You give religions more than $82.5 billion a year - The Washington Post

Matt Yglesias thinks we ought to start taxing churches. "Whichever faith you think is the one true faith, it's undeniable that the majority of this church-spending is going to support false doctrines," he notes. Even if you did direct the money toward the one true faith, it'd still be a bad idea, as "Upgrading a church's physical plant doesn't enhance the soul-saving capacity of its clergy."

Regardless of whether you buy Yglesias's logic, this raises an interesting question — exactly how much money are we talking about here? If, all of a sudden, churches, synagogues, mosques and the like lost their tax privileges, how much tax revenue would that generate?

Ryan T. Cragun, a sociologist at the University of Tampa, and two of his students, Stephanie Yeager and Desmond Vega, took it upon themselves to figure it out. They're not exactly disinterested parties; their research appeared in Free Inquiry, a publication of the Council for Secular Humanism. But Cragun is a serious sociologist of religion and the data seems to check out. The full scale of subsidies religions get is pretty staggering,,,

You give religions more than $82.5 billion a year - The Washington Post

Supernatural Experiences May Lead to Religious Giving | LiveScience

People who report having supernatural experiences — such as being healed, speaking in tongues or hearing God's voice — are more likely to give money to religious organizations, and the more religious certainty people have, the more they are willing to give, according to new research.

The study's author, Katie Corcoran, a postdoctoral fellow in Baylor's Institute for Studies of Religion, based her research on social exchange theory, which assumes that individuals will pick the option that will benefit them most when faced with a business decision, whether buying a something on eBay or choosing a restaurant.

Factors like trust, reputation and familiarity typically increase the likelihood of a transaction. And there are parallels to how these exchanges play out in the religious arena, Corcoran said.

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One factor that could influence religious giving is whether or not a person belongs to a "high tension" congregation. These religious organizations, which include certain evangelical Protestant Christian groups, have values that tend to conflict with those of mainstream society.

Previous research shows that evangelicals give more of their income than mainline Protestants and Catholics, Corcoran noted, and her study suggests evangelicals have less religious doubt than other people, which increases their giving.

Supernatural Experiences May Lead to Religious Giving | LiveScience