Religiosity and economic development

[Starbucks Union Thug HokeyPuck]

The promises of religion can be very uplifting and give much hope to those who are in a desperate or struggling situation.  You often see prisoners take to religious texts when there is very little else to keep them going.  The idea that the way one lives is worth more than what one owns is one of the few things some religious instruction gets right, and I can see the appeal for a poor; to be given great things in the next life even if the current one is a struggle.  For the rich; however, the material wealth is so instantaneously gratifying, so intoxicating; why the hell would I ever want this life to end?  At the same time, I can trace the money and power that gave me all I have; it wasn't a god or something otherwise supernatural.  Of course there are many exceptions, but a correlation on the large scale is certainly understandable. 

But the idea that religion would CAUSE someone to be a poor?  No way.  If were going to go that route, then you have to say hobbies cause poverty, relationships cause poverty, enjoying life causes poverty; everything that would distract someone from the bottom line of their worth... and that's absurd.