"Where do atheists come from?"

a very small number of Britons typically label themselves as "atheist" or "agnostic" (most surveys put it at about 5 per cent)

In the UK, for example, a sizeable 43 per cent said they had "no religion" in the 2008 BSA survey

In this article, for instance, we have danced between "atheistic", "non-theistic", "non-religious", "unbelieving" and "godless" as if they were synonyms.

eh?

WAIT WAIT WAIT

I'll read the rest of the article in a while but this kind of stuck out a little:

What is more, the survey shows a far stronger correlation between education and certain "irrational" beliefs: for example, only 29.6 per cent of those without even an elementary education believe in telepathy, compared with 51.8 per cent of people with degree-level education.

51.8 per cent of college attendees believe in telepathy?

Zillah wrote: »

51.8 per cent of college attendees believe in telepathy?

I think people are assuming that by college attendees, the article predominantly means science or engineering students, but the attendees in question could be studying anything, like homeopathy or football culture.

I posted this 2 weeks ago in the "Interesting Stuff" thread, but never mind you can steal my thunder. :P

God Knows!

I wonder what happened when someone flew above the clouds and found out heaven wasn't there...?

So they found out that the more educated you get, you believe in less fairytales?

Or putting it another way: the more you learn about the universe that you exist in, the less answers you can gain from which ever holy book you read.

I had a few questions, and the priests couldn't answer. Nor could the religous people. And thus I looked. Not many answers out there, or I was told "you gotta have faith" if the question startled them.

Bullsh|t, says I. If you don't have all the answers, I'll look elsewhere. I wonder how many turned their back on religion due to a lack of answers. I did find answers in a physics book, in a geography book, in books about real stuff. The more my education expanded my knowledge, the less I believed in the crap stuff into my mind.

Rereading through parts of the quoted article, it seems that people question why we don't believe in the fairytales.

I wonder: is it because we have a better understanding of the universe, or is it that we no longer see proof of a hell? That, due to the lack of fear of dying, we are not driven into churches?

Coupled with the prosperity of the last couple of years, we see no point in going to church. I mention prosperity, as before the boom lots of people seemed to goto church, and now that the sh|t has hit the fan, people are going back to the church to pray for a way out.

Sometimes, it's easier to pray to a magical god in the sky for a job.