Is religious adherence bad for the economy?

I have a new post up at First Thoughts about religious adherence and economic performance.

This one was prompted by a frustratingly shallow NPR story about Ramadan’s effect on GDP in majority-Muslim countries. Ramadan, it said, and (by implication) similar events in other religions steal from productivity as religious adherents divert energies toward something other than productive efficiency.

I argue otherwise. Go read the post to find out why.

On a related note, today happens to be the last day of Ramadan. How fitting!