There is a very strong belief that
those who are religious are good and the others bad. In our place those who
don’t believe are despised and found fault with. Hence it would be appropriate
to check into the related facts around the world. It is known to one and all
that China is an atheistic country but fast advancing. It will be soon the
super power in the world (133 crore people one in six of the world
population do not believe in God at all) Previous USSR, and the former soviet
communist nations followed atheism as their state religion. Even today Cuba
follows the same line although some others have been liberalized. Let us take a
picture of the developed world where people are more educated, more
enterprising, more technically and educationally advanced.
Only 9% of Americans in a 2008 poll said religion was the
most important thing in their life, compared with 45% who said family was
paramount in their life and 17% who said money and their career was
paramount. More than one in three (36 per cent) do not believe in any god in
Canada today. A 2006 poll published by Le Monde
of France in January 2007[12] found
that 51% of the French population are Catholics (and only half of them believe in god. In other worlds 50% of the Catholics (by
birth) are atheists. Of the general population 31% of are atheists, In Germany 36%
openly declare they don’t believe in a god. 40% of the UK population, 53% of
the Swedish, 41% of the Fins, 47% of the Norwegians, 49% of Denmark ,39% of the Swiss, do not
believe in any god. In the former communist countries like Estonia, Czech
republic and Poland, above 50% do not believe in any god at all. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Religion_in_EuropeIn)
The pattern is in similar lines in all the developed countries and they are
less corrupt, willing to help fellow men more and much
more advanced. In India we have a different picture. Almost 100% believe in God
and we are less educated, a lot more poorer(one in 3 lives in abject poverty;
almost one in two is illiterate and among children one in two is malnourished,
stunted or sick). India is one of the most corrupt nations of the world. The
leaders and politicians, unlike in the advanced nations, are more interested in
their own selfish motives than in the development of the nation. Does believing
go more easily with illiteracy, poverty, suffering, dishonesty and selfishness?
