Non-church-goers believe in ghosts

Psychology professor Clay Routledge writes:

Consider that roughly 30 percent of Americans report they have felt in contact with someone who has died. Nearly 20 percent believe they have been in the presence of a ghost. About one-third of Americans believe that ghosts exist and can interact with and harm humans; around two-thirds hold supernatural or paranormal beliefs of some kind, including beliefs in reincarnation, spiritual energy and psychic powers. ...

People who do not frequently attend church are twice as likely to believe in ghosts as those who are regular churchgoers. The less religious people are, the more likely they are to endorse empirically unsupported ideas about U.F.O.s, intelligent aliens monitoring the lives of humans and related conspiracies about a government cover-up of these phenomena. ...

The less religious participants were, we found, the less they perceived their lives as meaningful. This lack of meaning was associated with a desire to find meaning, which in turn was associated with belief in U.F.O.s and alien visitors.

This reminds me of this misattributed quote:

When people stop believing in God, they don’t believe in nothing — they believe in anything.

Atheism seems also to be associated with certain political beliefs. It is amazing how many believe that there is some sort of govt conspiracy to cover up Russian influence. Or how American atheists like to bash white Christians, but ostracize anyone who similarly criticizes Islam.