I have been reading Rodney Stark's new book Triumph of Faith, where he makes his argument afresh that religion is alive and well. In fact he says it's doing better than ever, and we are in the middle of a revival of faith.
Above is a particular quote he likes to use when refuting secularisation. or generally the idea that, as humankind progresses toward greater enlightenment and rationality, it is becoming steadily less religious. He claims that even people who don't go to church still believe in the spiritual. He uses the example of Iceland. On the one hand secularists can point to it as a very secular country that's stopped going to church, stopped believing traditional Christian teaching, and has a relatively high number of atheists. On the other hand close to half of the population of Iceland believe that trolls live on the land. So much so that when they plan a new building they first seek confirmation from troll experts that they are not building on top of a troll settlement, which would bring terrible luck. Icelanders may have given up on the Christian God but the G K Chesterton rule seems to apply. How does that fit in with the idea that we are progressing toward rational secularity?