Why Are There So Few Atheists Among Women?

By Sumit Paul, New Age Islam 24 October 2022 " Atheism comes to men spontaneously; women have to make a conscious effort to accept and internalize the idea which doesn't often gel with their psychological make up." Irshad Manji and Jennifer Michael Hecht (Ugandan-born Canadian educator Irshad Manji is still a Muslim who calls herself an agnostic but not an outright atheist) " Even a highly educated and 'rational' woman often has an unexplained and irrational fear of god and a sense of servility towards religion and its primitive rituals." -Ophelia Benson, based in Seattle, she figures among world's 50 Top Atheists Ugandan-born Canadian educator Irshad Manji ----- Have you ever thought as to why so few women in the world, and also in the history of human civilization, have been truly atheistic in their attitude and approach to god and religion? Only . 89 percent women out of the 7.5 billion population of the world are atheists in the broadest sense of the word, which's not even 1 percent of the total population on earth. At the most, they're agnostic but finding an absolute atheist like Somalian radical Ayaan Hirsi Ali, an ex-Muslim, who now lives in Netherlands, is truly an uphill task because 'Women are genetically programmed to believe in god/s and rituals and they can't use their logic while rejecting the very idea of god/s' (Climbing Mount Impossible, by Dr Richard Dawkins, New York, W W Norton, 1996). This is not a sexist observation of the world's foremost evolutionary biologist and a celebrated atheist. Women actually perceive god differently from men. The way women emote and react differently from men, they also evince a fixed pattern of unquestioning and grovelling belief in their overall approach to religiosity. As it's, belief in god or a supernatural power is a sign of irrational behaviour. The whole phenomenon of faith and belief is devoid of even an ounce of rationality because insecurity begets belief/s. And this irrationality is even more ingrained among women than among men. In the burgeoning human civilizations, women were at the mercy of men. That the scenario is still somewhat unchanged is inconsequential, esp. in the pitiable state of women in patriarchal Muslim societies. Neuro-biologists are of the view that a female brain's Cognitive Thinking Process (CTP) in religious matters is straight and linear, whereas it's lateral in men. That's why, a male brain questions the validity and rationale of esoteric beliefs more holistically than that of a woman (Read Michael Shermer's 'Why Darwin Matters: The Case Against Intelligent Design', New York, Times Books, 2006 and 'Evolution of Hormone-Receptor Complexity by Molecular Exploitation', Science, 312: 5770). The very concept of god is in human brains. The imaginary god is not outside. It's in our brains and has been there since human evolution. There has been a neuro-religious mutation in collective human brains over the period of nearly fifteen to twenty thousand years and all these gods evolved as an outcome of it. Early homo sapiens concocted all sorts of gods and subsequent religions concretized them. Before that, our Neanderthal ancestors were scared of all natural calamities and were trying to associate them with something beyond their limited sense-perceptions. Marie Curie, who twice won the Nobel Prize and was an agnostic throughout her life, believed that woman's brain was neurologically more receptive to the idea of god and religion than that of a man (see, Selected papers of Marie Curie, Source: Sorbonne University Press, Paris, 1977). An average woman's intellectual capacity to rationalize esoteric phenomena is rather subdued and dormant. A female brain tends to take 'established truths' as 'eternally unalterable'. This axiomatic thinking is different from man's ' ever evolving scepticism'. This is the reason, women just can't reconcile to the fact that there's no god, however educated and learned she may be. Moreover, there're emotional factors as well. It has been found that there are very very few female atheists with a family (husband and kids). Most of the female atheists have been either single women or having no kids. Readers may be aware that all women tend to become vulnerable post-pregnancy and the well-being of offspring become their prime concern. This inherent vulnerability and the safety of progeny turn them toward god and religion and they become believers. I saw highly 'rational' and 'atheistic' women pray to god when their husband or child (esp. child) fell sick! Otherwise also, to pray or seek divine intervention is a reflex action or a Pavlovian act embedded in 'evolving' humans, if you don't like the word ' ill-evolved.' This phenomenon is known as Umbilical Germination of Faith (UGF). Natural motherly instincts and belief in god go hand in hand. Start noticing from this very moment, you'll hardly come across a female atheist having kids. ----- A regular columnist for New Age Islam, Sumit Paul is a researcher in comparative religions, with special reference to Islam. He has contributed articles to world's premier publications in several languages including Persian. URL: https://newageislam.com/islam-women-feminism/atheists-women-manji/d/128249 New Age Islam, Islam Online, Islamic Website, African Muslim News, Arab World News, South Asia News, Indian Muslim News, World Muslim News, Women in Islam, Islamic Feminism, Arab Women, Women In Arab, Islamophobia in America, Muslim Women in West, Islam Women and Feminism