David_Jay,
I was clearly disagreeing with “The Cambridge study (and others like it) providence evidence that atheism grew just as naturally and even independently of religion.”
Atheists' declared stand has always been this: ‘If God exists, why is His influence not seen on the lives of believers [most of them are hypocritical], and why do we find suffering in the world?’
These two questions arise from a view that people would be influenced by truth. But the fact is that people may or may not be influenced by truth. For example, those who smoke cigarette know that it is injurious to their health, and yet this knowledge has no influence on them. Existence of prison is a testimony to the fact that the society does not like violation of its rules, yet existence of prison in all the countries does not exert any influence on people who are bent on breaking the laws. That means God exerting no influence on the believers is not a case against His existence. People would behave the way they like whether God exists or not—some believers may act righteously and some believers wickedly, and some atheists may act altruistically and some atheists wickedly.
That God does not do anything to correct the misconception too does not prove his non-existence. Let me tell you: I were God, I would not provide any proof that I exist because I want people to reach their own conclusion self-motivated.