Nature May Have A Profound Effect On Our Religiosity

[bore]

Leaving aside the obvious correlation and causation issues here, this study also involves two things which  can't really be defined, religion and nature.

For one thing religious affiliation, belief in God, religious practice and spirituality are not even close to the same thing, and even if they were they depends so much on how the questions are asked to make it exceedingly difficult to be useful in this type of survey.

Even more importantly though "nature" doesn't mean anything and can't be defined. We find deserts and forests, rivers and lakes, mountains and fens all beautiful despite the fact they have nothing in common. The scale itself uses "warm winter, winter sun, temperate summer, low summer humidity, topographical variation and water area, each precisely defined" as the qualities, and it's easy to find counter examples for each of these categories. Easy to live in and awe inspiring are not even close to the same thing, and the Alps cold winter temperatures and the Amazons year round heat show this better than anything I can say.