Is Atheism Only for the Upper Class? Socioeconomic Differences Among the Religiously Unaffiliated

[rexcat]

58. I don't think this is necessarily so...

Most people who are atheists were skeptical in their early teens so my question is do the people who are skeptical at an early age come from "privilege" or does being skeptical lead to being "privileged?" I have never seen this hypothesis asked. That might be an interesting study.

I was skeptical at an early age. I come from middle class roots. My father was an officer in the military and did not make a lot of money and my mom worked as a nurse. My dad was a fighter pilot and electrical engineer with a masters degree and would be considered part of the professional class. Both of my parents were theists. I came from a dual income family from the late 50's - early 60's which was not typical of the day but was typical for military families. Of the five siblings in our household only two of us ended up as atheists. In fact two of my siblings are somewhat intolerant atheists and have been very vocal about it. When I finally had the realization that I was an atheist and not an agnostic I was in my early 20's. I was in the military at the time and had taken only a few college classes. I did not come from "privilege" money wise or via education.

At this time I could be considered "privileged" based on our household income (well north of $75,000/year), educational levels of my wife and me, and our net worth. My wife is a wayward catholic and definitely not an atheist. My two sons who are 17 years of age are atheists. They might be considered "privileged" but I think that has to do more with their upbringing than the income or educational level of their parents.