individuals who turn to religion over time become, ceteris paribus, more satisfied, while those those turning away from it suffer a loss in their quality of life.
It could be that theists make non-theists unhappy, rather than religion making theists happy. Did they rule that out?
Not that I can tell, but that’s an interesting suggestion. How would that work? What would it predict for societies with many religious people but few non-religious people, and vice versa?
It could work like that (though there were no conversion here). This kind of mob mentality can and do manifest itself over other channels than religion of course, but I think atheism is a less likely channel than religion itself.
Religion generally comes with a moral system, backed up by a set of beliefs. Among them, the belief that it is proper and good to believe (and, well, you know). It also comes with community by default, which can have a strong effect (compare r/atheism and r/religion: the more united tribe (atheists) sound much less tolerant overall).
The reason why someone turned to atheism may also influence his likelihood of persecuting believers. A Lukeprog scenario isn’t likely to result in intolerance, for instance. Raw rebellion, followed by a “this is all bullshit anyway” rationalization may. I’d put being raised by atheists parents between the two, though it depends on the parents.
Anyway, I think the strongest factor is mob mentality. A group of anything that doesn’t identify itself as such isn’t very likely to make others miserable because of that “anything”. And more often than not, atheists form such a group.
From the article:
It could be that theists make non-theists unhappy, rather than religion making theists happy. Did they rule that out?
Not that I can tell, but that’s an interesting suggestion. How would that work? What would it predict for societies with many religious people but few non-religious people, and vice versa?
It could work like that (though there were no conversion here). This kind of mob mentality can and do manifest itself over other channels than religion of course, but I think atheism is a less likely channel than religion itself.
Religion generally comes with a moral system, backed up by a set of beliefs. Among them, the belief that it is proper and good to believe (and, well, you know). It also comes with community by default, which can have a strong effect (compare r/atheism and r/religion: the more united tribe (atheists) sound much less tolerant overall).
The reason why someone turned to atheism may also influence his likelihood of persecuting believers. A Lukeprog scenario isn’t likely to result in intolerance, for instance. Raw rebellion, followed by a “this is all bullshit anyway” rationalization may. I’d put being raised by atheists parents between the two, though it depends on the parents.
Anyway, I think the strongest factor is mob mentality. A group of anything that doesn’t identify itself as such isn’t very likely to make others miserable because of that “anything”. And more often than not, atheists form such a group.