Tom Rees, a member of Humanists4Science, produced research last year on the link between income inequality and religiosity. In New Humanist he discusses the findings and the wider issue of the relationship between social indicators and religion, and comes on to “lessons for Humanism” in a context where sociology seems to be more of a factor in religion than rationality.

Modernity was supposed to see the end of religion. Surely all those ancient superstitions would crumble and collapse when exposed to the white-hot heat of science and rationality? All that was needed was to sit people down and explain to them how nonsensical, how illogical, their beliefs were. The whole edifice of religion would be undermined, and the world would enter a gleaming new age of rationality. “By the 21st century,” the American sociologist Peter Berger told the New York Times in 1968, “religious believers are likely to be found only in small sects, huddled together to resist a worldwide secular culture.” Those words sound ridiculous in hindsight, but Berger was voicing a commonly held view. The idea that modernity inexorably undermines religion was pretty much taken for granted by sociologists of the day.

Looking back from the vantage of the early 21st century, Berger’s theory clearly missed the mark. While religion in Europe and Japan continues to slide out of public consciousness, in the USA it has bounced back with renewed vigour. In Russia, where religion was once almost extirpated, the churches are once again booming. And in many Middle Eastern countries, the secular regimes of the mid-20th century are increasingly giving way to governments with an Islamist flavour. By the late 1990s, Berger himself had recanted. “It wasn’t a crazy theory,” he wrote, “but I think it’s basically wrong.”

Article continues at http://newhumanist.org.uk/2220/who-needs-god