Surprisingly, it seems to have a beneficial effect:

Economists searching for reasons why some nations are richer than others have found that those with a wide belief in hell are less corrupt and more prosperous, according to a report by the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis.

Before you write this off as a hoax or a savvy piece of satire, read this:

"A belief in hell tends to mean less corruption and less corruption tends to mean a higher per capita income," they wrote. It correlated the belief in hell findings of the World Value Series with a measure of corruption produced by Transparency International.

It then looked at the relationship between corruption and per capita gross domestic product and found "a strong tendency for countries with relatively low levels of corruption to have relatively high levels of per capita GDP."

"Combining these two stories ... suggests that, all else being equal, the more religious a country, the less corruption it will have and the higher its per capita income will be."

The researchers also noted the long tradition among classical economists to equate a society's honesty, and the strength of the rule of law, with economic vitality.

"Adam Smith wrote that one of religion's most important contributions to the economic development process is its value as a moral enforcement mechanism," they said.

It is nice to know that my own personal dogma is aiding the economy.

The paper released by the St. Louis Federal Reserve Bank can be found here.

(Hat-tip to my friend Sam)