The Catholic Church and the Third World

[Cartoonist]

This has been a theory of mine for quite some time. I'm certainly no expert, so I've kept an eye out for any study or discussion of this, but have never seen such. Basically, it holds that religion is not just incompatible with science, but that religion is also the enemy of economics.

I use as my laboratory, North and South America.
At one time, both continents were pretty much alike. Societies of hunter-gatherers with little or no industrial development. Some would call that paradise, and maybe they're right, but let's look at what happened next.

With the removal of the native population, the invaders all started out even. The North going to the protestants while Central and South went to the Catholic Spanish and Portugese conquistadors. The North has become an economic powerhouse and leader of the world, while many of the countries south of the Rio Grande languish behind.

Is it just coincidence, or is there a direct causal relationship? I am always amused whenever Cinco de Mayo rolls around and the Mexicans celebrate their independence. They have yet to liberate themselves from the Catholic Church.

[muriel_volestrangler]

1. You might just as well tie it up with the British, Spanish and Portuguese political systems

(in which religious sects played a major part too, of course). With civil wars in the 1640s, and then the deposing of a king in favour of a less powerful one in 1689, Britain had more powerful non-hereditary politicians and merchants, which affected the kind of society their colonies were like too. This affected how they industrialised.

[Promethean]

2. The area you are targetting is a poor choice

because there are so many other factors that can affect the outcome that have nothing to do with religion. You should have gone with Africa. There the catholic church has threatened to withdraw charity unless the governments implement catholic dogma as law. It has lead to significant backward progress. The most notable of this is when a successful campaign for responsible condom use was cancelled with the aforementioned threat. Said country has since had a boom in AIDS infection rates. But hey at least they got to keep the preachers proselytizing to the impoverished that they also happen to be feeding.