Quote: Victor J. Stenger

American Particle Physicist, outspoken Atheist, Author,
now active in Philosophy and Popular Religious Skepticism

While communism is officially atheist, a fact Christians gleefully point to as an example of what happens when atheism holds sway, communist philosophy is based on economics, not metaphysics. The political and economic philosophies of communism do not follow from the hypothesis of nonbelief. Indeed, with its dogmatic policies and authoritarianism, communism more closely resembles a godless religion than secular atheism. The only political views of atheists that are closely linked to their beliefs are that church and state should be separate and that decisions should be based on reason rather than revelation.

Article: “Why Atheism Will Replace Religion: New Evidence”

… [T]he more educated countries have higher levels of non belief and there are strong correlations between atheism and intelligence. Atheists are more likely to be college-educated people who live in cities and they are highly concentrated in the social democracies of Europe. Atheism thus blossoms amid affluence where most people feel economically secure.

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