First, this graphic correlates (remember, correlation does not necessarily equal causation) data from two different sources, one Gallop poll data from 2006-2008 and the other from the 2011 revision of the United Nations World Population Prospects report.
This graphs nations on a chart of infant mortality rate of under 1 year old children per 1000 live births (united nations) vs the average yes or no answer to the question "Is religion important in your daily life" (Gallop)
One of the issues with the graph is that it is too small to be able to show specific country names for each data point graphed. This is fixed by publishing spreadsheet data used to generate the chart.
Sources:
https://worldview.gallup.com/default.aspx
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Importance_of_religion_by_country
http://esa.un.org/unpd/wpp/Excel-Data/mortality.htm
I was able to recreate the chart exactly as pictured above, as you can see there are no countries that both have a high infant mortality rate and said no to the question, Is religion important in your daily life:
Mouse over each data point for:
Number of deaths per 1000 / percent of people that said yes
Mouse over each data point for:
Number of deaths per 1000 / percent of people that said yes
And here is the spreadsheet data used to generate the above chart:
I'm not saying religion is not a factor. But I notice that most of the countries listed that have a high infant mortality rate are developing nations and/or Muslim nations. A lack of education generally makes a difference when you consider people are not taught good health habits such as healthy eating and good hygiene. They are also not given/told the different options available, and medical procedures are not explained. These nations also have a higher incidence of racial prejudice, resulting in lower quality of care for minority peoples.
ReplyDeleteFor example, in one documentary I watched, "The Mountain Midwives of Vietnam", one minority group, the Hmong, were generally discouraged from having home births because of cleanliness issues. But instead of teaching the people how to keep clean and provide a clean environment for birthing, they just said, you have to come to the clinic/hospital and have the doctor look after you. And because they were Hmong, the quality of care was not the best.
If Islam is the predominant religion, especially the required religion, I would not be surprised at high mortality rates for both mothers and infants. Islam is such a male-dominated religion that females are often not as well treated as a man's prized horse or camel.
Many of the nations listed as having lower infant mortality rates are European nations. In these nations, midwives attend 70-80% of births.
Obviously there are far more factors to consider than the existence of lack thereof of personal religious belief in these statistics...
ReplyDeleteThe one question is this:
If God (whatever you may define that as) is the creator of all that is good and right, Why is there not even a single predominately godless nation with high infant mortality...
There are nations that are religious and have low statistics, there are nations that are religious and have high statistics, there are nations that are not religious and have low statistics, but there are no non religious nations with high statistics... at all..
Why is this?