Do Europeans work less because they believe less in God?

Calm down, my (atheist) friends, I did not become a subscriber of the Christian Science Monitor. But since this story is so hillarious, I have to mention it:

Researchers are reexamining whether there might be a link between religious belief and economic performance. Niall Ferguson, a professor of history at Harvard University, examined the connections between faith and work ethic in light of divergent trends he found in the United States and Europe. Religious belief in North America has "been amazingly resilient" amid big economic gains, he says, disputing the notion that wealthier countries necessarily become less religious.
But abroad, Ferguson noted that a decline in European working hours coincided with a decline in faith. "Americans don't in fact do better work than Frenchmen," he wrote. "They just do more work. A lot more." Between 1979 and 1999, the average U.S. working year lengthened by nearly 4 percent. Yet in Germany, France, and Spain, that figure dropped by at least 10 percent. "Europeans now seem to believe in holidays, not in holy days," he adds. This divergence, Ferguson, argues, coincides with a period of European de-Christianization, and American re-Christianization.

O mai. These lazy non-believers. What can we say? They're European. Plus: It's time again to suggest another name change for the French fries. How about sinner's fries?