The Mystery of Religion’s Persistence
Explaining how there can be mass craziness even under late-industrial conditions
How is it possible that after the Scientific Revolution hundreds of millions of educated people still have roughly the same religious beliefs and practices as the ancients who were practically in the dark about the universe?
Indeed, is that persistence of theism itself miraculous evidence for the existence of God?
True, we know that religion is perpetuated by the indoctrination of children. Overwhelmingly, children grow up to share their parents’ religion, which they’re taught when they’re young and thus when they lack critical faculties and their instinct is to trust their elders. This is why, even without the conquering of territory to spread the faith, religions are confined mainly to geographical regions. Religion is hardly just a matter of taste, with each adult offered a smorgasbord of options and making a free choice between, say, Judaism, Hinduism, and Islam.
But why don’t more indoctrinated theists leave behind their native religion when they grow up, after they’re formally educated and introduced to modernity? Again, is the fact that they don’t do so somehow itself proof that a deity is at work in history?
