Jobs like real estate agent, car salesman, or insurance agent used to be very profitable because these folks were able to take advantage of specific knowledge about the market, pricing, and so on. They were local gurus, and many customers didn’t look too hard for alternatives—they just got taken advantage of. But now these knowledge areas are being opened up online, and it’s harder for, say, car dealerships to make a ton of money. With a bit of online research, you can walk in to one dealer and demand a good price, where previously you may have had to pit two or three dealers against each other (if they weren’t colluding…) and do some unpleasant work to come up with a reasonable deal.

I wonder if the resurgence of atheism in pop culture is similar. Sure, there’s the quiet non-religious minority in this country, and it’s pretty huge. But maybe the religious majority, especially the young religious majority, still forming opinions, are finally going online and getting access to other points of view. Kids being raised with Internet access can now easily get a second opinion when they’re questioning their religion. Maybe they’re at least fascinated by atheism, whether they actually buy into it or not. They want to know more, and finally they’re able to shop around.

And of course, the opposite is true, too. Kids in atheist families finding out about fundamentalism and how much fun it can be.

Either way, I bet the parents are just as upset as the car dealers.