The root of the problem

[dmallind]

4. In the specific sense I am not sure I agree

In the generic sense, indoctrination especially of the young is certainly the main impediment to sloughing off superstition. However the image shows kids in a school environment taught by what we must assume is not intended to be a parent figure (the dubious status of celibacy oaths notwithstanding).

All I have is anecdotal info, but it seems the products of school-based clergy-taught R.E., from US Catholic School alums to my own ilk of British minor public school old boys, discard their religion, if ever possessed, at a greater rate than the norm. Indoctrination of children is much more effective, in modern times at least and with apologies to Ignatius Loyola, when done by parents and peer pressure. That's why home-schooling and evangelical Protestant "academies" chosen for their fundamentalism rather than academics seem to lose fewer adherents than the olde-worlde Catholic schools shown here. Keeping kids away from nonbelievers, and making them into monsters when they are encountered, is also more vital than defining sacraments and warning against mortal sin.