Religious values and poverty in Douala

Abstract

Religion actively encourages and participates in alleviating poverty thereby influencing the response to poverty This article examines how religious affiliations affect the quality of life of its members. The questionnaire was self-administered, employing the systematic sampling method. It was discovered that atheists and Pentecostals do not only have good feeding habits, but also have a relatively better health seeking behaviour. Atheists and Protestants are more independent than other religious adherents especially the Catholics who are significantly dependent. Although Muslims suffer from poor feeding habits, health seeking and domestic comfort, and some of them are significantly homeless, they have the most stable homes where they live in harmony with their spouses. Although Catholics and Protestants relatively have a much more domestic comfort and health seeking behaviour as compared to the Muslims, they are significantly in conflict with their spouses. The more people get closer to the original religion, the more the rate of conflicts in their household reduces thereby clearly confirming the sect-church theory.