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Thank you for the link.
Nice to see one of my old stomping grounds The University of Kent playing a role.
Funny how people feel the need to research this kind of thing, or why the question even needs to be asked really?
I'm not exactly sure what purpose it serves? * Blue Skies research I suppose.
Anyway perhaps it will be interesting to follow along.
Yeah it does have a bit of an undercurrent to it that unbelief or apathy towards religious faith or gods is something that is problematic or needs fixing, hence the attempt to figure it out. For many atheists, though, the idea of jazzing up religious PR or recruitment incentives is kind of like putting lipstick on a pig -- it wouldn't move the needle because for us, it misses the point. Most atheists, I assume, would primarily want evidence for religious truth claims. There isn't any. More and more people are figuring that out. As such, it isn't fixable, apart from science denial, initiatives opposed to critical thinking, education, etc. And there's certainly a subset of religion that is trying to go that route.
Even if for the sake of argument, religious faith is a virtue, the fact that it's not meeting the needs of increasing numbers of people suggests it has more fundamental problems than something fixable with a bit of tuning after figuring out the atheist demographic, lol
But you're right, we might actually learn something from the effort, since they're doing it.
Re; Nuances: Why should it be any different among unbelievers than among believers? The diversity and nuance are as widespread among believers as anything likely to be found among atheists!
Quote:
Originally Posted by mordant
I would expect there to be less diversity in atheism because it is a single question about a very narrow up-or-down topic. Do you or do you not believe in the existence of at least one deity? There is no dogma or deity to argue about. There might be some debate about your reasons for unbelief, but there should be zero confusion about what it means to BE an atheist.
In a sense I guess there is less diversity, it is more about what brings you to atheism -- whether you feel the need to crusade against, say, Christianity or not, or whether you have perhaps not entirely consistent beliefs in other forms of woo, are separate matters. But what kind of blows IMO is that there are people who identify as atheists who have even a provisional belief in a god of some kind. To me that is like saying you're a stamp collector without even a single stamp to your name.
What I gathered from them is that their focus was WHY someone was an atheist, i.e. the causes of atheism and in that I am confident there is much diversity.
What I gathered from them is that their focus was WHY someone was an atheist, i.e. the causes of atheism and in that I am confident there is much diversity.
That's a fair point, although I think there is a distinction between proximal causes (initial impetus) and what keeps one in that state. I don't think there's nearly as much diversity there, but I could be wrong. I have heard many repeat the same story as me, I started to doubt because X, but once I was out of the reality distortion field, I realized it was a false basis to begin with. So there are many causes, but not as many end-state realizations.
Some people DO go back to religion. It is a phenomenon that M. Scott Peck discussed at some length in this books. He saw atheism as level 3 on his scale of spiritual maturity, and some sort of elevated / liberal theism as the highest, level 4. I think he was mistaken to see atheism as invariably an abreaction to level 2 (more or less fundamentalism or dogmatic religion) as I think that's rather simplistic, if understandable. But he actually (for different reasons) regarded atheism more like you than any writer I'm aware of.
Yeah it does have a bit of an undercurrent to it that unbelief or apathy towards religious faith or gods is something that is problematic or needs fixing, hence the attempt to figure it out. For many atheists, though, the idea of jazzing up religious PR or recruitment incentives is kind of like putting lipstick on a pig -- it wouldn't move the needle because for us, it misses the point. Most atheists, I assume, would primarily want evidence for religious truth claims. There isn't any. More and more people are figuring that out. As such, it isn't fixable, apart from science denial, initiatives opposed to critical thinking, education, etc. And there's certainly a subset of religion that is trying to go that route.
Even if for the sake of argument, religious faith is a virtue, the fact that it's not meeting the needs of increasing numbers of people suggests it has more fundamental problems than something fixable with a bit of tuning after figuring out the atheist demographic, lol
But you're right, we might actually learn something from the effort, since they're doing it.
I think it's mildly entertaining that a site devoted to explaining atheism uses as its cover photo a picture of a clearly christian church...
That doesn't mean there is necessarily anything wrong with their research.
I can come up with a number of hypotheses on this one. Certainly the growth of the internet, and access to information has to play a large role. The growing acceptance of science and that it shows the fantastic imagery that "holy books" describe just can't be. The growing awareness that we have only one life to live, and that there is no evidence of a god, gods, or an afterlife.
It will be interesting to see what they come up with.
However, as a percentage of global population it is expected to decline in percentage throughout the years.
hese projections, which take into account demographic factors such as fertility, age composition and life expectancy, forecast that people with no religion will make up about 13% of the world’s population in 2060, down from roughly 16% as of 2015.https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tan...s%20of%202015.
Sure the Western countries and China and East Asia has seen athiesm increase, however in those countries the birth rates are small. Africa and South Asia is where much of the world population growth is and they are very religious societies.
Atheists, agnostics and other people who do not affiliate with any religion – though increasing in countries such as the United States and France – will make up a declining share of the world’s total population.
The global Buddhist population will be about the same size it was in 2010, while the Hindu and Jewish populations will be larger than they are today.
In Europe, Muslims will make up 10% of the overall population.
India will retain a Hindu majority but also will have the largest Muslim population of any country in the world, surpassing Indonesia.
In the United States, Christians will decline from more than three-quarters of the population in 2010 to two-thirds in 2050, and Judaism will no longer be the largest non-Christian religion. Muslims will be more numerous in the U.S. than people who identify as Jewish on the basis of religion.
Four out of every 10 Christians in the world will live in sub-Saharan Africa.https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tan...s%20of%202015.
I am curious to see what conclusions they draw. When people started defining what it meant to be religious especially in regards to Christianity, it lost its higher position of being above politics and legislation. That doesn't mean a person would turn to atheism or that religion cannot play that role again. Becoming an atheist was more about disciplining myself against believing that I could use God objectively. In other words, I have to meet God and believe that he is above all else.
However, as a percentage of global population it is expected to decline in percentage throughout the years.
hese projections, which take into account demographic factors such as fertility, age composition and life expectancy, forecast that people with no religion will make up about 13% of the world’s population in 2060, down from roughly 16% as of 2015.https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tan...s%20of%202015.
Sure the Western countries and China and East Asia has seen athiesm increase, however in those countries the birth rates are small. Africa and South Asia is where much of the world population growth is and they are very religious societies.
Atheists, agnostics and other people who do not affiliate with any religion – though increasing in countries such as the United States and France – will make up a declining share of the world’s total population.
The global Buddhist population will be about the same size it was in 2010, while the Hindu and Jewish populations will be larger than they are today.
In Europe, Muslims will make up 10% of the overall population.
India will retain a Hindu majority but also will have the largest Muslim population of any country in the world, surpassing Indonesia.
In the United States, Christians will decline from more than three-quarters of the population in 2010 to two-thirds in 2050, and Judaism will no longer be the largest non-Christian religion. Muslims will be more numerous in the U.S. than people who identify as Jewish on the basis of religion.
Four out of every 10 Christians in the world will live in sub-Saharan Africa.https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tan...s%20of%202015.
I do not expect atheism to make gains in impoverished / uneducated countries. That is where Christianity and Islam seem to shine because uncritical acceptance is more easily obtained in such regions and politically speaking the population is more easily controlled.
The problem of course is that if we keep going down the roads we're going down, the whole world may soon qualify as impoverished and uneducated. We're just a global nuclear exchange or climate tipping-point away from such a thing, and that's ignoring pandemics, fascism and other influences. There are so many candidates for widespread social collapse duking it out that some double or triple whammy from this unsavory laundry list may be quite the game changer.
But I like to say that complex systems tend to be more resilient and self-healing than one might think, so maybe I'm wrong.
I do not expect atheism to make gains in impoverished / uneducated countries. That is where Christianity and Islam seem to shine because uncritical acceptance is more easily obtained in such regions and politically speaking the population is more easily controlled.
The problem of course is that if we keep going down the roads we're going down, the whole world may soon qualify as impoverished and uneducated. We're just a global nuclear exchange or climate tipping-point away from such a thing, and that's ignoring pandemics, fascism and other influences. There are so many candidates for widespread social collapse duking it out that some double or triple whammy from this unsavory laundry list may be quite the game changer.
But I like to say that complex systems tend to be more resilient and self-healing than one might think, so maybe I'm wrong.
The number of Atheist in India are only 300 000 out of a population of 1.4 billion people. However India constitution is like the USA with freedom of Religion. In India as long as Athiest is not outspoken of being anti God or anti supreme being of the universe they can possibly relatively live in peace in their societies.
The number of Atheist in India are only 300 000 out of a population of 1.4 billion people. However India constitution is like the USA with freedom of Religion. In India as long as Athiest is not outspoken of being anti God or anti supreme being of the universe they can possibly relatively live in peace in their societies.
The number of Atheist in India are only 300 000 out of a population of 1.4 billion people. However India constitution is like the USA with freedom of Religion. In India as long as Athiest is not outspoken of being anti God or anti supreme being of the universe they can possibly relatively live in peace in their societies.
Most Indian Atheists are Hindu, simply because they are a huge majority. So they are not anti God as that is not very meaningful. They are against rites and worship that elevates Brahmins, against caste discrimination, and many are marxists and communists. They are quite vocal about this.
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