Is religion increasing?

Dooey Jo · Post by **Dooey Jo** » 2003-08-09 10:15am

People from different religions, such as Islam and Christianity (which really isn't that different but never mind that), claims that their religion is the one that is expanding the most in the world and they all agree that religion as a whole is expanding rapidly and atheism is getting less and less popular. I've never acctually met one who could back up his claims about this but if it were true what could the reason to this be? One would think that in these "enlightened" times people would get less religious, not more.

Have anyone else heard about this religious increase or should I asume that they are taking their claims right out of their asses?

Solamnus · Post by **Solamnus** » 2003-08-09 10:46am

I believe that Islams is the fastest growing religion in the world. This comes from converts and of course, having a lot of babies. I have not heard that atheism is becoming less popular amongst people and "losing ground to religion". Sounds like it is an antedotal comment simply because there are infact more theists than atheists which can give the impression that atheism is less and less popular.

PainRack · Post by **PainRack** » 2003-08-09 11:11am

I won't know about this worldwide, but there has been an increasing number of religious converts in SEA.

Archaic` · Post by **Archaic`** » 2003-08-09 11:14am

The last official data for Australia had Buddhism as the fastest growing religion, though IIRC (And I don't have the data on hand to check sorry), that could simply be because Atheism wasn't counted as being a religion (ie. They ignored that an answer of "None" was faster growing than any religion).

His Divine Shadow · Post by **His Divine Shadow** » 2003-08-09 11:20am

I would have thought religion would be decreasing.

Alyeska · Post by **Alyeska** » 2003-08-09 11:26am

In the United States certain religons are increasing, but total numbers of religous people have been decreasing. The agnostic and atheist numbers in the US have been steadily rising over the years. Higher education is one of the primary factors behind this. The further you go in your education, the less religous you are going to be. Also the further you go in education the more accepting of science you are regardless of your religion. Most people who understand and accept evolution and geology regardless of religion come from higher education. Most who are against those sciences do not attend college.

Education is the key to removing the fundamentalist element in this country.

Post by **Darth Wong** » 2003-08-09 12:16pm

This is why homeschooling is bad. Religionists recognize that education tends to damage religion, hence huge numbers of religious fanatics homeschool their children in order to make sure they aren't corrupted by facts as opposed to indoctrination.

Pablo Sanchez · Post by **Pablo Sanchez** » 2003-08-09 01:11pm

Darth Wong wrote:This is why homeschooling is bad. Religionists recognize that education tends to damage religion, hence huge numbers of religious fanatics homeschool their children in order to make sure they aren't corrupted by facts as opposed to indoctrination.

Another strike against homeschooling is that the students involved sometimes fail to develop social skills.

On the topic: The problem with the polls on this subject is that they usually count someone who hasn't been to church or even thought about God in 20 years, but reflexively considers himelf a believer, as being equal to someone who goes to church eight times a week and believes fervently. Theres no accounting made for (how to put this) "functionally non-believing" people.

In my opinion, a poll that did this would show quite sharply declining numbers of fundamentalist and practicing Christians, with stagnation or growth for non-practicing believers.

NapoleonGH · Post by **NapoleonGH** » 2003-08-09 01:39pm

nah it seems from what ive seen at least in the last 20 years or so in the US the number of Fundies has been increasing, or at least they have become more vocal

Post by **Darth Wong** » 2003-08-09 01:41pm

NapoleonGH wrote:nah it seems from what ive seen at least in the last 20 years or so in the US the number of Fundies has been increasing, or at least they have become more vocal

Fundies generate membership through rapid breeding (they like to breed like rabbits), indoctrination, and poaching of new recruits from moderate Christians. What we're seeing is polarization, thanks to their unremittingly militant idiocy.

Peregrin Toker · Post by **Peregrin Toker** » 2003-08-09 03:46pm

Alyeska wrote: Most people who understand and accept evolution and geology regardless of religion come from higher education. Most who are against those sciences do not attend college.

I recall reading in a magazine about the paranormal that a Gallup survey revealed following:

A selection of americans who just completed high school were asked how many believed the biblical account of Creation as true. Somewhere between 44% and 50% believed this. But similar tests were done with Americans with higher-than-High School education - and the test revealed that the higher an education the test subjects had received, the less likely they were to believe that the bible was literal truth.

The article then continued to state that it was another matter with belief in UFO lore.

Johonebesus · Post by **Johonebesus** » 2003-08-09 04:26pm

In America at least, it does seem that religious sentiment is on the increase. While many people are not turning to traditional churches, there has been an increasing interest in spiritualism and psychic crap. I have not seen a poll that simply asks if a person believe in divinity or supernatural phenomena or life-after-death, but the impression is certainly that these beliefs are increasing.

Post by **Alyrium Denryle** » 2003-08-09 04:53pm

Well according to a few recent surveys....

http://www.adherents.com/

Christianity: 2 billion

Islam: 1.3 billion

Hinduism: 900 million

Secular/Nonreligious/Agnostic/Atheist: 850 million

Buddhism: 360 million

Chinese traditional religion: 225 million

primal-indigenous: 150 million

African Traditional & Diasporic: 95 million

Sikhism: 23 million

Juche: 19 million

Spiritism: 14 million

Judaism: 14 million

Baha'i: 6 million

Jainism: 4 million

Shinto: 4 million

Cao Dai: 3 million

Tenrikyo: 2.4 million

Neo-Paganism: 1 million

Unitarian-Universalism: 800 thousand

Rastafarianism: 700 thousand

Scientology: 600 thousand

Zoroastrianism: 150 thousand

Religion growth from 1990-2000 in the US
Christianity +5%
Nonreligious/Secular +110%
Judaism -10%
Islam +109%
Buddhism +170%
Agnostic -16%
Atheist 0.4%
Hinduism +237%
Unitarian Universalist +25%
Native American Religion +119%
Baha'i +200%
New Age +240%
Sikhism +338%
Scientology +22%
Humanist +69%
Deity (Deist) +717%
Taoist +74%
Eckankar +44%

NapoleonGH · Post by **NapoleonGH** » 2003-08-09 05:35pm

so it appears that the diests have gained alot, i guess thatshows that alot of people are moving away from organized religion but that they still seem to feel an obligation (either to internal forces or to external ones) to believe in some variation on the god theme

kojikun · Post by **kojikun** » 2003-08-09 06:38pm

so christianity has a 5% increase every decade starting at 2 billion, and atheism has a 110% increase every decade starting at 0.85 billion. That that rate atheists will outnumber christians by about 2015.

Post by **Alyrium Denryle** » 2003-08-09 06:45pm

Those growth statistics are for the US only.

Germany for example has a shrinking christian polulation of approx 2.3% of their total population...

Post by **Darth Wong** » 2003-08-09 06:49pm

Alyrium Denryle wrote:Those growth statistics are for the US only.

Germany for example has a shrinking christian polulation of approx 2.3% of their total population...

Which is probably why prostitution is legal there, while we still throw people in prison for it here.

Post by **Alyrium Denryle** » 2003-08-09 07:01pm

And why gay marriage is legal... Among other things, oh and why their educational system is better than ours... Hell the exchange students I have met... My friend Nils speaks English better than I do, and speaks latin and soe spanish, as well as I think french...

The rest of them I know, well they are to fucking smart to be placed into many of the classes that my school offers... It is sick... here we are, most of us arent even bilingual, while our German counterparts speak at least 3 languages, and they are in comparativly high math classes compared to the mainstream students(Nils was in calculus, Birget was in I think trig as a sophomore)

They have no problem with discussing religion, politics, economics... In the German system from what I can tell,, they have a true free exchange of ideas. Unlike our system... OI. Our teachers arent even permitted to state their political opinions(Herr Cole does so anyway)

Our American school system... is woefully inadequate... It was refereshing to find another student that actually understands logic and evolution. Someone who knows what a logical fallacy is...

END Germany wanking.

Post by **Alyrium Denryle** » 2003-08-09 07:16pm

http://www.statcan.ca/english/Pgdb/demo32.htm

Here are the demographics for canada... Christianity is shrinking... with Islam, Buddism, and Hinduism showing small increases... No-religious shoing a mrked increase of over 5% of the total poulation and over 400 thousand people...

Post by **Alyrium Denryle** » 2003-08-09 07:32pm

State by state percentile of those who stted No Religion in a national self identification survery...

http://www.teachingaboutreligion.org/De ... igious.htm

very light blue(eg Alabama)=1-12%
Green Brown(eg Oklahoma)=13-14 %
Turquoise(eg Arizona)= 15-17%
aqua(eg California)=18-25%

jegs2 · Post by **jegs2** » 2003-08-09 08:14pm

What amuses me is to find folks who claim no belief in God or anything spiritual and then turn to the horoscope page of the newspaper to read of their daily fate.

Post by **Darth Wong** » 2003-08-09 08:15pm

jegs2 wrote:What amuses me is to find folks who claim no belief in God or anything spiritual and then turn to the horoscope page of the newspaper to read of their daily fate.

How many of these people do you know? My brother reads the horoscope because he thinks it's fun, but if you ask him, he'll tell you straight out that it doesn't predict the future.

jegs2 · Post by **jegs2** » 2003-08-09 08:18pm

Darth Wong wrote:
jegs2 wrote:What amuses me is to find folks who claim no belief in God or anything spiritual and then turn to the horoscope page of the newspaper to read of their daily fate.
How many of these people do you know? My brother reads the horoscope because he thinks it's fun, but if you ask him, he'll tell you straight out that it doesn't predict the future.

Much like folks who claim to read Playboy just for the articles

Most of the folks I met who read those things will say something similar, but they also read them every day...

Post by **Darth Wong** » 2003-08-09 08:24pm

jegs2 wrote:
Darth Wong wrote:How many of these people do you know? My brother reads the horoscope because he thinks it's fun, but if you ask him, he'll tell you straight out that it doesn't predict the future.
Much like folks who claim to read Playboy just for the articles

There can occasionally be good articles in there ... honest!

Most of the folks I met who read those things will say something similar, but they also read them every day...

They also probably read the cartoons every day; that doesn't mean they take astrology seriously. If they start making major decisions based on the horoscope, then they take it seriously. For example, I've known people who postponed weddings because the planets were "not in alignment" or some other such astrological babble. That is an example of someone who actually believes in astrology.

Post by **Alyrium Denryle** » 2003-08-09 08:28pm

Much like folks who claim to read Playboy just for the articles

You know me... I read playboy for the articles on occasion when bored... They do actually have a few good ones. Stuff on draconian drug searches and how prozac kills the sex drive...