IF YOU鈥橰E one of those committed atheists in the Richard Dawkins mould who dreams of ridding the world of religious mumbo-jumbo, prepare yourself for a disappointment: there is no good evidence that education leads to secularisation.
In fact, the more we learn about the 鈥済od instinct鈥� and the refusal of religion to fade away under the onslaught of progress, the more the non-religious mindset looks like the odd man out. That is why anthropologists, psychologists and social scientists are now putting irreligion under the microscope in the same way they once did with religious belief (see 鈥淲here do atheists come from?鈥�).
The aim is not to discredit atheism but to understand how so many people can override a way of thinking that seems to come so naturally. For that reason, atheists should welcome the new scrutiny.
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Atheism still has a great deal to commend it, not least that it doesn鈥檛 need supernatural beings to make sense of the world. Let鈥檚 hope the study of atheism leads to new insights into how to challenge such irrationality.