Two things" (1) you greatly overestimate the basic understanding of science among many in the general population, and (2) people who do not want to face the discrepancy simply compartmentalize their thinking.

It is because humans are driven by emotions rather than logic. Belief in religion is an emotional phenomonon, not intelectual.

Because they live and thrive nicely in an ARB..an alternative reality buble.. this buble is filled with hot air and Faith...

Very few if any people would embrace any religion if they were educated in science logic and high dose reality...before being offered the choice to choose a religion when they reached 18 yrs.

Religion is poison and indoctrination and depends on geography and parentage essentially..IMO.

Are you really under the impression that many families and community don't work to indoctrinate children from an age before they start school through all of their developmental years? On top of that basic education is not fighting theology as you seem to think it is. I'm surprised someone thinks theism just happens.

Because of religion's ties to money.

I think part of this "statistic" is social desirability response bias, i.e., people saying what they think will make them look good. Many people equate atheism with evil and immorality, so a lot of people don't pay any attention to anything related to god but don't want to come out and actually say they don't believe. It may not even occur to them that they don't believe; they aren't aware that if you don't ACT in a certain way, you really cannot participate in a certain process or share a certain belief.

Most people in America have been raised from infancy in some religion, and grow up never questioning that fact, and are really not ever challenged on it. When people find out that I am atheist pagan, they are shocked. They can't believe anyone would not believe in God. They ask me so many questions about how I can feel that way and are dumbfounded by my answer. Most assume that a tragedy in my life made me turn my back on god, and just can't grasp that it isn't the case. I try to explain that I thought, read, and studied, but they just can't grasp it. Of course, I grew up in central Illinois, so they have been saturated in religion. It is like swimming in a lake and swearing that you are not wet. It does not compute.

If I understand the many worlds hypothesis, and I certainly like to pretend I do, in some universe there is a Jesus , there is reincarnation and probably Sarah palin is riding dinosaurs in full view of Russia!!!

Because there will always be an unknown. Humans, animals, typically have an uneasy feeling in regards to what is unknown to them. To address this natural issue, humans created something to fill those gaps and live blissfully. Problem is, the human ego needs to be right. So when there is something that humanity has believed in for countless generations, letting go of that belief in light of physical evidence would mean we were wrong.

That's why religion progressed from trees and animals being gods, to the environment and elements being gods, to the night sky being filled with gods, to a god that is everything. When we learned the plants and animals weren't gods, we made gods out of the thunder and volcanoes and oceans, things we didn't understand at the time. When we learned the thunder and volcanoes and oceans weren't gods, we made gods out of the sun and Mars and Neptune, things we didn't understand at the time. When we learned about the planets, we were forced to move god to encompass everything.. which was a dick move cause we will never know everything and therefore is out of science's reach. The only chance to eliminate the belief in gods would be to instill a sense of excitement or yearning for the unknown rather than to fear it.

I would wager there are more non-believers than are willing to come out. I still don't tell my mom though I feel she knows. There is just no need to. So your 70.6% may be full of folks who are just not ready to come out yet.

Because if a person is afraid enough and something will make them feel safe and better they will believe it rather than logic

Physics, chemistry, and biology do not even address, let alone answer the deep questions of existence. Most of the founders of modern physics were religious in their own ways, so it should be no surprise that about half of scientists today say they believe in God.

What I think is that no one knows or understands the nature of underlying reality, and that underlying nature is probably unknowable. So if you say you are an atheist or a theist, you aren’t saying anything much.

It's difficult for most people to overcome the indoctrination from their upbringing. People also have a tendency to ignore anything that goes against what they want to believe.

You assume most Americans retain (or learned in the first place) what was in their high school science books. Since the majority of Americans will never read another book once they finish their education the problem is compounded.

Fear of death and loss of the ego.

I think the first part is the cognitive dissonance and compartmentalization of thinking. I think the second part is that very few have actually read their book from beginning to end. The third part is that small area of the brain that still has "faith" and yes it is the same area despite which religion/god one believes in.

Look up cognitive dissonance.

Wait, I hate when anyone does that...so let's start with a basic definition: the state of having inconsistent thoughts, beliefs, or attitudes, especially as relating to behavioral decisions and attitude change.

The problem is that believers are taught that their beliefs trump all, including evidence to the contrary. So while that basic education is there, it is often watered down (removing mention of evolution especially for humans, emphasize entropy (as evolution is misperceived as an increase in order, hence violating thermodynamics), etc.

There's this thing called faith. They just use that when they come across any of it that doesn't make sense.