The Decline Of Religion As We Know It?

A study using census data from nine countries shows that religion there is set for extinction, say researchers.


The study found a steady rise in those claiming no religious affiliation.

The team's mathematical model attempts to account for the interplay between the number of religious respondents and the social motives behind being one.

The result, reported at the American Physical Society meeting in Dallas, US, indicates that religion will all but die out altogether in those countries.

"In a large number of modern secular democracies, there's been a trend that folk are identifying themselves as non-affiliated with religion; in the Netherlands the number was 40%, and the highest we saw was in the Czech Republic, where the number was 60%."

The team then applied their nonlinear dynamics model, adjusting parameters for the relative social and utilitarian merits of membership of the "non-religious" category.

They found, in a study published online, that those parameters were similar across all the countries studied, suggesting that similar behaviour drives the mathematics in all of them.

Read the study here.


Read the article here.




Science has revealed more about the natural world than religion ever has. It seems to me this is just the normal evolution of an intelligent species.

Welcome to the Age of Aquarius

that doesnt surprise me. religion has caused more wars, genocides, political issues and more problems than any other thing on this planet besides greed. being spiritual is one thing, but religion, especially organized religion, has no place on this planet anymore. its detrimental to the growth and continuation of our species. with no religion, some sort of global peace would come out of it i feel.

the only god that needs to be communicated with is the god of self. we control our destinies, not some invisible man in the skies.

science needs to be mankind's new religion. well...actual science, not the science of creating trinkets to keep people occupied and distracted.

reply to post by XelNaga


The death of religion won't bring about peace, as you so rightly pointed out greed has caused more suffering than religion. The death of greed WILL be the beginning of universal peace, and what would cause the death of greed? IMHO it is religion albeit a much different form than currently exists.

reply to post by XelNaga


very true

sadly both concepts have been distorted for the same thing

entertainment/distracion

if science was still the conscious act of experience

and religion was a reconnection between us and everythingh around us as the original word "religare" meant.


one can only dream about the time both concepts were not separate at all.


damned atlanteans and their silly final war are to blame for this


by the way OP, the spaghetti monster provides a cozy warm feeling to this thread

Speaking strictly as a Christian...

Cool beans!

I've always been highly spiritual, but have grown to somewhat despise organized Religion. Leave me alone, I don't need some guy in a flowing robe to instruct me on how I should worship or feel about God.

Buddha1098: that being said that was an excellent reply. We can always hope, eh?

Cheers!

reply to post by Buddha1098


it may not bring absolute peace, but it would create more of an understanding for one another because the difference between what gods name is, wouldnt cause war and genocide.

the crusades for example:

both the muslims and christians were battling over the same god.

christianity lied to its people for the most part to fill their ranks. they told tales of glory and honor and riches and all sins removed. not quite sure what saladin and the other islamic leaders said to get their ranks filled, but it was probably something to do with "we can not allow these heathens rape and pillage jerusalem in the name of 'god' "

i personally feel mankind would be better off without religion, at least organized religion. let us be spiritual, but not religious. religion is an exploitation of the spirit within all of us.

Originally posted by XelNaga
reply to post by Buddha1098

 

it may not bring absolute peace, but it would create more of an understanding for one another because the difference between what gods name is, wouldnt cause war and genocide.

the crusades for example:

both the muslims and christians were battling over the same god.

christianity lied to its people for the most part to fill their ranks. they told tales of glory and honor and riches and all sins removed. not quite sure what saladin and the other islamic leaders said to get their ranks filled, but it was probably something to do with "we can not allow these heathens rape and pillage jerusalem in the name of 'god' "

i personally feel mankind would be better off without religion, at least organized religion. let us be spiritual, but not religious. religion is an exploitation of the spirit within all of us.

I get what you are saying, but the crusades were hundreds of years ago. Yes there are exceptions Sudan, Balkans, Holocaust etc. but the vast majority of conflict in the past few centuries had little to nothing to do with religion.

reply to post by Hessling


You say you are a Christian, yet you have grown tired of Religion? This would indicate that you are not a Christian, and instead are just a 'spirtual' person.

reply to post by Buddha1098


I disagree, a great deal of conflict in Europe was caused by the battle between the Rationalists and Atheists of the Revolutions (French and Russian and America) and the conservative, often Catholic forces in Austria, Germany, and so on. The French Revolution took on some very savoury religious crusade elements, fighting in the name of the Supreme Being, or the Cult of Reason. There is a reason that Republicanism is associated with secularism and, ultimately, contra-religiosity.

reply to post by SmedleyBurlap


None of that compares to the 60 million people who died in just the second world war alone.

reply to post by Buddha1098


Perhaps not, but it was during the 1800s and 1700s that vast territories, occupied by on-Christian indigenous peoples, were conquered and enslaved by Christians on a proselytic mission.

Originally posted by v1rtu0s0
reply to post by Hessling

 

You say you are a Christian, yet you have grown tired of Religion? This would indicate that you are not a Christian, and instead are just a 'spirtual' person.

I understand why you would think that, but I do believe in Jesus. Therefore, I actually am a Christian. Just not one affiliated with any Christian Religion.

Cheers!

I don't think religion per se is dying, but ORGANISED religion in which real spirituality has been replaced with a load of stale dogmatic claptrap. Here in England I see most people turning their backs on the Christian faith but more people than ever delving into spiritualism, occultism, wicca, neo-paganism and various other types if New Age beliefs.

Probably not any time soon, but organized religion has no function in contemporary society, and it will one day die out. It's reached a point where in almost all cases it causes only harm in society (not in individual persons' lives), and people are... slowly becoming more aware of that on a large scale.

People will probably never stop believing in god, or carrying faith in some way or another. But it will be less pervasive in society. I think people on the whole will evolve, so to speak, in the ways they worship their god(s).
Unfortunately, this is not likely to occur within any of our lifetimes.

To the future of human consciousness.

--Kit.

reply to post by superwurzel666


It's curious, isn't it? It;s like the reverse of the fall of Rome. According to Gibbons, anyway, Rome's decay was a cause of and was accelerated by the populace's embrace of Christianity. The new monotheistic religion systematically destroyed the old religions, the old cultures, the archaic mos maiorum of Rome. The decay of the entire civil system went hand in hand with the death of the old wisdom.

Now, today, we see the entire civil system crumbling again. The world-empire built by the Christianized Romans is falling to pieces, and the values that made it possible are disappearing with it. Christianity is dying, finally! We are returning, en masse, to the ancient ways! Finally!

It's the Archaic Revival all around...

Originally posted by Hessling

Originally posted by v1rtu0s0
reply to post by Hessling

 

You say you are a Christian, yet you have grown tired of Religion? This would indicate that you are not a Christian, and instead are just a 'spirtual' person.

I understand why you would think that, but I do believe in Jesus. Therefore, I actually am a Christian. Just not one affiliated with any Christian Religion.

Cheers!

A point well said. Your belief system is Christianity, but you do not parttake in the giant cooperate group like Christians

I used to believe that the decline of religious belief was a natural result of the times. I have come to realize that it is very possible a designed event. Here is Yuri Beznmov, an ex-KGB agent, describing his area of expertise in societal subversion.

The highest level of subversion affects such vital areas as religion.

All the SUBVERTER has to do is to study the areas where your nation's IDEAS could be eroded and substituted, and then slowly but consistently affect these areas by sending infiltrating Agents of Influence to inject new ideas, disseminate propagandist literature, and encourage self-destructive tendencies.

All subverter has to do to remove the spiritual backbone of America is to help you to COMMERCIALIZE. POLITICIZE and 'ENTERTAINMENT-ALIZE' the dominant religions.

A) Commercialize
If the church has to SOLICIT your money and remind you over and over again in every TV show to contribute (with telephone numbers to pledge donations), that only means and infers that there is something basically wrong with your faith. Faithful people do not have to be ASKED for money, they tithe to their churches voluntarily and eagerly. Unhealthy competition for donations between various 'electronic churches' does two things beneficial to the subverter.

1) it makes religion dependent on the most successful 'salesmen' of God (and these salesmen may not necessarily be, they DONT HAVE to be, of the highest moral standards) thus, truly moral, God-centered people are turned off by organized religion and 2) it EMPTIES regular churches, where you have to practice your religion by personal physical presence and participation and involvement. All the subverter has to do now is to keep on further discrediting the main body of the church, by harping at religion in general as “just another means of the capitalist exploitation of masses, and a profit-oriented opiate of the people.”

B)Politicize
Politicizing religion is the most efficient method of demoralizing a target nation. Once a nation starts giving to Caesar what belongs to God, and getting God involved in such things as 'social justice' and partisan political squabbles, it predictably loses what religion calls mercy and the grace of God.

(How many are turned away from religion when some of the radical right
continually bombard the rest with their morality, and the use of the state to support these moral beliefs?)

C)Entertainment-ize
To attract people AND MONEY to 'established' religious organizations some churches have literally become theaters conducting variety shows featuring celebrities from the entertainment 'industry' who perform for 'fees.

A group of rock or pop-musicians with a message of 'social-justice' sugar-coated in popular 'spiritual' tunes can be actually more helpful to the KGB than someone standing in the pulpit preaching Marxist-Leninist doctrine.
Link

This makes me wonder is the decline in faith is natural, or the result of subversion. The first two are very obvious to me in the US today, but the entertainment one I do not see so much.

I know the article is talking about nations other than the US, but I am wondering if they underwent similar subversion.

reply to post by SmedleyBurlap


Well, over here a lot of conservatives like to claim that England is still a Christian civilisation, but I think it would be more accurate to describe it as post-christian.

With regards to values, most of us generally follow a kind of utilitarianism, which, while attempting to provide the maximum happiness and health for the greatest number, still has certain clauses to safeguard the rights of the individual against a tyranny of the majority. By no means a perfect system, but still a lot better than anything organised religion has come up with in 6000-plus years. Plus it was pretty much what we were doing before those pesky christians came along and stole Yultide. Oh yes, despite what the whinging clerics say, some of us DO still remember the original meaning of christmas,ie, celebrating Winter Soltice by sharing gifts and a jolly good slap up feast with the family!

reply to post by v1rtu0s0


I am not religious, but I consider myself spiritual.

I think it's important to understand that "religion" doesn't cause wars, genocide, ect ... people do.

That's not to say it can't help invoke people to such acts, but let's place the blame where it really belongs; on the individuals who make such choices.

For a long while now, I've seen people simply attack religion as the single source of the world's problems. Nonsense. The problem is within each and every one of us ... but so is the solution.

For we all have the potential as the most wicked ... and the most benevolent. It's simply a matter of choice.

We all have the power to choose, and no longer can we blame external factors for these choices ... they come from within.