Religion declines most steeply in strong welfare states

Evidence

One piece of evidence for this comes from the work of sociologists. Pipa Norris and Ronald Inglehart find that strong and stable secular institutions erode religion. Religion has declined most steeply in welfare states such as Denmark, Sweden, and France. In these countries, living standards are some of the highest in the world, and government services provide a social safety net from cradle to grave. — Norenzayan, Ara, Big gods - how religion transformed…, 567

Categorization

• XREF: The welfare-state erosion of religion directly patterns the reader’s frame: where the state’s safety net substitutes for providence, the Big God’s surveillance and insurance role is outsourced — relevant to how the shogunate’s stable order undercuts the missionaries’ claims.