Hi, guys —

Recently I was reading the "Cambridge Companion to Atheism" (CCA) as a part of a series on religion by Cambridge University. I thought it would be somewhat reliable since Cambridge is quite a serious educational institution.

The information was somewhat alarming. Perhaps I am treading old ground here, but in short, the CCA showed data from different polls (with some variation in it) and the result was,
in general:

• more (atheism/agnosticism) leads to a better quality of life
• more (atheists/agnosticism) leads to a better education, and
• most elite intellectuals such as Nobel laureates (even in literature) are (atheists|agnostics).

In essence, the CCA concluded that (atheists/agnostics) are:

• more tolerant
• usually smarter
• richer
• more law abiding
• more charitable (but this might be because they were also richer), etc.,
  i.e. the perfect neighbor.

Another sad fact is that atheism seems to be growing, although I do not know if this growth is still happening.

In a way, the CCA seems to confirm what many smug atheists claim:

religion is for the poor and the (stupid/ignorant)

Of course, I know, for a fact, that being religious and being intelligent is not at all mutually exclusive, yet this data is alarming.

• Are we heading towards an atheist future, where religion will be segregated to ‘the slums'?

God bless,

Francesco