What's killing religion?

I've yet to come with a satisfactory answer as to why religion has been present in all human cultures, but I think I figured out what's killing it: Urbanization.

Think about it. before the industrial revolution and the agricultural revolution, a bad growing season meant famine. Besides a very large majority of the world's population worked in farming. Such work, hard as it is, can come to naught if the weather turns unfavorable (not enough rain, too much rain, etc) or if a plague descends on your fields. These are things that cannot be controlled. naturally people turned to religion to try to control them, as the gods were capable of much more than mere mortals could achieve.

Egypt suffered fewer bad growing seasons than most other nations for three reasons. one, The Nile floods predictably each year, creating a fertile ribbon along its banks. Two, having the fertile land close to the river means it's close to a fresh water source, plus early on the Egyptians engaged in the building of irrigation canals. Three, the land was so fertile Egypt could grow surpluses most years. This all left them plenty of food and made famine rare (but not unheard of).

This is why, IMO, Egypt could devote a great deal of tis religion to the afterlife. Their main worldly concern wasn't badly met by their own efforts. Also during inundation, the labor force was idle and could engage in building the temples and tombs the Pharaohs wanted.

Other cultures weren't so lucky. irrigation was common, and plenty of cultures arose by the banks of rivers (name a European capital, and there is a river associated with it very often). But weather, plagues, bad harvests and famine were major concerns.

This changed little when Christianity took over Europe. I've seen, several times, peasants parading the virgin and her child in street processions specifically praying for rain.

But now that most people don't live on farms, that irrigation is widespread, when we've built dams all over, when we can deal with plagues, famine is unheard of in the West, even in poor countries. In fact, the problem now is there is too much food produced in the Western countries, and in many others (in your face, Malthus!") There are concerns, and some areas and some products may suffer, but who worries about famine?

To be sure plenty of insecurities out of one's control remain. But given the majority of people now live in cities, there is an abundance of food, there is a welfare system and a social "safety net" (not necessarily good things, but facts nonetheless), these worries have more to do with a standard of living than with bare subsistence.

Even then, these worries are more likely to be addressed to governments than gods. Again, not necessarily a good things, but at least we know governments are real.

Add to this the toleration born from the Enlightenment emphasis on reason over faith, and Europe's exhaustion and revulsion over religious conflicts, and the trend becomes clear.

Originally the Church and Government and Welfare and Taxes were all the same institution. In the late middle ages an axeman could make three pence a day felling wood........... but the penalty for not attending church twice a week was fifty pounds. The church administered all welfare and all tax allocations.

You might watch a recent POV which showed down and out jobhunters in North Dakota sleeping in a church until neighbors and newspapers and fire marshals hounded them.