The Importance of Myth - Cultural Evolution?

I know we've moved on in subjects but I wanna backtrack for a bit. In reading The Importance of Myth, the list of the three traits that help a myth endure caught my eye. I'll repeat them here:

1. Easy to remember, even in an illiterate society.
2. Approachable and understandable, regardless of intelligence or education level
3. Stimulating to the imagination and feelings.

It got me to thinking about the Theory of Cultural Evolution. In this theory natural selection not only applies to genetic traits, but cultural elements as well. Darwin originally presented the concept of natural selection being that the offspring of a parent organism will resemble said parent, and hopefully these inherited traits will also allow the offspring to survive and become parents themselves. However, this isn't restrained to just genetic traits, behaviors are passed down from parent to offspring so that the offspring also resemble their parents in that way.Vertical transmission of traits in a cultural evolutionary sense is exemplified by parents teaching their offspring  about proper behavior within their culture. Horizontal transmission is exemplified by the influence of peers and other authority figures such as teachers and idols on one's behavior.

If a myth sufficiently exhibits all three of the above traits, it can be used to transmit concepts about acceptable behavioral within a culture alongside the culture's ideals and taboos, etc. Myth is a useful tool in both vertical and horizontal transmission of cultural norms.

In the case of myths, they play multiple roles. Some of them mentioned in the reading include:

1. To grant stability and continuity to a culture
2. To present guidelines for living
3. To justify the activities of a culture
4. To give meaning to life
5. To explain the inexpiable
6. To offer role models

And so, I was reading an article about the projected rise of atheists and agnostics in developed nations a few days ago. I was thinking about traits number 4 and 5 and how horizontal transmission may be at work here. Statistically, an atheist or agnostic is likely to have a post-secondary education, and live in cities and economically secure nations.  Therefore, there is a relationship between access to education and lack of faith. Teachers and fellow students are most probably acting as agents of horizontal transmission of scientific myth. Since scientific myth is able to preform the role of explaining how the world works better than religious myth, you can see it begin to gain ground in the Western World. In the realm of explaining the natural, physical world, science is more accurate in describing the physical world, has yeilded more physical benefits and supported with physical evidence. Therefore, sacred myth for many is no longer useful for explaining the physical world.

Perhaps this is what Joesph Campbell meant...