Whither religion?
We've often heard of the Evangelical segment of the electorate. Or the Mormon segment. Or the Jewish segment. But little is being told of the second-largest segment in America, and arguably the fastest-growing: atheists, or more broadly, non-believers. And they're rising worldwide. And surprisingly or not, being an open atheist may no longer be a hindrance to getting elected to top office.
In fact, there's a process of polarization in the religious respect as well as in the political one: while religiosity might be growing overall worldwide, so is atheism. Of course, many religious people are worried by the latter trend. Some believe it poses a danger. As if the lack of belief in an imaginary celestial boss equals lack of moral and ethics. We've heard that argument so many times.
My point here is about the reasons for the rise of non-belief. One explanation could be that the world is gradually turning away from religion because for a long time people have been witnessing how religion is "lacking" in some important departments. Like this discrepancy that religions generally like to preach about peace and good will, while at the same time they have been used to justify and even encourage the wholesale slaughter of people who question them or refuse to adhere to them. Contrary to its purported purpose of helping man, religion has ended up generally being a factor for oppression (social and intellectual), and censorship of knowledge and intellectual independence.
And of course, many religions tend to have some ideas that are outright appalling, concerning how people should live their lives and what they can or cannot do with their own bodies.
Now, without the sword to enforce those backward ideas, religions tend to lose their tools, and gradually flounder in result. Thus, non-belief grows.
That doesn't mean the majority of people in the world do not remain followers of religion in some form and practice. Of course religion is not going anywhere any time soon, and it'll continue to be an important factor, probably as long as there are humans in the world.
The other possible explanation is rather that the key factor for gradual erosion of religion (particularly in the developed, secular parts of the world) is scientific and material progress. The thing is, people are less likely to believe in a god if rational explanations render it useless, and if progress makes real, tangible world betterment possible without living by the prescriptions of some invented myth. If that's the case, then, even if religion would likely remain to stay in some form forever, the tendency of its disappearance and replacement by an increasingly secular, humanist ideology based on better rational understanding, is likely to continue and expand. In fact, it turns out societal development and prosperity is the bane of irrationalism (religion included).
There are drawbacks to the advance of secularism, of course - extremities like communism and fascism may have failed to further that process, but that has not stopped the secular worldview from taking over.
We should make a distinction here, though. Belief and organized religion are not necessarily the same thing. While the latter may be on the wane for one or more of the reasons mentioned above, the former is not. There are psychological as well as social and economic factors at play here. The more economic strife a society is experiencing (and thus, social turmoil), the more people would be prone to resorting to irrational means to make sense of what's happening, and find comfort. There's also the so called "Pope Francis effect": many people are prone to believing whatever they're told by a popular authority, and are susceptible to inspiration (of any sort, and going in either direction). There are also factors like the growing proneness to seeking spiritual comfort as age advances and death nears (hence, the supposed higher likelihood of a person being atheist while they're young).
There are all sorts of factors for the waning of religion - some might like to add the decline in authority held by the family unit as a means of teaching its successors existential dogma; the many gaffes and outrages committed by religious institutions (think of the pedophile scandals rocking the Catholic church); and the way education is organized in many countries, causing major shifts in long-held belief systems that primarily stem out of identity (hence national and individual loss of spirituality); and of course the fact that the scientific method has been systematically amassing enormous evidence in its own favor, thus winning more hearts and minds over time. There's the avalanche effect of peer pressure (which works both ways actually - depends what community you grow up in, a secular or a religious one).
Even people who consider themselves religious are now increasingly viewing their own Scripture as a collection of parables functioning as useful ethical metaphors as opposed to an account of actual historical events. There are scientists believing in God, granted, and still acknowledging the veracity of Evolution. There are bishops who now openly say the Bible is just a beautiful story meant to teach people morals, instead of a historical testimony. And of course these contrast to the ever shrinking group of loud and obnoxious, or quietly ignorant fundamentalist religious literalists stubbornly clinging to their preferred dogma even in the face of piles of contradicting evidence.
On the other hand, religion might really be transforming as opposed to disappearing - roughly 1/6 of people do not practice any formal religion but still hold some religious beliefs, which shows that religion is really not going away, and people are not abandoning religion because of the advance of scientific and material progress - and the idea that science and rationalism is the destroyer of religion might be falling prey to the fallacious expectation that the purpose of religion is to provide conveniently simple explanations to complex existential questions. Religion might have more to do with community, and communal practice, and be perceived as a key factor for societal coherence as opposed to a source of spiritual comfort. Because most people seldom have time to ponder existential questions at all, or delve into the spiritual. From that standpoint, being simpler to understand and follow religion could be a more useful tool for holding communities together than the more complicated, often misunderstood scientific process, which on top of it all requires actual intellectual effort, and refuses to teach you that you're a special snowflake and the purpose of the whole universe is to accommodate you.
This, in a way, works fine for many people - exactly because they're not required to waste time and effort thinking too much - the Scripture has already been written, the local pastor has taught them the doctrine, and the rest of their closest people agree with how things are and support it - and that's all you need to know. This explains why the so called conflict between religion and science seems to be far more important to atheists and non-believers in general, and represents a major argument of theirs. In the meantime, religious folks don't seem to find much conflict there at all. The only religious folks who may feel truly threatened by science are the ones who insist on Bible inerrability. In their attempt to embrace this doctrine no matter what, they find themselves compelled to ignore the complexity existing around them in favor of a book written by far more primitive and ignorant people than themselves a couple thousand years ago.
Anyway. I shall cut this rambling here, and let you have your say on the matter. The point is this: is religion waning or merely transforming? And either way - why? What's your take?
In fact, there's a process of polarization in the religious respect as well as in the political one: while religiosity might be growing overall worldwide, so is atheism. Of course, many religious people are worried by the latter trend. Some believe it poses a danger. As if the lack of belief in an imaginary celestial boss equals lack of moral and ethics. We've heard that argument so many times.
My point here is about the reasons for the rise of non-belief. One explanation could be that the world is gradually turning away from religion because for a long time people have been witnessing how religion is "lacking" in some important departments. Like this discrepancy that religions generally like to preach about peace and good will, while at the same time they have been used to justify and even encourage the wholesale slaughter of people who question them or refuse to adhere to them. Contrary to its purported purpose of helping man, religion has ended up generally being a factor for oppression (social and intellectual), and censorship of knowledge and intellectual independence.
And of course, many religions tend to have some ideas that are outright appalling, concerning how people should live their lives and what they can or cannot do with their own bodies.
Now, without the sword to enforce those backward ideas, religions tend to lose their tools, and gradually flounder in result. Thus, non-belief grows.
That doesn't mean the majority of people in the world do not remain followers of religion in some form and practice. Of course religion is not going anywhere any time soon, and it'll continue to be an important factor, probably as long as there are humans in the world.
The other possible explanation is rather that the key factor for gradual erosion of religion (particularly in the developed, secular parts of the world) is scientific and material progress. The thing is, people are less likely to believe in a god if rational explanations render it useless, and if progress makes real, tangible world betterment possible without living by the prescriptions of some invented myth. If that's the case, then, even if religion would likely remain to stay in some form forever, the tendency of its disappearance and replacement by an increasingly secular, humanist ideology based on better rational understanding, is likely to continue and expand. In fact, it turns out societal development and prosperity is the bane of irrationalism (religion included).
There are drawbacks to the advance of secularism, of course - extremities like communism and fascism may have failed to further that process, but that has not stopped the secular worldview from taking over.
We should make a distinction here, though. Belief and organized religion are not necessarily the same thing. While the latter may be on the wane for one or more of the reasons mentioned above, the former is not. There are psychological as well as social and economic factors at play here. The more economic strife a society is experiencing (and thus, social turmoil), the more people would be prone to resorting to irrational means to make sense of what's happening, and find comfort. There's also the so called "Pope Francis effect": many people are prone to believing whatever they're told by a popular authority, and are susceptible to inspiration (of any sort, and going in either direction). There are also factors like the growing proneness to seeking spiritual comfort as age advances and death nears (hence, the supposed higher likelihood of a person being atheist while they're young).
There are all sorts of factors for the waning of religion - some might like to add the decline in authority held by the family unit as a means of teaching its successors existential dogma; the many gaffes and outrages committed by religious institutions (think of the pedophile scandals rocking the Catholic church); and the way education is organized in many countries, causing major shifts in long-held belief systems that primarily stem out of identity (hence national and individual loss of spirituality); and of course the fact that the scientific method has been systematically amassing enormous evidence in its own favor, thus winning more hearts and minds over time. There's the avalanche effect of peer pressure (which works both ways actually - depends what community you grow up in, a secular or a religious one).
Even people who consider themselves religious are now increasingly viewing their own Scripture as a collection of parables functioning as useful ethical metaphors as opposed to an account of actual historical events. There are scientists believing in God, granted, and still acknowledging the veracity of Evolution. There are bishops who now openly say the Bible is just a beautiful story meant to teach people morals, instead of a historical testimony. And of course these contrast to the ever shrinking group of loud and obnoxious, or quietly ignorant fundamentalist religious literalists stubbornly clinging to their preferred dogma even in the face of piles of contradicting evidence.
On the other hand, religion might really be transforming as opposed to disappearing - roughly 1/6 of people do not practice any formal religion but still hold some religious beliefs, which shows that religion is really not going away, and people are not abandoning religion because of the advance of scientific and material progress - and the idea that science and rationalism is the destroyer of religion might be falling prey to the fallacious expectation that the purpose of religion is to provide conveniently simple explanations to complex existential questions. Religion might have more to do with community, and communal practice, and be perceived as a key factor for societal coherence as opposed to a source of spiritual comfort. Because most people seldom have time to ponder existential questions at all, or delve into the spiritual. From that standpoint, being simpler to understand and follow religion could be a more useful tool for holding communities together than the more complicated, often misunderstood scientific process, which on top of it all requires actual intellectual effort, and refuses to teach you that you're a special snowflake and the purpose of the whole universe is to accommodate you.
This, in a way, works fine for many people - exactly because they're not required to waste time and effort thinking too much - the Scripture has already been written, the local pastor has taught them the doctrine, and the rest of their closest people agree with how things are and support it - and that's all you need to know. This explains why the so called conflict between religion and science seems to be far more important to atheists and non-believers in general, and represents a major argument of theirs. In the meantime, religious folks don't seem to find much conflict there at all. The only religious folks who may feel truly threatened by science are the ones who insist on Bible inerrability. In their attempt to embrace this doctrine no matter what, they find themselves compelled to ignore the complexity existing around them in favor of a book written by far more primitive and ignorant people than themselves a couple thousand years ago.
Anyway. I shall cut this rambling here, and let you have your say on the matter. The point is this: is religion waning or merely transforming? And either way - why? What's your take?