping in the streets
Just like jesus intended.
I had a conversation with a conservative Christian and he could only accept secular countries as communist no matter how hard I explained this.
Well, i do not like communism ideas but why talk about it as about evil? I mean its just different ideology for community, there is nothing evil about it, it's just don't really work well.
I mean, even if he accepts secular country as communist, he still didn't point that it's bad.
I also must say that communist ideas work quite well for not ambitious people. My grandparents do miss USSR. They didn't have any wealth but having home, food, job was guaranteed and that was enough for them.
P.S. Yes, i know that there was no communism in USSR, but the ideas (and political party) was communistic.
@Jack W Yes, i agree with you, I was just surprised that people use term communism like they talk about some evil organization.
@Jack W Communist ideology as it was practiced in Soviet Union had much more common with religion than with economics or politics. The books were revered just as scriptures, there were obligatory courses on "scientific atheism" at each high school, every book on any subject had to cite either Marx or Engels or Lenin or, in Stalin times, Stalin. Needless to say, those lessons were more designed as indoctrination. The quality of people doing the subject was varying, but mom told me a story, how a professor of sc.ath. from Kazakhstan forced his son to abandon his already pregnant fiancée on the grounds that marrying the other was against the traditions. In fact, since religious books were on the list of "index librorum prohibitorum", going to the faculty of sc.ath. was the way for religious people to get legal hold on them.
In post Soviet countries, communist parties are in fact primarily revisionist imperialists, propagating restoration of USSR as communist empire ("Imperialism, the Highest Stage of Capitalism", anyone?)
However, I would not agree with the claim that communism can not be judged as in has never been tried. This claim isn't in any way different from the claim that christianity or islam can not be judged as it has never been tried, because those who claimed themselves christian/muslim were not "true" ones.
@Jack W "To date, no country claiming to be communist has ever been truly so."
You're quite right. There has never actually *been* a "communist" - as in everyone is *equal* and _shares equally_ in the resources - country.
The supposedly "Communist" countries modelled themselves on the strata of rich entitled nobles and impoverished serfs that they replaced - they just replaced the hereditary leaders with a select few of themselves and left everyone else where they were or even worse off than before.
And having successfully overthrown the government themselves, they're usually very mindful that it _could just as easily happen to them_ and take strenuous pains to make sure it doesn't.
Frankly, I doubt *actual* communism could work on a country-wide level due to the disparities between the hardship and risk of all the different jobs required to support an economy, some form of inequality would emerge.
Hi, I’m religious but I’m also totally open to separate my spirituality from facts. My concern here is that there is no such thing as a Christian or Muslim or anything country. Or a purely secular one either. We can’t look at political and economic development in any one sided view as either religious or non religious. Haiti is poor due to socioeconomic reasons, not religion or non religious
Great content. Thanks for allowing re-use of your content.
Perhaps another way of looking at this issue is to ask whether extreme poverty is the fertile breeding ground of organised religion. Religion is very effective at recruiting converts amongst those with the least amount of hope. It’s been their game plan since Adam was knee high to a grasshopper.
David T62 Excellent point re: poverty breeding faith! But surely Adam was an adult when created. Anyway "knee high to a serpent" would be more apt. :)
Fantastic video Thomas. Every one of your videos contains a treasure trove of information that I can share with my Christian family. Best wishes brotha 👍
Glad I can help. Hope it's useful.
Firstly, it's cute that you think God pays any attention to national borders. But more importantly, there is a clear distinction between correlation and causation. My feeling is that as far a causation goes, it is a country's poverty and inequality that provides a stronger motivation for people to accept and cling to religion, not just as a need for hope, but also because of access to education (which promotes more skeptical thinking) and wealth tends to make people act more as individuals rather than as a community.
Very interesting, especially since he lists his research
Isresal tried to dedicate themselves to God, but failed. No amount of religious zeal can get rid of the evils man commits.
💙💙💙 loved this. You’d be a fun guy to get to know and hang out with
I wish I could like a billion times.
I'm African and I have had this conversation a thousand times but few listen. most claim I'm blasphemy.
I hope we get out of this one day.
This legitimately makes me want to cry- I've been taught all the same gross rhetoric about Haiti when I was young, and I never knew any of these things either.
90% Christian. Wow.
I guess because religion makes people feel good and apathetic to the phlights of others
Wow, fantastic, incredibly well researched video!!
*we all know that 'god' always helps athletes & teams (well one side anyway), while babies get killed*
Excellent video. A lot of work went into it, and it shows. I do have one concern that I hope you will have addressed in your methodology video. You selected 10 measures of well-being for the comparisons you made between religious and non-religious countries. I am sure there more than 10 measures which could be identified, although finding data for them may be more difficult than for those measures you selected. However, I do feel you really need to make clear (I hope) that you did not cherry-pick your measures after analyzing the data rather than picking all measures you could reasonably identify first and then looking at and presenting all the results.
Good question. I picked the sample of 114 countries (the ones Gallup polled), decided on which metrics I would measure, and picked my methodology all before collecting and analyzing the data. None of it was cherry picked.
@@HolyKoolaid Great! Thanks for the rapid response. That, of course, was the answer I was hoping for.
I hate it when people say thank you God or Jesus when a doctor does the work. Or when someone wins an award for their hard work and thanks God for it.
Christianity is the best way to teach people that to believe things on blind faith and not question anything especially authority.
I didn't know you played guitar.
We seem to have had the same teacher. He always said, "play in discord or play in dat cord.
A question I’ve had for Christians involves the “power of prayer”. I believe the Bible says that God knew us and everything that would happen to us in our lifetimes. If that is true, should I get seriously ill God knew I would get ill and already knew if I would recover. Given this information, my fate has been predetermined and all the prayers in the world won’t change anything. God decided long ago
You know you're flying under the RADAR when your country isn't on a list that big.... New Zealand. Mostly secular and one of the best countries in the world.
The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge: But fools despise wisdom and instruction. Proverbs 1:7
Nutjob
Nice work as usual dude!
I like the way you talk
I grew up in a loving supportive Christian home so I know truly good Christians exist, but when I questioned the veracity of the bible I was told that God would never have allowed his “Word” to be corrupted. Even at 16 I knew this idea did not fly.
I know now that the bible was put together and exploited as a tool of control, and people like Pat Robertson and Ken Copeland understand that only too well.
It breaks my heart.
Most Christians are likely just ignorant just going to what the pastors go by who never really study the bible themselves. It has been altered and changed so many times but many just don't see it sadly.
It's all, about control really. Most Christians are just ignorant or were never really put in a situation where they actually 🛑 and question that idea or belief
True christian believers are not really money focused. They work, give, and are satified to take care of themselves and their families. Some have more money, some dont.
So, you can judge who a “true” Christian is, despite 30k denominations all believing they are the “true” Christians? 🙄🤦♂️
So happy I came across your channel!
I would argue that the prosperity doctrine isn't Christian at all because it isn't found in Christ's teaching or anywhere in the new testament. It's something that came out of the pentecostal/charismatic movement to gradually infect other churches as well. So while it is found within christianity, it is false to the core teachings of Christ and the Apostles which clearly states that following Christ will bring troubles, rejection, persecution and suffering as sharing in these things with Christ. Prosperity is definitely not promised to Christians. It is promised by these denominations in their sales pitch for membership and it works because "itching ears" and all that.
Awesome stats, thanks, that was a great analysis - both part 1 & 2
Don’t seek religion ,seek a relationship with Jesus the one true saviour. Jesus came to put a stop to religion but people decided to keep it and call it from God.
Hypocrite
"This TIDAL WAVE industry, It's called the Protestant work ethic!"
....euh.... China.
Just sayin'.
Are you blippin kidding me? Did Pat Robertson SERIOUSLY just equate Slave revolt to a pact with Satan? Is he saying that Anti-slavery is of the Devil? Wtf...
He said it was a "true story". What a prick.
@@loturzelrestaurant Holy Koolaid, Viced Rhino, and Paulogia are the ones I watch the most. And even though I am Pagan, I highly enjoy their content.
With these Facts, one has to agree with christians when they say "god works in mysterious ways"....... He sure does!!!! lol!!
can I just say that dude at 40 seconds sounds creepy (no offence intended)
This is fantastic. My family adopted several Haitian children and care a lot about the country. I wish I could share this, but they don't know I'm an atheist. 😭
One of the biggest issues I have with religion is that it turns you into a victim. It's always either "God is in control" or "the Devil made me do it." Religion takes away personal accountability, ownership of actions, and acknowledgment that you are in control. Religion tells you that all you need to do is pray and pay your tithes and sing songs, and somebody else up there will fix everything for you.
I have faith, I am Catholic, however, since I was a kid I liked reading. Even as a child I could see the powerful people and governments used religion to keep us poor people contempt.
Thanks for another great vid. Like I said I have faith, however I have always been very careful about it.
I have always wanted to visit/tour Haiti...
All it takes is a pair of eyes and a functioning mind, the more secular society is the better it is in every way.
Objectively, on the basis of any reasonable test you choose.
Invent your own theology,then debunk it.
Absolutely brilliant! Thank you, tremendous ammunition 👍🏻
The word 'blessing' comes from the Proto-Germanic 'bleodsen,' meaning 'to sprinkle with sacrificial blood.'
Uh, no thanks--keep your 'blessings' to yourself.
The only god I worship is the flying spaghetti monster
Not saying your main point is wrong, but those statistics are bogus.
Belarus, Albania appear highly secular, yet are not rich countries. I'm Romanian and I'm not religious, and none of my family members are (not even my grandfather), nor my friends.. That 99% says is about being Christian (as opposed to Muslim or other religions), it doesn't mean 99% of people are religious.
A blessing and praying have the same affect as crossing your fingers!!
Thanks fpr the information on Haiti, it has been enlightening.