That is what Rick Santorum claimed in a This Week interview with George Stephanopoulos that aired on February 26. Santorum cited research for his conclusion. Or rather, a hazily recalled impression that some study had found that 60 percent of students lose their religious affiliation during the college years.

Intrigued...

In earlier posts, I argued that the basic function of religion is coping with anxiety. More specifically, it helps people to deal with the stress of uncertainty from third-world living conditions. In developed countries having a better standard of living, better health and longer life expectancy, basic anxieties...

From the Canadian perspective, U.S. dithering over the pipeline project linking Canada to the Gulf Coast is an act of monumental stupidity. If we turn down the project, then the oil from Canada's tar sands will ultimately be sold to Asia despite current domestic opposition to a Pacific pipeline.

Religion may be one answer to the anxieties of life. People have never been more anxious. Yet, religion is in decline in developed countries. That is particularly true for younger people who stay away from church but flock to Facebook and other social media for answers to their anxiety.

In...

In earlier posts (here and here), I documented a clear pattern where atheism blossoms in developed countries but is virtually absent in less developed nations . The implication is that as countries around the globe get more prosperous religion will decline. In a new study, I...

My blog posts on religion have attracted a lot of controversy. Religious people are annoyed by my claim that belief in God will go the way of horse transportation, and for much the same reason, specifically an improved standard of living.

The view that religious belief will give...

Occupy Wall Street protesters may have a diffuse agenda for change but they are upset about the same problem -- unequal distribution of income that is dragging our society down.

In a land of plenty, such as the U.S., one might reasonably expect that citizens would be...

American men and women are equal under the law. Yet, when they enter a marriage contract, most women automatically give up their names. Men rarely do so.

There are wrinkles in the story, of course. Some women keep their own names. Double-barreled names that join the surnames of bride...

Use of pornography by political and religious conservatives is intriguing because most are so strongly opposed to it. Recent research concludes that Christian college students are somewhat less likely to use online pornography than the general college population but still found that the "majority of males had some...

In a recent episode of The Marriage Ref, one husband got in trouble for devoting his Sundays to fantasy football, thereby excluding his real wife. If even a pretend sport can monopolize a person's mental life, imagine what real sports can do.

Indeed, psychologists...

Atheists are heavily concentrated in economically developed countries, particularly the social democracies of Europe. In underdeveloped countries, there are virtually no atheists. Atheism is a peculiarly modern phenomenon. Why do modern conditions produce atheism? In a new study, I provide compelling evidence that atheism increases along...

Atheists score higher on IQ tests than religious people according to some research. Does this mean that people accept religious beliefs because they are dimwitted? Not necessarily.

Atheists are probably more intelligent than religious people because they benefit from many social conditions that happen to be correlated with...

A quirky Florida sect has finally carried out its threat to burn the Quran. Once again the obscure sect was rewarded with worldwide attention.

The absurdly named Dove Outreach Center in Gainesville, Fla., claims that burning the Quran is an act of freedom of expression articulating the view that...

Religion declines with economic development. In a previous post that rattled around the Internet, I presented a scholarly explanation for this pattern: people who feel secure in this world have less interest in another one.

The basic idea is that wealth allows people to feel more secure in the sense...

This country has received a great deal of bad press worldwide for foot-dragging on climate change treaties and energy efficiency. Mixed though it is, the U.S. record is far better in practice than that of most other countries.

This country is part of the solution as well as part...

The Pentagon has released its report on integrating gays in the military. This paints a very optimistic picture about the prospects for getting rid of the Don't Ask, Don't Tell policy.

The key statistic is that 70 percent of the armed forces do not believe that openly-serving gays...

The U.S. military is struggling with the issue of integrating gays. They are afraid of how this will affect discipline and morale. Now that the military ban on gays is coming to an end, it is worth asking what this might mean for military readiness. An anthropological perspective is illumining.

The nations of the world are like small birds threatened by a hawk: global warming. Up to now, the birds have cowered alone cherishing the ridiculous fantasy that the hawk will come only for their luckless neighbors, leaving them unharmed.

In the real world,...

Darwin celebrated the nasty side of life -- brutal competition. Yet, in the struggle for existence he perceived a creative force that produced the many varied and wonderful life forms around today.

In the realm of economic theory, many writers echo Darwin, waxing poetic on the merits of competition as...

Atheism is a peculiarly modern phenomenon. Why do modern conditions produce atheism? Does this mean that religion is on the way out?

First, as to the distribution of atheism in the world, an instructive pattern emerges. In sub-Saharan Africa there is almost no atheism.¹ Belief in God declines in more...