Materialism is the cause of the development of Atheism

Rebuttal; Inconsistent Observation Con shows valid statistics how correlations between income (wealth) and religion of some of the major religions in the US. However, Con only shows a glimpse of reality. Because the United States and most other first world countries have freedom of religion, anyone can practice any faith the want free of oppression. Religions, for the most part, is dependent of each individual, two Jews don't necessarily have to believe the same thing, and each gets something different out of religion, in the terms of personal salvation. Income does not show how much money is spent, or what the money is used for, it just shows how much is coming in. Bill Gates makes millions, every day he is giving large sums of money to charity, but those donations, but if you look at his income, you wouldn't have an idea as to what he was doing with his money just by looking at the statistics. Because of freedom of religion and flexibility, "organized religion", is less significant than personal philosophy and practice. There is a major difference in organized religions of first world countries and third world countries. In places that are financial more stable, all organized religion does for someone is teach them about their religion. In low income places and third world countries organized religion has much more value and significance. In other parts of the world religion is community based. Members of the churches in religious bases comminutes serve as community leaders and help to provide for the community's needs. Community life is other places around the world revolve around organized religion; the US is the exception, not the rule. Con's evidence only shows the overall, and does not have statistics based on social classes, which he claimed to be important in round 1. "…the atheist, after all, has nothing else to believe in, so why not focus on worldly possessions?" Atheism is a religious belief, the belief that God does not exist, none the less, still a belief, the same as all other world religions. Because atheism is the denial of a God, it does not have a set of moral (some religions also don't), some certain moral issues differ between different people, even if they both happen to be atheist. Religious organizations are not the only people who care for others and give to charity and community service. Atheist still have a soul, so most of them, even though they don't believe in a god, still believe in the good of humanity and have some sort of morals. In ancient times, when religious communities where dominant, the religious (priest) class and positions where not only for a religious purpose, but also served as a political position. If one was in political power, or seeking political power, one would have to correspond with the religious officials. In the Roman Empire, conquered people were allowed to keep their traditions (and faith), and Roman officials allowed each community to solve their disputes and internal conflicts, and have their own system of justice. When the King of England, Hennery the VIII, was unable to get a divorce for the Pope, he broke away from the Church so he could be able to try to have a male heir to inherit his kingdom. This was a political issue that had nothing to do with the Churches' teachings or social classes. They reason why having political power was important was because it was often the gateway to obtaining wealth, thus, change in religion (or conversion to atheism), was because it lead to a more materialist world, rather than religion had problematic teachings. Conclusion: Religious fluctuation (including atheism) was dependent on political reasoning which leads to a more materialistic world, religious fluctuation did not occur because of religious teachings. Con's evidence only shows the average wealth of major religions in a first world country, whose society no longer revolves around religious communities, therefore making his evidence true, but irrelevant and does not help him prove that atheism would develop regardless of the material world.