I'm not remotely convinced comfort is a key factor – many of the most obnoxious and oppressive Christian fundamentalists in the US are anything but poor, likewise many Islamic police states are very wealthy indeed from an economic perspective. My guess is that it largely boils down to a combination of restrictive education and deliberate political control – systematically brainwashing ones children inevitably leads to brainwashed adults which only continues the cycle.

There must be a tipping point where a significant percentage of a community has decided / been forced to believe in a series of nice religious lies rather than horrible scientific truths and then deliberately strangles any freedom of thought present in the rest. They quite simply prevent learning and knowledge. Extremist religions restrict and control any information that questions or contradicts their belief systems, i.e. they all burn books – almost always the better and most informative ones. It is this tipping point that frightens me the most as a fair few countries that really should know better seem alarmingly close to it.

Tony.