Why does religion continue to grow?

[abaris]

Now what happened significant in the 1980s? The fall of communism. Communism forced people who weren't Atheists to identify as such. When it fell the number of 'Atheists' dropped significantly world wide. However that's only because in communist dictatorships people were forced to cover up their real beliefs and statistics were sketchy at best.

You're right in that assessment although there's a little more to it. First, religion was the more or less forbidden fruit, so it got interesting. Secondly, it was often the churches encouraging resistance. Thirdly, when locking at the Gallup polls, that those countries of the former soviet block are still the most religious which are economical and social backwaters. Such as Romania, Albania, Serbia (although that was never part of the soviet empire) and Poland. Now with Poland it's a little more difficult, since they always have been staunchly catholic.