Could greater socioeconomic equality weaken religion?
I was pondering the future of religion, and it occurred to me that one way religion’s influence on society could be eroded is to increase said society’s socioeconomic inequality. Right now, most industrial societies are socioeconomically stratified, with a very wealthy few dominating a less wealthy many. One of the effects of this is that not everyone has financial access to quality education, leading to the formation of a large number of relatively ignorant people and a significantly smaller number of relatively knowledgeable people. That the number of undereducated people is larger is great for religion, for religion by its nature requires ignorance of science and lack of critical thinking skills. Therefore, religion will continue to thrive as long as the masses don’t know any better. If we are interested in lessening religion’s power, we must increase socioeconomic equality so that more people have access to quality education. Once that happens, a larger number of people will know e
