Why do MOST people stop believing in God or in their religion?

[Lógos Sokratikós]

I've heard lots of good reasons not to believe in God on IIDB, elsewhere on the web and in books (the so-called "new atheism").
But why do common folk who don't read these books, are not philosophers, etc stop believing?

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/d2/Religious_Belief_in_North_America.png/350px-Religious_Belief_in_North_America.png

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/3/3e/Europe_belief_in_god.png/655px-Europe_belief_in_god.png

Are there any serious studies analyzing/theorizing about this on the web?

[Yggdrasill]

I'd say, because religion serves no useful purpose. At least here in Norway.

It is not a way to meet people, it does not explain anything in nature, it doesn not give peace of mind, it does not make you money, etc.

In fact, religion is often a liability, if you are noticably religious, most people will tend to think you have some mental deficiency.

[Jedi Mind Trick]

For me, I was frustrated with the doctrines of Christian theism.

[Lógos Sokratikós]

In fact, religion is often a liability, if you are noticably religious, most people will tend to think you have some mental deficiency.

Do you think atheist intolerance is growing?
I found this:

Finally, a huge portion of the atheists that he is pointing to were or are in communist countries. As religious people were or are frequently excluded from the better jobs in communist countries, an Atheist who counts them is effectively bragging about his own group's intolerance.

on this (http://www.geocities.com/richleebruce/b/atheist.html) blog. Excuse me for derailing.

[ziffel]

I would venture that the single most common reason is the internal (not necessarily external, or conscious) realization that their god is inactive in their lives. They do not 'feel' him, they do not get a response from him.

The only thing that keeps people believing is other believers. Without church gatherings and/or other believers around to reinforce the belief system, the belief system will die if left to itself.

So, I'd suggest that it starts with a slow and gradual withdrawal from the social environment that reinforces the belief system - leading to apathy. Active disbelief begins in apathy (for most, I think) when one comes to grips with the fact that the belief system is not accurate in it's portrayal of reality.

One can look at the prayer promises of Jesus for example, and easily recognize that they are patently false.

One can realize that the earth is not 6000 years old, and that the sky is not a dome of water, and that many other biblical passages are obviously ridiculous. I think when you can begin to accept that some of the bible is false, you can begin to accept that the critical points may also be false. When you realize that you believe that all other religions and even other branches of your religion are false, you can see that yours may be as well.

[dettus]

“One of the great achievements of science has been, if not to make it impossible for intelligent people to be religious, then at least to make it possible for them not to be religious. We should not retreat from this accomplishment.” - Steve Weinberg

This is what did it for me. Knowledge about science and nature kept making my god smaller and smaller until the voice inside my head that was whispering, "there is no god" became too loud for me to ignore.

[WishboneDawn]

So, I'd suggest that it starts with a slow and gradual withdrawal from the social environment that reinforces the belief system - leading to apathy.

*shocking confession alert*

Yup. Experiencing that here. Having a hard time justifying calling myself a christian since I stopped going to church a few months back (either becasue it felt disrespectful to people at the church for me to say a creed I can't accept...or because I was getting courted by the volunteer commitee - work? me?).

There's also the fact that my homeschooling circles mostly consist of atheists, I hang out here, am married to an atheist and have a pagan for a best friend. I'm not simply stepping out of one realm of influence but stepping into another and I'm actually something of a peer pressure sponge.

And I'm beginning to think my attraction to the bible is more an intellectual and scholarly sort of one, not a call to adopt a christian lifestyle.

And the first fucking person that says, "Told you so!" gets torn a new one.:devil::p

Besides, I start up my EFM (http://www.sewanee.edu/EFM/index.htm) course again next fall so I'll be involved in a spiritual community again and may come out all Christianified again.

[WishboneDawn]

“One of the great achievements of science has been, if not to make it impossible for intelligent people to be religious, then at least to make it possible for them not to be religious. We should not retreat from this accomplishment.” - Steve Weinberg

This is what did it for me. Knowledge about science and nature kept making my god smaller and smaller until the voice inside my head that was whispering, "there is no god" became too loud for me to ignore.

Never much affected me but then I grew up in a place where there was no conflict between science and religion, for the most part.

[Deus Ex]

When I realized that the bible was written by fallible men, and not God, then my fundamentalism began to unravel. I have learned far more about the history of the bible, and Christianity, since deconverting, than I ever did as a believer. I deconverted while still actively going to church.

Also, the arguments of Christian apologists always seemed lame, to me. I felt like the skeptics had better arguments.

[dettus]

I grew up in liberal NY in an area where most people are only nominally catholic. I was taught the most benign form of christianity I think is possible but there were many many instances of religion not meshing in with reality. Where others are capable of ignoring these or rationalizing them away, I could not. Me, (and I am not suggesting anything about anyone else) I value intellectual honesty. For me, I could not reconcile religious claims with reality. If it matters I was always very interested in science and nature, even as a young child.

[Lógos Sokratikós]

I found this, very interesting!

Educated people are less likely to believe, but more likely to attend religious services (http://www.geocities.com/richleebruce/b/education.html).

----------------
Also:
About half of the people who tell Gallop they went to Chruch are lying (http://www.religion-online.org/showarticle.asp?title=237).

[ziffel]

“One of the great achievements of science has been, if not to make it impossible for intelligent people to be religious, then at least to make it possible for them not to be religious. We should not retreat from this accomplishment.” - Steve Weinberg

This is what did it for me. Knowledge about science and nature kept making my god smaller and smaller until the voice inside my head that was whispering, "there is no god" became too loud for me to ignore.

Same here, except this stage followed the other stages i mentioned above.

* disillusionment (due to a non-responsive god). it felt very much the same as talking to a wall. prayers were 'answered', as Marshall Brain puts it, the same way as if I'd prayed to a jug of milk. All I'd ever hear is "God's plan" and "the Lord works in mysterious ways" and other nonsense as excuses for God's inactivity or outright neglect (as I saw it then)

* withdrawal & apathy - I retreated from church and other xian functions. I lost my xian reinforcement, and became disinterested.

* The Science Channel and amazon.com :) - yep, started learning about the reality of nature, and how very different it is from the fundamentalist xian perspective. For me there was always an enormous gap between science and religion, and always will be, since gods cannot even be defined, much less observed or measured. In my view, evolution makes no sense whatsoever in conjunction with a personal god.

Where i am now is strong atheism with an open mind. I don't think I'll ever see a personal god, it just makes no sense with reality, but I do hold open the door to discovery, that there may be 'something more'. I already know how drastically one's view of reality can change.

[Lógos Sokratikós]

It's curious Ziffel how different it was for you and I −as a Catholic I "was allowed" to believe in anything science could dish out. God, somehow, mysteriously, would intervene in the big bang, or in biogenesis and evolution, just the same as he would intervene with the collegium cardinalitium to vote for the new pope.

[ziffel]

It's curious Ziffel how different it was for you and I −as a Catholic I "was allowed" to believe in anything science could dish out. God, somehow, mysteriously, would intervene in the big bang, or in biogenesis and evolution, just the same as he would intervene with the collegium cardinalitium to vote for the new pope.

Understandable, but for me, it was a personal viewpoint that evolution was an absurd notion for a personal, all-powerful god. If he could speak the universe into existence, he could form a human from the dirt. My view of the bible has always pretty much been all or nothing. As I see it, science has removed the need for gods to exist.

There is still the Grand Mystery of course (existence), and I marvel at it. I just no longer ascribe it to a god, an act that merely pushes the question back one level (to that of his existence).

[Underseer]

It's curious Ziffel how different it was for you and I −as a Catholic I "was allowed" to believe in anything science could dish out. God, somehow, mysteriously, would intervene in the big bang, or in biogenesis and evolution, just the same as he would intervene with the collegium cardinalitium to vote for the new pope.

Understandable, but for me, it was a personal viewpoint that evolution was an absurd notion for a personal, all-powerful god. If he could speak the universe into existence, he could form a human from the dirt. My view of the bible has always pretty much been all or nothing. As I see it, science has removed the need for gods to exist.

There is still the Grand Mystery of course (existence), and I marvel at it. I just no longer ascribe it to a god, an act that merely pushes the question back one level (to that of his existence).

That's the nature of biblical literalism and fundamentalism, though. I often hear Christians of that type declaring "either all of it is true or none of it is true" without ever taking into account... you know, unicorns and talking snakes and all of that.

[Lógos Sokratikós]

Well, I've been trying to answer my own OP but I have been unable to find any studies online as to why common folk have lost their religion.

[DancesWithCoffeeCups]

I don't believe I ever really had a religion to lose. I was raised Lutheran, went to church every Sunday, studied the catechism and was confirmed. I started deconverting when I began studying and reading the bible. It simply made no sense and the more questions I asked the more pissed the church authority figures got. Even at 12 years old I knew what that was a sign of.

I also think that as something of loner I didn't have the same kind of social in-group yearning that your average teenager has. I'm really glad about that. I think my situation is probably different from other scenario's described so far.

[Yggdrasill]

In fact, religion is often a liability, if you are noticably religious, most people will tend to think you have some mental deficiency.

Do you think atheist intolerance is growing?To a degree, yes. It's an effect of the death of religion. As believers get fewer and fewer, they get more and more "odd".

If one person goes around with a turnip on his/her head, that person will seem quite odd, which means that person might be subjected to some intolerance. Now, if 50% of the population goes around with turnips on their heads, they won't seem very odd, and they won't be the subject of that sort of intolerance.

[Underseer]

Do you think atheist intolerance is growing?To a degree, yes. It's an effect of the death of religion. As believers get fewer and fewer, they get more and more "odd".

If one person goes around with a turnip on his/her head, that person will seem quite odd, which means that person might be subjected to some intolerance. Now, if 50% of the population goes around with turnips on their heads, they won't seem very odd, and they won't be the subject of that sort of intolerance.

Fewer and fewer? Let's not get ahead of ourselves. The ranks of nonbelievers may be growing, but we're growing from really small to pretty small. Theists and supernaturalists make up the overwhelming majority of the human population.

[couch_sloth]

I've heard lots of good reasons not to believe in God on IIDB, elsewhere on the web and in books (the so-called "new atheism").
But why do common folk who don't read these books, are not philosophers, etc stop believing?
Are there any serious studies analyzing/theorizing about this on the web?
I would venture to say that (statistically speaking) there aren't that many common folks who go from devout believer to nonbeliever.
Many of those that have made this sort of change (including myself) seem to have gone through an extended period of trying to get their belief system to continue to work despite gaining knowledge and experiences which seem to contradict and dispute their beliefs... Until it finally reaches a point that one feels they can no longer maintain these beliefs and still feel they are being honest with themselves.
Most believers just don't (appear to) reach this point, i.e. They are going to continue to believe come hell or high water. I would guess that for some it is just too hard to not believe because they have too much psychologically invested into there belief system, or they are so completely certain that their lives would be unbearable without their god-belief that they refuse to let any doubts get the better of them.

One thing I've noticed about many who remain devout Christians is that they seem to have an uncanny ability to discount the level of devotion followers of other religions have (e.g. Whether those believers appear to be just as certain, as devout Christians are, that they follow the one true belief.)
They appear to see no hypocrisy in criticizing those other believers for not having the skepticism (toward their religions) that they themselves lack.
I know it's just human nature to wonder why: the other guy can't see he is wrong.
For me...
Perhaps I just lacked the normal human confidence/arrogance to automatically assume those believers in other religions were not as devout as I am, or that their belief systems weren't as well thought out as mine? Perhaps it was the mounting doubts about my own religious belief that highlighted the fact that my belief system wasn't so sound either.

[Doug Shaver]

But why do common folk who don't read these books, are not philosophers, etc stop believing?
I have seen no surveys, good, bad, or indifferent, on that subject. Until someone does one, I suspect that anybody's guess is as good as anyone else's.

My own loss of belief happened because when I started looking seriously for good reasons to believe, I couldn't find any.

[Yggdrasill]

To a degree, yes. It's an effect of the death of religion. As believers get fewer and fewer, they get more and more "odd".

If one person goes around with a turnip on his/her head, that person will seem quite odd, which means that person might be subjected to some intolerance. Now, if 50% of the population goes around with turnips on their heads, they won't seem very odd, and they won't be the subject of that sort of intolerance.

Fewer and fewer? Let's not get ahead of ourselves. The ranks of nonbelievers may be growing, but we're growing from really small to pretty small. Theists and supernaturalists make up the overwhelming majority of the human population.I was talking primarily of Norway. Less than 10% of the population is noticeably religious, and only about 50% are at all religious. (And many of those who are religious are basically atheists, they are just religious out of tradition.)

[Zenaphobe]

In my old Baptist church, I think some people were turned off by interpersonal conflicts over how the church should be run.

Anything from hiring a new pastor to what kind of music is picked can be a reason people split from formal churches. A few of them browse for a new congregation, but some just retreat into a private exercise of their faith.

I remember being very disillusioned by one of my pastors behavior. He was so full of himself and overbearing. He and my father-in-law would gossip about members of the congregation.

When I was struggling with my crisis of faith, he even went so far as to tell my fiancee that there were "other fish in the sea."

My departure from faith was mostly intellectual issues, but the behavior of a lot of pastors and church leaders didn't help much.