Quote Originally Posted by Lion View Post
Curious about the basis here. Living in Canada which I guess comes in between US and the Scandinavian countries when it comes to religion and your daily life, I've never seen 'education' being a factor for people being atheist or even agnostic here.
From my observations (limited though they may be), I feel that the more people learn about religions, all religions, not just their own, the less they are likely to be taken in by them. I've read several articles by graduates of seminary schools who say it is virtually impossible for an intelligent person to get through graduate school and retain his faith.

Also, the more you learn about the real world, and science in particular, the more you realize how bizarre and unrealistic religious dogma is. While science can not prove there are no gods, it can show that the gods who are worshiped around the world cannot possibly exist as defined by their religions. One reason the Catholic Church tried to prevent the Bible form being published in the vernacular was to keep the faithful from actually reading it and learning how screwed up and contradictory it is, and how evil and nasty their God is.

With the exception of some countries, I feel that religion is prevalent just because that's the last bit of hope and structure people can hold on to. Whether it's false or not, it's still more reliable then corrupt politicians, coorporations that seek to exploit whatever resources available for it's own needs and just general shittyness of living in terrible conditions. I feel it's human nature to reach out to a deity when that's the only option you have. Seeing the conditions of how millions live in a poor country like Pakistan, religion (whatever they believe in) might be the only thing keeping these people from complete dispair.
I see it differently. Based on my own experience being raised in the Catholic Church, and on what I have learned over the years, religions are more useful in keeping people down than in helping them to rise up. For thousands of years the powers-that-be have used religion to control their populations, keeping themselves in control while making rebellion a sin which will keep you from whatever redemption the religion has to offer. I see virtually all religions as being oppressive, trying to keep people in their places rather than helping them to improve themselves. Again, an intelligent, educated population is a dangerous population. They can learn to see the fallacies behind the religions, and the politics. Teaching people they cannot improve themselves without God's help only makes them less likely to really try to improve. And, especially in the Catholic Church, forbidding any form of birth control almost guarantees large families which keeps a poorer population.

It is human nature to seek some kind of explanation for things we don't understand, and lacking any real understanding of some natural event it's very easy to ascribe it to some supernatural being. Yet history has shown that almost every such godlike power can be explained, without resorting to the supernatural. Disease was once considered a punishment sent by God: it is now understood to be a natural occurrence, and something which can be controlled, to a greater or lesser degree, without the need of prayer or gods. Lightning, volcanoes, earthquakes, floods, were all once thought to be sent by gods. We now know better. (Or at least we should. Some nuts still try to claim that natural events were sent by gods. It seems their gods have very poor aim, though.)

The more we learn about the real world, the less room there is for supernatural explanations. Teaching our children how the world really works will be far more beneficial for their futures than burdening them with superstitions.