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>Do people become less religious only because of a rejection of the supernatural, or for other reasons as well? Sociologically, people mostly become less relig
by eli_gottlieb 11y ago
>Do people become less religious only because of a rejection of the supernatural, or for other reasons as well?
Sociologically, people mostly become less religious when they feel that they control their own fate, and feel no need to ask for divine intervention. Hence why societies grow less religious as they grow rich and egalitarian, while highly unequal and/or poor societies have a tendency towards greater levels of religiosity.
- wyager 11y agoWhat makes you think it's because of a sense of control, as opposed to, say, increased education? This correlates highly with increased wealth.
- logicfiction 11y agoIt's a reasonably studied concept in psychology. Locus of control: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Locus_of_control#Organizational_psychology_and_religion https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Locus_of_control#Organizationa...
- Elrac 11y agoGregory Paul and Phil Zuckerman have investigated this question by teasing out correlations like this. Their conclusion, as discussed in [1] and [2] is that three factors correlate well with a drop in religiosity: (a) egalitarianism (i.e. not being in a rat race against the Joneses and also not suffering the lifelong indignity of being substantially less well off than others), (b) freedom from financial and other catastrophes (as provided by a socialistic-leaning society) which does away with the need for a Big Brother to help you out and correct the injustices, and (c) education as you suggest. Education is helpful but the other two factors apparently rank above it. [1] http://www.epjournal.net/articles/the-chronic-dependence-of-popular-religiosity-upon-dysfunctional-psychosociological-conditions/ http://www.epjournal.net/articles/the-chronic-dependence-of-... [2] http://edge.org/3rd_culture/paul07/paul07_index.html http://edge.org/3rd_culture/paul07/paul07_index.html