Is there any evidence that Religion will die out

[tradeunionsupporter]

Is there any evidence that Religion will die out once people have the education and a good standard of living ?

[psgchisolm]

No.

[Sadena Meti]

Evidence, no, trends, yes.

In the developed worlds, religion is on the decline. In the developing worlds, religion is on the rise (especially Christianity and Islam).

Now population trends mirror this as well. Population is on the decline in developed countries (or at least the rate of growth is declining), and population is growing in developing countries.

So that would say in the future there would be more religious people overall in the world.

But it also would say as countries become more developed, non-religious, agnosticism and atheism increase.

So taken over a longer time scale, religion should decline.

[Kenco Smooth]

In Western Europe trends definitely favour the secularisation thesis although it has been contested. Mostly by theorists such as Grace Davie (http://www.sociology.psu.edu/graduate/Fall%202010%20Prosem/Readings-Trinitapoli/REL_Davie_1990.pdf) who have argued that religion is taking on a new form of 'belief without belonging' (of which new-age spiritualism, flirtations with Eastern theology, and spiritual beliefs with no connected dogma in general are examples). However this argument seems to stretch most peoples definition of religion pretty far and would still seem to lead to the continued secularisation of the public domain that has been occurring more or less for the last century at least.

The key issue in Europe is that whilst practice is plummeting belief is relatively stable. However there is no indication this belief is stable and trends highlighted by David Voas (http://esr.oxfordjournals.org/content/early/2007/01/01/esr.jcn044.full.pdf) particularly seem to indicate otherwise.

In America both belief and practice remain anomalously high compared to similar European nations but this itself isn't necessarily an argument against secularisation. Will Herberg proposes that these figures don’t necessarily reflect the true level of religiosity amongst Americans and that there is a process of internal secularisation occurring throughout the US where religious attendance is prompted by secular notions of responsibility to community and a sense of duty regarding their families. It seems that the US may not be immune to the apparent secularisation occurring across the Atlantic.

However these trends do only concern post-industrial Western nations and I'm not informed of trends in other regions. But definitely in the modern, Western and rationalist regions religion seems well on it's way to becoming an irrelevant demographic blip much like modern practising Pagan groups.

[danyboy27]

religion will never die.

at best it could become benign and relatively innofensive due to the decreasing number of fallowers.

[Kenco Smooth]

religion will never die.

at best it could become benign and relatively innofensive due to the decreasing number of fallowers.

Well I think that's maybe being a bit of a misuse of the term dead. No doubt if you looked hard enough you'd find individuals spiritually invested in say Roman or Greek theology but we wouldn't hesitate to call these dead religions.

[Sadena Meti]

Current data:

WORLD
Christians 33.32% (of which Roman Catholics 16.99%, Protestants 5.78%, Orthodox 3.53%, Anglicans 1.25%), Muslims 21.01%, Hindus 13.26%, Buddhists 5.84%, Sikhs 0.35%, Jews 0.23%, Baha'is 0.12%, other religions 11.78%, non-religious 11.77%, atheists 2.32% (2007 est.) [Total 14% have no religion]

USA
Protestant 51.3%, Roman Catholic 23.9%, Mormon 1.7%, other Christian 1.6%, Jewish 1.7%, Buddhist 0.7%, Muslim 0.6%, other or unspecified 2.5%, unaffiliated 12.1%, none 4% (2007 est.) [Total 16% have no religion]

Not surprised to see the US being more Christian, but surprised to see it being more non-religious, even if only slightly.

Source=CIA

(EDIT) I once heard that a staggering 40% of scientists are atheists.
Source=Richard Dawkins

[Rafiq]

Is there any evidence that Religion will die out once people have the education and a good standard of living ?

Not really, but if you'd like, you could compare religion in developed nations to religion on non-developed nations.

[hatzel]

Not really, but if you'd like, you could compare religion in developed nations to religion on non-developed nations.Kinda like this, this:

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/54/Religion_in_the_world.PNG/800px-Religion_in_the_world.PNG

On the other hand...this map doesn't really show anything of the trends within countries. For instance, the growth of Buddhism, Bahá'í and other religions in the west, as well as mystical versions of existing religions, which could potentially grow to replace more religion as we now know it. These kinds of things probably wouldn't show up on this map, which is about the importance of religion in everyday life. By that measurement, there are developed countries, like Portugal and Italy, which are in the same category as India, a country we generally consider developing, and where we are lead to believe that religion, in the form of Hinduism, still plays a major roll...interesting! I don't think we can draw straight conclusions based merely on the level of development, I'm trying to say, though it may appear as such at first glance

[Sadena Meti]

Don't know why they listed some of these as "No data"

Lybia: Sunni Muslim 97%, other 3%
Greenland: Evangelical Lutheran
China: Daoist (Taoist), Buddhist, Christian 3%-4%, Muslim 1%-2%
Somalia: Sunni Muslim

[Red_Devotchka]

Unfortunately education,despite of being fundamental, is not always enough. I know lot of intelligent and well-versed people that are religious. I think it's also a psychological thing, that depends on your character, on what you fear, on what you've been tought as a child. I'd also distinguish between people that do have their beliefs (spiritual, philosophical, etc) and consider their convinctions a personal, intimate thing and those who are a part of an organisation (Church). I think it's purely normal and logic to somehow try to explain to yourself some issues that can't (or not yet) be explained with science. Like for example if we have a soul, if there was something before the big bang (assuming tht ones believes that theory) etc. I personally am materialistic and don't really focus on that kind of things, but i do understand that some people do need to believe in something. What i consider wrong are the religions that claim things that are in contrast with science, history and any kind of evidence provided. In short, I'm against the dogmas and making people narrow-minded, prejudice etc. So what i believe is that maybe it's possible to put down religions, but it is probably not to convince all people of being atheist or agnostic.

[hatzel]

Don't know why they listed some of these as "No data"Presumably because it's based on a specific (and hugely simplistic) poll (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Importance_of_religion_by_country) about the importance of religion to individuals. Much more interesting is that in the Eurobarometer (http://ec.europa.eu/public_opinion/archives/ebs/ebs_225_report_en.pdf). One could take an example of Estonia, according to the Gallup poll the least religious country there is, with only 16% considering religion important (the same percentage who, according to the Eurobarometer, believe there is a god - that too is lowest percentage in Europe), less than a third of the population declaring to 'have' a religion...yet still, 54% of the population believes 'there is some spirit or life-force'. In fact, the percentage of people who don't believe in any god, spirit or life-force is the same in Estonia than it is in Germany (around a quarter), even though 47% of Germans believe there is a god. Seems like proof that denying the existence of god doesn't suddenly drag everybody into rational materialism, but instead into a much more spiritual belief system :lol: