Just wondering if anyone can tell me about the levels of religiousity in South Africa. We've got a whole stack of (white) SA expats living in my suburb, and the local churches have had something of a revival with all the fresh attendance.

I left there quite some time ago (I was 3 when I left).

Both of my parents died out there and I remember flying out there to my grandparents' house. The local pastor (that my grandparents were apparently quite familiar with) put his arm around me as if we had known each other all of my life and told me that they were both in heaven now. If I wasn't in such a state I would have told him where to stick it. It may have been with the best of intentions but it still bothers me that he thought I was a believer, not to mention the fact that he was pretending to know what happens when people die. If he had known the circumstances of my parents' deaths he would have had something very different to say about it!

My grandparents were both very religious but I'm not sure if the onset of age drew them to it or they were like that their entire lives. They were both very old world colonials (and very racist to boot!). I'm pretty sure that like most developed countries very few of the younger generation are involved with religion.

PZ had a little blog entry about South African Skeptics and atheists here:

http://scienceblogs.com/pharyngula/2010 ... heists.php