Since the early 1990s, there has been a significant uptick in
Americans abandoning their faith. After crunching the numbers, one
researcher says contributing factors such as upbringing and education
only explain part of the increase. What about the rest?
After controlling for variables like income, environment, and so on,
computer scientist Allen Downey of Olin College of Engineering in
Massachusetts found 25 percent of the decline can be correlated with Internet access. More Web, less faith.
Why? Here’s Downey’s stab at an answer: “For people living in
homogeneous communities, the Internet provides opportunities to find
information about people of other religions (and none), and to interact
with them personally.” So increased exposure leads to doubt,
disagreement, disenchantment, and ultimately to discarding your faith. Continue at Joel J. Miller
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