Religion has dominated society and culture for thousands of years but it seems like their time is coming to an end. You might not have noticed it with all the fundamentalists running around, but religion is definitely on the decline.
According to the 2008 American Religious Identification Survey (ARIS), non-belief is on the rise in every state and no religious affiliation is up to about 15%. A Harris Interactive poll from about the same time period showed that 9% disbelieve flat out and another 9% aren’t sure. While religious statistics for European countries vary, it is fairly obvious that religion is way down in many European nations. Sweden seems to be the most atheistic nation and Spain and Italy seem to be the least.
Church attendance in many European countries is so low that churches have closed and some have even been converted to drinking establishments. Even in America, church attendance is down. According to a Harvard University study, about a third of college aged Americans no longer attend church. This number used to be about a tenth.
While it is unlikely that religion will ever be completely eliminated from society, their domination of society is noticeably waning. There is even speculation that this is the reason why evangelicals are becoming much more fervent and almost desperate to get attention.
People have started to look to psychologists and psychiatrists to help them deal with personal problems instead of going to their religious leaders for “spiritual” guidance. Science is starting to answer more and more of the nuts and bolts of the world we live in and God is being pushed to back to the ever shrinking gaps. Humanistic morality based on empathy and compassion is replacing Bible based ethics. While religion still provides a strong community for people, the internet and the rise of atheist and humanist groups are making even that function of religion obsolete. Religion is running out of things to offer. All they have left is the bribe of Heaven and the threat of Hell. Both of which are becoming harder and harder to take seriously.
Recently, the scandal involving the cover-up of pedophile priests by the Catholic Church and the backlash against the Mormon Church for their role in funding Proposition 8 have hastened the decline of religion. The more vocal and radical fundamentalists get the more people are driven away from religion entirely while the more vocal atheists get, the more people are willing to hear what we have to say and start questioning their long held beliefs.
Will we see the end of religion within our lifetime? Probably not, but we might be nearing the tipping point in which the decline of religion rapidly accelerates. That might just happen in our lifetime.
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Comments
I hoe you're right. I want you to be right. But I keep seeing "news" about people believing the President of the US is Muslim - and giving a damn about it. ANd about people calling a community center a few block from Ground Zero a "mosque on ground zero". And reports that XX percent of people are religious - it's always dismayingly high.
how can you talk about the demise of christianity in europe and not mention the rise of islam there as well? on top of that, the radical muslim theocracies that engulf many nations in the middle east? as atheists, shouldn't we question and confront ALL metaphysical beliefs?---i want to hear your thoughts on islam.
Islam is growing in Europe. There is no doubt about that. But Islam often uses physical threats and force to keep their numbers. This type of control cannot be maintained and will fall apart very quickly in time. I have often written about Islam, so I do get surprised when I get comments that I don't talk about it. But I will be honest and say that I talk about it less than I talk about Christianity. 80% of America is Christian while .6% are Muslim.
"Islam often uses physical threats and force to keep their numbers. This type of control cannot be maintained and will fall apart very quickly"
Let's not forget murder when it comes to keeping those numbers either. ---And it is nice to think that reason-minded, open, free-thinking liberal societies can tame a violent, brutish clan-minded religious flock just by allowing it to flourish and putter-out by exposing them to our "better ways" but i'm not putting my money on it. have you read the koran. i suggest you do so. it is more horrid than the old testament...an they have no new koran testament. Christianity has been exposed, for all who are willing to look, as the fraud it is. And most people who call themselves christians would never do what is being done in the name of islam today internationally.
As atheists we must put our fight where the real fight actually is: islam. ----did you know, if i wrote what i just wrote and i happened to be in saudi arabia (or countless other nations) when i did it; i could be imprisioned, tortoured, put to death or, most likely, all three? you can't say the same thing about white-bred alabama in pussy jesusland.
i wish dawkins would focus on islam as much he does the goddamn pope.
I worry sometimes that the fall of religion in America will be a violent one as fundamentalist evangelicals, ever more frustrated at their decreasing ability to get their way through other channels, resort to it more. The knowledge that our military is heavily infiltrated by these guys isn't a comforting one either.
religion is not "falling" it is being discredited. big difference.----have you served in the military? there are just as many atheists as there are believers. fear the elites if you must fear something. but even the elites are nothing to worry about.
That is a scary thought. I worry about that too.
why worry about power struggle?
the people who are grabbing for the power are natural to the process. the teabaggers and the socialists.
conflict is good for freedom and reason.
i want to see more.
it will never end.
Please attend to Pakistan. Where this millitary backed religious fanatics are killing even govement officials like governor Salaman Taseer and Minister Shahbaz Bhatii who dare to speak even a little about a morderate version of Islam leaving aside atheism... we need help
While Europe is going atheist and Muslim and the US is going essentially agnostic atheist, the majority ("third") world is becoming the center of global Christianity: most Christians today live there, and the problem they face is how to handle the growth of the church. As US evangelicals use their political power to support an increasingly oppressive state, Christians with no political power, living under oppressive regimes, are living out the Bible in ways that convince their neighbors. When the US implodes due to its own corruption, Christianity will be worldwide again what it is in the Bible: the religion of the oppressed speaking truth to power. I pray that if they ever find themselves in positions of influence, the memory of the US evangelical disaster will guide our currently oppressed brethren to choose to spread the word by persuasion rather than by political power.
I also hope you're right; however, this has been predicted as imminent before. John Keats, the great poet, said in centuries past,
"I should feel a damp, a chill, as from a tomb,
Did I not know that they are dying;
That 'tis their sighing, wailing, 'ere they go into oblivion;
That fresh flowers shall grow, and many glories in immortal stamp."
I still carry that torch; but I have an unfortunate feeling that this will take centuries more. We had that unfortunate resurgence of religious fundamentalism in the 1950s because of the U.S. and its paranoia about communism; we're still feeling that after-effect. It will take time. In the meantime, it's incumbent upon us to stop religion not by repressing its teachings, but by teaching our youth how to think for themselves without bias or agenda, such that the doctrines that are presented to them seem easily ludicrous.
"why worry about power struggle?" you ask
Ever heard of "collateral damage"?
That's why I worry about power struggles.
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