The one thing that I find interesting is how degree of faith seems to be inverely correlated to socioeconomical status, quality of life, and intelligence.

In Central America the vast majority of people believe in god. In the poorer southern states a higher percntage of people believe in god than in the northeastern states. More people in eastern Europe believe in god than in western Europe. Of course there are exceptions, but there is a definite trend.

It almost seems like believing in god is a way to rationalize or make some sense of the fact that you have been dealt a crappy hand in life. The fact that "heaven" awaits is very comforting when dealing with all of life's miseries and bad things that happen to human beings.

When I visited my relatives in Poland this past summer, I spoke to a few of them about Catholicism and belief in god.
Only two of them said that they didn't believe in god, and they both just thought that religion was a "tradition" passed on within the Polish culture just like good food and vodka. One of these relatives was a doctor and the other an engineer. In fact I was surprised that they admitted to being atheist, but I think it was easier to do it to me rather than other members of the family that they see on a regular basis.

I really think that belief in a particular god is passed on from generation to generation in particular cultures as if it where a fact not open to discussion. It's almost like poor people having children who become poor, etc. Muslims raise Muslims, Sikhs raise Sikhs, etc.

I'm probably insulting the theists that will be reading this, but that's how I see the whole "faith" thing.