Posted: Nov 25, 2016 8:30 pm
tuco wrote:Atheism possibly thrives in "luxury", I prefer to call it "welfare state" instead, but its not condition necessary. Atheism can also be (by)product of repression against religion, see communism and religion for example.
There is not one way to salvation
Good point. I had forgotten about coercion.
Though you can take a horse away from the water, but can you stop him from drinking? What I mean is, do you think that coercion of that sort actually works, or just seems to, on the surface?
And of course, if you read the article I linked to earlier on 'why are Danes and Swedes so irreligious?'', you can see that (a) the 'existential comfort' explanation is only one of several, and (b) all of them are nothing more than suggested (sometimes researched) plausibilities at best. So I agree that none of them can be seen as sufficient causes, even in the single example of Scandinavia (which is actually several examples anyway).
I am not entirely sure if 'existential comfort' or 'luxury' necessarily equates with 'welfare state' but perhaps I am not understanding your particular use of the phrase. If you mean an individual (personal) state of affairs (and not a national one), then I agree.