Why does religion continue to grow?

[Crossless2.0]

I'm interested to hear your theories of why by 2050, contrary to 300 years of predictions, almost 3,000,000,000 Christians will be sitting in pews around the world praying for the salvation of your grand kids. 

. . . and predicting that Jesus will return any time now, and still offering the same poor arguments in favor of their faith as their grandparents did, and not one step closer to offering a shred of evidence that any god (let alone Yahweh) exists.

My 'theory'?  Most, if not all, people embrace their religions for reasons that have nothing to do with evidence, rationality, or a good intellectual conscience and will spend a lifetime mind-fucking themselves rather than own up to it. There's no reason to believe that human nature will change in a few short decades, so people will continue to search for meaning, Daddy, eternal life, whatever and tenaciously defend whichever the 'answer' they find or were indoctrinated into, however idiotic it may be.

[Exian]

[Dystopia]

According to Pew Research, religion will continue to grow worldwide through 2050. 

• Christianity will grow numerically (+800,000,000), but stay the same as a % of the world's population: 31.4% (the largest)
  
• Muslims will grow in both categories and should garner about 29.7% of the world's population by 2050
  
• Unaffiliated (including atheists and agnostics) grows a little numerically, but goes down from 16.4% to 13.2% of the world's population.
  

http://www.pewforum.org/2015/04/02/relig...2010-2050/

In spite of your superior intellect, logic, and scientific proof to the contrary, your message that God is dead does not seem to be getting out. 

I'm interested to hear your theories of why by 2050, contrary to 300 years of predictions, almost 3,000,000,000 Christians will be sitting in pews around the world praying for the salvation of your grand kids. 

Well if anyone told you atheists have superior intellect, logic and scientific knowledge those people are morons and you shouldn't believe them - Being an atheist doesn't make you superior.

Christianity will grow in sub-Saharan Africa and the third world - Islam will grow as well. So what? That doesn't make you right. 

[Jenny A]

In spite of your superior intellect, logic, and scientific proof to the contrary, your message that God is dead does not seem to be getting out. 

I'm interested to hear your theories of why by 2050, contrary to 300 years of predictions, almost 3,000,000,000 Christians will be sitting in pews around the world praying for the salvation of your grand kids. 

I think it's education and critical thinking more than it superior intelligence that makes atheists.  That and lack of indoctrination.  Your study demonstrates that:

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.

http://www.pewforum.org/2015/04/02/relig...2010-2050/

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.

To be clear, in more educated parts of the world the % who are Christian is on the decline and non and non affiliated is on the rise. To the extent Islam is on the rise in educated parts of the world, it's primarily because of immigration and birth rate.

Christianity on the other hand will do well in the third world.

I suggest that next time you actually read the material you are citing.

[Pyrrho]

The answer to the title question of this thread is because religious people generally have more children than nonreligious people, and since religious people typically indoctrinate their children in their religion, their religion tends to grow.

At the link from the opening post, one can see the birth rate being the significant factor.  This is why Islam is growing the fastest of the religions they cover, and, if current rates continue, will eventually become the biggest religion in the world.


http://www.pewforum.org/2015/04/02/relig...2010-2050/


As a Christian, you are not going to tell us that that means that Islam is true, are you?


Basically, reason has nothing to do with what religions are most common.  It has to do with having children more than anything else.

This is why there are nearly zero Shakers these days, but plenty of Catholics.  Shakers do not believe that one should have sex and have children, so they do not automatically get new members.  But the Catholic Church forbids birth control (though many individuals ignore that), which helps increase the number of Catholics.  This has absolutely nothing to do with who has more accurate beliefs or more reasonable beliefs.

If you were going to make the claim that growth of a particular view of religion made it correct (which would be totally moronic), you would be committed to the idea that Islam is true, as it is the fastest growing religion in the world.  It is not because it is reasonable, it is because Muslims are having more children than other groups.

[Cephus]

Well..ignoring the condescending tone...

People are having more kids and kids tend to be the religion of their parents, so yeah, the number of theists will naturally rise with the population.  But, in America at least, religion is going down pretty significantly.

Actually Pew says that the US population will be 438 million by 2050

2015: 300,000,000 x 78.3% = 234,900,000
2050: 438,000,000 x 66.4% = 290,000,000

Although it drops as a % of population, Christianity is predicted to grow by 56,000,000 people. 

It's not even growing now!  There are very few Christian sects that are growing in America today, even fewer if you look at Europe.  The only place that any religion is having any significant growth is in the Muslim world and those people live in a backwards place without a secular society to rein in their particular brand of religious insanity.  The second secularism sets in, that growth will go away too.

[Cephus]

Although it drops as a % of population,

That's the point...

America's (and the world's) population is growing, and most people in Ameriac are Christians.  It makes sense that their kids will be raised Christian as well, so of course the absolute number of Christians is going to increase.  The fact that non-religion continues to grow as a percent is the important part.

I don't see how that's true, considering the most recent Pew survey shows that religiosity in America just fell 7% in 7 years, from 78% to 70%.  The rate of decrease is increasing dramatically as time goes on.  Even if nothing changes though, by 2050, religiosity will have fallen an additional 35% to 35% of the population.  It will bottom out eventually, I'm sure, but the day of Christianity ruling America in any meaningful way is at an end.

[Cephus]

Christianity IS growing....in Africa

Why do you think, the evangelical snake oil sellers are moving there? Because there's still a market for their shit.

It's actually been happening for a long time, there are plenty of evangelists and missionaries that have spent time trying to convert Africa.  Of course, the most crazed of them are coming under fire, with Scott Lively now up on charges of crimes against humanity for his part in Uganda's anti-gay laws.

[Iroscato]

Popular belief in something does not make it true.
And there will always be more vulnerable people to exploit and mould, that's practically a natural law.

[KevinM1]

Christianity IS growing....in Africa

Why do you think, the evangelical snake oil sellers are moving there? Because there's still a market for their shit.

Shit, this is precisely why Creflo wanted his plane.  And he wasn't even coy about it.

Religion dies in the face of education.  Guess where the final frontier for religion is?