ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the impact of religion on society, politics and economics. Religious belief has been the main outlet for the people’s search for meaning and identity since the dawn of human civilizations 3000 years before Christ. The important point is that had Weber included politics, then he might have seen another connection between Protestantism and macro outcomes. The eta squared scores indicate that income distribution has less to do with religion in contrast to the eta squared scores for the other social outcomes, namely gender development or especially gender empowerment. The creed of Protestantism would contain the seeds of the spirit of capitalism, which would be the foundation for long periods of economic expansion, resulting in the affluence of Northern Europe and North America. The relatively low eta-squared scores suggest that religion capture only part of the country variation in economic wealth, other factors playing a role. Corruption is generally low in Protestant countries.
