And neither does the public opinion in you’re country foster materialism. Creationism is still the dominant world view in you’re country.
As for current discoveries supporting materialism, that could not be further from the truth. Not only does “the hard problem of consciousness” have never been solved despite so many brilliant minds trying to solve it for centuries, but materialism has been refuted by modern discoveries.
Those that study sociology for example are overwhealmingly postmodernist. They start from the truth that society does have an influence on culture. A child raised in saudi arabia will be different than a child raised in Switzerland. Nobody can deny the importance of society and culture. But they fall into an extreme and go on to say that everything comes from cultural conditioning and end up contradicted by reality. They end up saying gender is just a social construct and other such ideas. They end up saying “everything comes from cultural conditioning” and ignore the importance of matter or other things. As Buddha would say, “they overshoot what can be know though direct observance and end up contradicted by reality”.
In the same way, those who study form end up in an extreme. Nobody can deny the importance of matter and how many things it does determine. But when they say “everything comes from matter, including consciousness, including volition” they overshoot what can be known through direct ovservence, since the hard problem of consciousness is called like that for a reason. And they end up contradicted by reality, such as neuroplasticity, the placebo effect, quantum phisics etc. They fall into an extreme.
Buddha path is the middle way and that is why it can not be contradicted by direct observence from reality. It if would ever get contradicted, then it would be proven false same as materialism or postmodernism for example.
In order to know what happens with consciousness after death, you need to know where it originated from. Unless you know the cause because of witch it originated in the first place, you can never know if it will originate again like it did before or weather it will cease without reminder. You can not know that unless you know the cause because of witch it originated in the first place. And current knowledge does not support the materialist view. As for popular opinion in one country or another, it could not matter less for the truth. Many people believing in an idea in a certain country at a certain point in time does not make an idea right.
A good example of a person falling into an extreme recently is me in this topic: Buddhism and society - What did Buddha really had to say about it? - #16 by dxm_dxm