Quote:
Originally Posted by craig1120
I agree, so I meant 'key' difference (controlling for environmental influencers).
Regarding my last post, I should also say that I'm aware that intelligence correlates with atheism, but a lack of intelligence is not solely what prevents theists from becoming atheists. Or rather, to be more specific, focusing on intelligence won't lead to understanding how a theist becomes an atheist and vice versa. I didn't mean to dismiss it as a factor, but to me it's a distraction from the more relevant factor(s).
Well, I think the findings in this particular survey has a lot to do with surrounding culture.
I don't have any raw data, but from my observation it is rare in my country to become religious if you weren't reared to be so. I mean it happens, but I have seen absolutely nothing to indicate that it is more common than losing your religion. Considering that my country is about evenly split between non-believers and believers and has been so for a long time (with non-believers slightly increasing) it is also, needless to say, very implausible that these statistics are repeated here
But again, in my country there is zero stigma attached to not having religion, very few people care about the religion or lack thereof in politicians, leaders or officials for example - whereas in the US, atheists still rank very low on trust in surveys.
So one can argue that it is very conceivable that in the US there is a pressure, intended or not, towards being religious which is hard to escape. It seems that in your country (if I'm mistaken about your nationality, my apologies) atheism closes a lot of doors for you, both professionally and socially.