In Sweden you'd be ridiculed for holding that both religion and capitalism are important to society (which explains why no one seems to vote for the Christian Democrats anymore). But at least from a historical point of view, religion and economic growth correlate quite well. And, of course to my personal liking, Protestantism seems to outrun Catholicism on capitalist growth:

That hell could matter to economic growth might seem surprising, since you can’t prove it exists, let alone quantify it. It stands as one of the more intriguing findings in a growing body of recent research exploring how religion might influence the wealth and prosperity of societies. In recent years, Italian economists have presented findings that religion can boost GDP by increasing trust within a society; researchers in the United States showed that religion reduces corruption and increases respect for law in ways that boost overall economic growth. A number of researchers have documented how merchants used religious backgrounds to establish one another’s reliability.

The two collected data from 59 countries where a majority of the population followed one of the four major religions, Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, or Buddhism. They ran this data - which covered slices of years from 1981 to 2000, measuring things like levels of belief in God, afterlife beliefs, and worship attendance - through statistical models. Their results show a strong correlation between economic growth and certain shifts in beliefs, though only in developing countries. Most strikingly, if belief in hell jumps up sharply while actual church attendance stays flat, it correlates with economic growth. Belief in heaven also has a similar effect, though less pronounced. Mere belief in God has no effect one way or the other. Meanwhile, if church attendance actually rises, it slows growth in developing economies.

Researchers based at the New University of Lisbon and the University of Illinois used a model that showed European industrial development between 1645 and 1850 took place roughly 35 years earlier in Protestant countries than Catholic ones. (The researchers posited that Protestant beliefs in economic success as a sign one might get to heaven inspired people to work harder and invest.) The German economist Sascha O. Becker looked at Prussia’s economic development and found that, at least for Germany, Weber was right about the Protestant work ethic: Protestants were more likely to be entrepreneurs than Catholics, and more likely to create bigger firms.

Unsurprisingly, it seems beneficial for the economy to scare people into cultural cohesion. I imagine this is in part, besides the tax cuts, how Bush slowed down the effects of the economic recession in America. Scare all Americans with propaganda that terrorism is threatening your country and people will suddenly feel like they are ultimately connected to one another.

Catholicism, to be fair, is far better at scare tactics than Protestantism, but the latter understands individual rights and a limited but strong national government better than any other version of Christianity. If this analysis is even remotely correct, we can expect that the devastating effects of multiculturalism in Europe eventually will lead to Far Right governments that threaten its citizens with alien supremacy. Accordingly, we might finally see an end to the current economic downturn. I can already see the slogans in front of me: "Hate an immigrant, save the economy!"