Outspoken: Confessions of a Devout Atheist

13. The #1 Cause of Atheism

     Now one of the biggest retorts I receive from those who are devoutly religious that happens to be my biggest pet peeve is that the only reason why I don't believe is because I didn't read the bible. Not only is that hypothesis false, but the actual reality of it is the exact opposite: the more you actually read, the less likely you are to believe it. Reading religious holy books doesn't make you more religious as examining them shows you what they actually have in common and what they may have plagiarized from one another. The more you actually read, the more you realize that the books people are worshiping are racist, sexist and most of all evil in their apparent natures. As examined in previous chapters, many books call for the oppression of women, slavery and even the death of people who don't follow their guidelines to the tee. The more educated a person becomes with regards to religion as a whole rather than just stick to one small branch, the quicker this educated person is to concluding that they are all man made fiction and not the works of an almighty, omnipotent being.

     The gallop poll posted above seems to prove the claim as the number of people who think the bible is a book of fables increases from thirteen percent for people with an education of high school or less to an amazing twenty-five percent when asking people who are post-graduate. The number of believers also fell when more education is present to a person dramatically as the people who thought the bible was the exact word of god dropped explicitly from forty-six percent when polling people with high school or less education to just sixteen percent of people who believed that after post grad. This kind of drop, an enormous drop of thirty percent cannot be ignored: the more educated a person is the less likely they are to buy the bullshit being shoveled out on a daily basis by organized religions.

     It's evident that when it comes to non-believers, it isn't that atheism gets the smarter people but rather that atheism is positively linked with education. The more educated one becomes, the more likely that person is to become a non-believer. Switching to atheism won't make you smarter, but going to college will make you more likely to become an atheist. The more educated a person becomes, the more then think. With that thinking come questions and that's when the ball starts rolling with regards to belief. Thoughts become questions and then questions become doubts. Eventually without any evidence to support their side, many people who educate themselves at a high level often come to a very rational conclusion: Religion has no basis in fact and should be disregarded until sufficient evidence is presented.

     In earlier years, children are taught to listen to our teachers, this does not always guarantee we become intelligent and knowledgeable. That form of critical analysis is diametrically opposite to teaching students to consume everything the teaching staff claims as truth. We're often told not to question it, apply it and then shuffle on to the next subject matter. Students who raise their hands in elementary school are often reprimanded and accused of interfering with the process. It is at the university level where students are often taught to critically assess everything their professors say. University students are expected when composing papers to check everything against independent sources, make sure it makes logical sense and gain a personal view (supported by evidence) of the subject to hand. This attitude of critical assessment and independent collaboration contributes greatly to the higher rates of atheism at institutions of higher learning.

     Religion's appeal to the dim-witted is not difficult to grasp; for the church provides people with simple, trouble-free answers to questions that are and likely always be well above their pay grade. But these issues are never that straightforward, and scientists work very hard to find logical explanations everyday and their work is often ridiculed by those who do not appreciate it and refuse to even hear them out of plain ignorance. Many religious propagandists often refuse to even consider alternate theories despite the absence of evidence to back up any of their claims.