State Atheism

[Rigon]

So what gives? What do these prosperous European nations have in common that can somehow explain their prosperity? Being an electoral democracy is almost a given — of the top 25 most prosperous countries, only Singapore and Hong Kong aren't.

Being small helps too. Big countries have so many disparate groups (ethnic, geographic, civic) vying against each other that it's hard for true social cohesion and trust to emerge, and harder to maintain high levels of safety. Among countries with populations of more than 150 million, the United States ranks highest, at No. 10.

[zolace]

Do please answer the above - I think I know why you may be hesitating to do so.


But, while on the subject, happen to come across another article where a different nation is ranked #1 - and the ones that follow are also in South America. Happiness is probably hard to quantify.

http://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-news/worlds-happiest-country-would-you-believe-paraguay-n110981

Paraguay is the happiest country in the world, with 87 percent of residents scoring high on an index of positive emotions, according to the latest Gallup poll on well-being.

Not surprisingly, Syria, suffering through a civil war, is the unhappiest and people there are so badly off they’ve hit a new low, the survey finds.

The ten happiest countries in the world and why were not one of them

http://www.planetizen.com/node/65088
https://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20110125110022AAUPy6Q

Norway tops the list
What's the most prosperous country in the world? Norway. What's it got that the rest of the world doesn't? The biggest bump comes from having the world's highest per capita GDP of $53,000 a year. Norwegians have the second-highest level of satisfaction with their standards of living: 95 percent say they are satisfied with the freedom to choose the direction of their lives; an unparalleled 74 percent say other people can be trusted.

Cynics (particularly those leaving comments on Legatum's excellent website) say Norway's ranking is a fluke, that it's a boring, godless (just 13 percent go to church) homogeneous place to live with a massive welfare state bankrolled by high taxes. Without massive offshore reserves of oil and gas that it exports to the world through state-controlled Statoil, Norway's GDP would be far smaller.

And yet joining Norway in the top 10 prosperous countries are its Scandinavian sisters Denmark, Finland and Sweden, with equally small and civilized Switzerland and the Netherlands also in the club. None of these countries are blessed with great hoards of oil and gas.

Ok this is getting rather pathetic.

In the  link below that you posted supporting your premise:

 http://www.forbes.com/sites/christopherhelman/2013/10/29/the-worlds-happiest-and-saddest-countries-2013/


Again, what what did the article YOU posted note were factors in Norway achieving that rating?

Just paste it below, please.  BTW - you also might want to re-read the article you just posted also - but, if you need help there also, we can get to that as soon as we finish with your link above.

[Rigon]

What else? They are all borderline socialist states, with generous welfare benefits and lots of redistribution of wealth. Yet they don't let that socialism cross the line into autocracy. Civil liberties are abundant (consider decriminalized drugs and prostitution in the Netherlands). There are few restrictions on the flow of capital or of labor. Legatum's scholars point out that Denmark, for example, has little job protection, but generous unemployment benefits. So business owners can keep the right number of workers, while workers can have a safety net while they muck around looking for that fulfilling job.

[Rigon]

Do please answer the above - I think I know why you may be hesitating to do so.


But, while on the subject, happen to come across another article where a different nation is ranked #1 - and the ones that follow are also in South America. Happiness is probably hard to quantify.

http://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-news/worlds-happiest-country-would-you-believe-paraguay-n110981

Paraguay is the happiest country in the world, with 87 percent of residents scoring high on an index of positive emotions, according to the latest Gallup poll on well-being.

Not surprisingly, Syria, suffering through a civil war, is the unhappiest and people there are so badly off they’ve hit a new low, the survey finds.

The ten happiest countries in the world and why were not one of them

http://www.planetizen.com/node/65088
https://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20110125110022AAUPy6Q

Norway tops the list
What's the most prosperous country in the world? Norway. What's it got that the rest of the world doesn't? The biggest bump comes from having the world's highest per capita GDP of $53,000 a year. Norwegians have the second-highest level of satisfaction with their standards of living: 95 percent say they are satisfied with the freedom to choose the direction of their lives; an unparalleled 74 percent say other people can be trusted.

Cynics (particularly those leaving comments on Legatum's excellent website) say Norway's ranking is a fluke, that it's a boring, godless (just 13 percent go to church) homogeneous place to live with a massive welfare state bankrolled by high taxes. Without massive offshore reserves of oil and gas that it exports to the world through state-controlled Statoil, Norway's GDP would be far smaller.

And yet joining Norway in the top 10 prosperous countries are its Scandinavian sisters Denmark, Finland and Sweden, with equally small and civilized Switzerland and the Netherlands also in the club. None of these countries are blessed with great hoards of oil and gas.

Ok this is getting rather pathetic.

In the  link below that you posted supporting your premise:

 http://www.forbes.com/sites/christopherhelman/2013/10/29/the-worlds-happiest-and-saddest-countries-2013/


Again, what what did the article YOU posted note were factors in Norway achieving that rating?

Just paste it below, please.  BTW - you also might want to re-read the article you just posted also - but, if you need help there also, we can get to that as soon as we finish with your link above.

You are quite pathetic.  Apparantly you are unable to cut and paste anything yourself.  Must have lost all his fingers but the one that type stupid shit.  I just C&P a whole bunch of reasons in the previous post.  How pathetic are you?  Read it.  C&P whatever you like if you think you have a point .

[zolace]

Do please answer the above - I think I know why you may be hesitating to do so.


But, while on the subject, happen to come across another article where a different nation is ranked #1 - and the ones that follow are also in South America. Happiness is probably hard to quantify.

http://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-news/worlds-happiest-country-would-you-believe-paraguay-n110981

Paraguay is the happiest country in the world, with 87 percent of residents scoring high on an index of positive emotions, according to the latest Gallup poll on well-being.

Not surprisingly, Syria, suffering through a civil war, is the unhappiest and people there are so badly off they’ve hit a new low, the survey finds.

The ten happiest countries in the world and why were not one of them

http://www.planetizen.com/node/65088
https://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20110125110022AAUPy6Q

Norway tops the list
What's the most prosperous country in the world? Norway. What's it got that the rest of the world doesn't? The biggest bump comes from having the world's highest per capita GDP of $53,000 a year. Norwegians have the second-highest level of satisfaction with their standards of living: 95 percent say they are satisfied with the freedom to choose the direction of their lives; an unparalleled 74 percent say other people can be trusted.

Cynics (particularly those leaving comments on Legatum's excellent website) say Norway's ranking is a fluke, that it's a boring, godless (just 13 percent go to church) homogeneous place to live with a massive welfare state bankrolled by high taxes. Without massive offshore reserves of oil and gas that it exports to the world through state-controlled Statoil, Norway's GDP would be far smaller.

And yet joining Norway in the top 10 prosperous countries are its Scandinavian sisters Denmark, Finland and Sweden, with equally small and civilized Switzerland and the Netherlands also in the club. None of these countries are blessed with great hoards of oil and gas.

Ok this is getting rather pathetic.

In the  link below that you posted supporting your premise:

 http://www.forbes.com/sites/christopherhelman/2013/10/29/the-worlds-happiest-and-saddest-countries-2013/


Again, what what did the article YOU posted note were factors in Norway achieving that rating?

Just paste it below, please.  BTW - you also might want to re-read the article you just posted also - but, if you need help there also, we can get to that as soon as we finish with your link above.

You are quite pathetic.  Apparently you are unable to cut and paste anything yourself.  Must have lost all his fingers but the one that type stupid shit.  I just C&P a whole bunch of reasons in the previous post.  How pathetic are you?  Read it.  C&P whatever you like if you think you have a point .

No, you made the claim from article - you copy what they say.  Granted, I think we both know why you hesitate to do that.

[Rigon]

LOL  I already posted dozens of reasons why they are happy.  No hesitation.  An eglaitarian society desired after WWII was the secret.  Egalitarian - equality and equal rights for all peoples.   No religious bigotry apparantly.

again "freedom to choose the direction of their lives" came out of one of many of my links.   They apparantly chose (in majority) no religion....and yet they are among the happiest peoples on the planet.

Still cant explain that can you?

[zolace]

LOL  I already posted dozens of reasons why they are happy.  No hesitation.  An eglaitarian society desired after WWII was the secret.  Egalitarian - equality and equal rights for all peoples.   No religious bigotry apparantly.

again "freedom to choose the direction of their lives" came out of one of many of my links.   They apparantly chose (in majority) no religion....and yet they are among the happiest peoples on the planet.

Still cant explain that can you?

Ok this is getting even more pathetic.

In the link below that you posted supporting your premise:

http://www.forbes.com/sites/christopherhelman/2013/10/29/the-worlds-happiest-and-saddest-countries-2013/

[zolace]

What what did the article YOU posted note were factors in Norway achieving that rating?   Granted - you may realize actually posting what the article said will be a problem for you.  Of course, not posting it does also now.  So, fear not, and go with posting the excerpt from the article above.

[egghead123]

Got curious and was checking out China's position on religion.

Came across this article on State Atheism.  Rather interesting - rather like a State Church, like was common in Europe.  And, at least by definition, not the same as a secular state.

Examples of such were/are the communist states, Revolutionary France and Revolutionary Mexico.  The article goes into detail on each such country.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/State_atheism

State atheism is the official promotion of atheism by a government, sometimes combined with active suppression of religious freedom and practice. In contrast, a secular state purports to be officially neutral in matters of religion, supporting neither religion nor irreligion. State atheism may refer to a government's anti-clericalism, which opposes religious institutional power and influence in all aspects of public and political life, including the involvement of religion in the everyday life of the citizen.

Well, surprise surprise... Atheism in it's weak form is a good thing (in my opinion). But many atheists are not a single bit 'better' or open minded than the most religious nutjobs. If you are running around and tell people that their religion is wrong and they shouldn't force their believe on others, well go figure what you're doing yourself!

+1

[Rigon]

LOL  I already posted dozens of reasons why they are happy.  No hesitation.  An eglaitarian society desired after WWII was the secret.  Egalitarian - equality and equal rights for all peoples.   No religious bigotry apparantly.

again "freedom to choose the direction of their lives" came out of one of many of my links.   They apparantly chose (in majority) no religion....and yet they are among the happiest peoples on the planet.

Still cant explain that can you?

Ok this is getting even more pathetic.

In the link below that you posted supporting your premise:

http://www.forbes.com/sites/christopherhelman/2013/10/29/the-worlds-happiest-and-saddest-countries-2013/

again "freedom to choose the direction of their lives" came out of one of many of my links.   I already posted this .     "Legatum scores the world’s countries on entrepreneurship, personal freedom, health, economy, social capital, education, safety & security, and governance." And that was just one of my many links about those countries.  They apparantly chose (in majority) no religion....and yet they are among the happiest peoples on the planet. They have personal freedom and equality, no religigious bigotry.

Still cant explain that can you.

[Rigon]

What what did the article YOU posted note were factors in Norway achieving that rating?   Granted - you may realize actually posting what the article said will be a problem for you.  Of course, not posting it does also now.  So, fear not, and go with posting the excerpt from the article above.

I've made my point .   The nations with the least religion are the perennial winners in the happiness studies.   You cannot explain it.....it is making your brain smoke.   If you think you have a point, feel free to make it.

[TaunSew]

Scandinavia prosperity had a lot to do with being a trade conduit between NATO and the USSR in the Cold War.  25% of Finland's exports were to the USSR and the percentages were similarly high to the rest of the WP.  Finland had a monopoly on the production and distribution of certain imported goods in the USSR.

The Fernsehturm in East Berlin, for instance, was built by Swedes.  The Scandinavians received all sorts of preferential trade agreements and contracts by both sides of the Cold War in order to win their favour or to keep them neutral, and this benefited their economies a great deal.


Nowadays the Scandinavians are saying their economies are in a stagnation and their welfare state is disappearing.  Not surprised since it was a bubble based on the assumption that a transfer of wealth from the United States and the Soviet Union into Scandinavia would last forever.

Reality is that former Scandinavian exports and contracts have since gone to China and Germany.

[Rigon]

You may have missed the part in the link that said the most unhappy places were places with religious oppression.LOL zolace cant find a hole deep enough to dig himself into.

[BADecker]

LOL  I already posted dozens of reasons why they are happy.  No hesitation.  An eglaitarian society desired after WWII was the secret.  Egalitarian - equality and equal rights for all peoples.   No religious bigotry apparantly.

again "freedom to choose the direction of their lives" came out of one of many of my links.   They apparantly chose (in majority) no religion....and yet they are among the happiest peoples on the planet.

Still cant explain that can you?

They're not happy. They just think that they are.

[zolace]

LOL  I already posted dozens of reasons why they are happy.  No hesitation.  An eglaitarian society desired after WWII was the secret.  Egalitarian - equality and equal rights for all peoples.   No religious bigotry apparantly.

again "freedom to choose the direction of their lives" came out of one of many of my links.   They apparantly chose (in majority) no religion....and yet they are among the happiest peoples on the planet.

Still cant explain that can you?

They're not happy. They just think that they are.

+1

[Rigon]

Legatum scores the world’s countries on entrepreneurship, personal freedom, health, economy, social capital, education, safety & security, and governance.

http://media.prosperity.com/2013/pdf/publications/PI2013Brochure_WEB.pdf

Norway ranks high in economy(#1), personal freedom (#2), and safety(#6) and social capital (#1).  They are #1 in social capital.  That is to say, community, family cohesiveness.   I wonder how they rate so high as family cohevisiveness, community and safety seeing that they are the most likely people to have no religion at all?  How could a nation full of people who just dont see religion as important be happy, into community and cohesiveness, safe, and enjoy personal freedom???   All without religion?   How could that be?

[zolace]

Legatum scores the world’s countries on entrepreneurship, personal freedom, health, economy, social capital, education, safety & security, and governance.

http://media.prosperity.com/2013/pdf/publications/PI2013Brochure_WEB.pdf

Norway ranks high in economy(#1), personal freedom (#2), and safety(#6) and social capital (#1).  They are #1 in social capital.  That is to say, community, family cohesiveness.   I wonder how they rate so high as family cohevisiveness, community and safety seeing that they are the most likely people to have no religion at all?  How could a nation full of people who just dont see religion as important be happy, into community and cohesiveness, safe, and enjoy personal freedom???   All without religion?   How could that be?

And again, on the subject of happiness - eye of the beholder?

Frankly, I would not have picked Paraguay - but I have not kept up on its current events for quite some time either, etc.

http://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-news/worlds-happiest-country-would-you-believe-paraguay-n110981

Paraguay is the happiest country in the world, with 87 percent of residents scoring high on an index of positive emotions, according to the latest Gallup poll on well-being.

Not surprisingly, Syria, suffering through a civil war, is the unhappiest and people there are so badly off they’ve hit a new low, the survey finds.

[BADecker]

Legatum scores the world’s countries on entrepreneurship, personal freedom, health, economy, social capital, education, safety & security, and governance.

http://media.prosperity.com/2013/pdf/publications/PI2013Brochure_WEB.pdf

Norway ranks high in economy(#1), personal freedom (#2), and safety(#6) and social capital (#1).  They are #1 in social capital.  That is to say, community, family cohesiveness.   I wonder how they rate so high as family cohevisiveness, community and safety seeing that they are the most likely people to have no religion at all?  How could a nation full of people who just dont see religion as important be happy, into community and cohesiveness, safe, and enjoy personal freedom???   All without religion?   How could that be?

Only the living. The dead would have a different opinion if they could be polled.

[BADecker]

From Legatum: "We see, for example, that despite the tumultuous events of the last [five] years, global prosperity is actually still on the rise." Takes a long time to kill off faith in God.

[zimmah]

Got curious and was checking out China's position on religion.

Came across this article on State Atheism.  Rather interesting - rather like a State Church, like was common in Europe.  And, at least by definition, not the same as a secular state.

Examples of such were/are the communist states, Revolutionary France and Revolutionary Mexico.  The article goes into detail on each such country.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/State_atheism

State atheism is the official promotion of atheism by a government, sometimes combined with active suppression of religious freedom and practice. In contrast, a secular state purports to be officially neutral in matters of religion, supporting neither religion nor irreligion. State atheism may refer to a government's anti-clericalism, which opposes religious institutional power and influence in all aspects of public and political life, including the involvement of religion in the everyday life of the citizen.

It has been prophesied that religion would be attacked, somewhere in revelations.

Even though freedom of religion is a basic human right.