Faith in the US wanes

In January I wrote a post regarding the disparity between religious fervor and quality of life. Realizing that the decline of faith in Europe since the end of World War II played a role in a higher standard of living, my suspicions regarding faith and standard of living in in the US were confirmed. Generally, states with populations of little or no faith have higher standards of living and higher average IQ than states where religion is part of everyday life.

Fast forward to today. MSNBC has released an article that reveals religion, particularly tenants of Christianity and Judaism, have been in decline since 1990, yet Pentacostals and Mormons remain steadfast in their faith.

In related news, New Scientist has released an article that illustrates how faith may be the result of evolutionary biology. Through the use of MRI scanning, scientists at the NIH have released the results of a study that predict religious belief is the product of specific regions of the brain. It's rather ironic that a creationist's idea would be used against his own brand of religion. Even in 2007 the NIH released the results of a study that reveal traits such as altruism have only recently evolved.

In somewhat related news even the Catholic church thinks the disco tute is a joke; 1, 2.