Protestant countries developed faster than Catholic countries

I like thought provoking articles.

historia.wp.pl/title,Reformacja-w-Polsce-stracona-szansa-na-rozwoj,wid,18015422,wiadomosc.html?ticaid=116119&_ticrsn=3

According to the article at Wirtualna Polska and a bunch of studies, protestant countries experienced an explosive growth for 2 centuries compared to the catholic countries in Europe.

Reformation was held back in Poland particularly by Piotr Skarga. He called the law allowing religious tolerance predatory, unfair, savage, hellish, tyrranical etc.

It is a fact that in Europe Protestant countries left the Catholic countries in the dust. What isn't entirely clear why it happened. The article proposes that it was because of Protestant ethics:

+ Protestantism praises hard work, and becoming very good at one's craft
+ Protestantism discourages spending money on yourself

The two above put together resulted in raise of Capitalism. In Catholic countries, money was immediately spent. In Protestant ones, because it was discouraged to spend it on yourself, it was invested.

+ Bible is the sole source of faith

This means all believers should read Bible. This means all believers should able to read. People felt compelled by God to read, so illiteracy died a swift death. People started thinking for themselves instead of waiting to be told what to do. They also started having doubts about religion, so they started discussing Bible with others, improving their debating skills. Finally, the rule made people more responsible, because with no intermediaries they felt directly responsible to Jesus for their actions.

- Counter-argument: Bible should be explained by learned men. People aren't smart enough to interpret bible properly.

I understand this argument as nothing more than "No one would need us, Church hierarchs, if people started reading Bible and thinking for themselves".

Worth reading:
"The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism" by Max Weber

Mainly exploiting Negroes.

That is a lot of nonsense. History tell it otherwise.

" Protestantism praises hard work, and becoming very good at one's craft "

Very true ... Protestant thought encourages independent thinking . Catholic dogma prefers burning independent thinkers at the stake .

I think the different climate in Northern and Southern Europe was more relevant to economic growth and the cause of the rise of Protestantism.

Poland is the exception because of its unique history of being so dependant on the Catholic Church for its identity.

Ireland is another example of geography and climate screwing it economically.

Yea, I've read stuff like this before and it's all very true. Catholics don't like hearing it though so you'll probably make enemies on this forum.

There is the small matter of 700 years of English hegemony. btw, climate and geography didn't exactly hold back England.

That is protestant propaganda to be honest, during and after Protestant Revolution people were burned at stake in their drovers, quickly outdid anybody else, free thinkers and other religions have been persecuted, privet property stolen, places of worship destroyed, totalitarian government invented.

Please tell memory about wonders Protestantism bought.
In time the worst excesses burned out but uniformity and authoritarian states are all legacy of the PR.

English? Scotland had and still does have a far more significant impact on Ireland, look at a map to see why.

From modern eyes, Ireland's location doesn't seem to matter as much as it did for the rest of history. Climatically, Ireland is also significantly different from a lot of the UK. Having a sole food source dependent on the temper of the Atlantic Ocean made a dramatic impact on Ireland's history.

I noticed that the countries with Protestantism tend to be the rimland countries. It's a known observation that rimland countries (with access to sea) develop faster because of MUCH cheaper sea transport and spread of new ideas. Poland used to be firmly a heartland country, it only got more sea access with Third Polish Republic. The core Polish lands are those in current east Poland, and portions of Ukraine, Belarus, Kaliningrad Oblast. It's been a looong time since those lands were considered well developed.

So maybe the disparity in development was caused by something else. Maybe Poland resisted Protestantism because it still is a heartland country, which means it resists all new ideas. I look forward to Poland making Vistula navigable again, and to Poland having some cultural exchange with China.

Look at those stats:
Top sixty countries by number and percentage of Protestants:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Protestantism_by_country#Top_sixty_countries_by_number_and_percentage_of_Protestants
With Rwanda being 27th.

What?? People had their hedges stolen? Outrageous!
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Privet

Catholic/protestant, Left/right, Gay/straight, Man! you guys are thick as ****! sorry man but it needs to be said.

Don't forget either that the so-called Protestant countries had of course originally been Catholic, as was rest of Europe (....and, though not including the former Constantinople prior to the Seljuk Muslims invading and taking it over, renaming her Istanbul!!). While France, a staunchly Catholic country, was among the first on the continent to industrialize, Italy, Spain and much of the rest of Southern Europe remained poverty stricken until almost the present day.

I hence find the correlation between the "creative", "more rapidly scientifically advanced" North of Europe (being typically Protestant aka Anglican or Lutheran) vs. the "slower", "less creative and thus lazy" South to be more or less blatant, if outmoded, stereotypes founded more in sheer bigotry than provable fact:-)