Is Atheism on the rise?

[Minimalist]

Actually, religion has been dead for quite a long time in China. The Communist Party might have been dipshits, but they at least did one good thing. The banned all religion because they believed that it didn't allow society to advance.

Despite supression and persecution from the government, China has the second fastest growing christian population in the world, just a fraction of a percent behind Nepal.  Worldwide, christianity is still growing, although atheism is growing at a faster rate.  Of course, due to it's currently low numbers, it doesn't take a large number of new atheists to create a large percentage of gain.  I will agree that the western nations are quickly moving away from christianity and other organized religions, but those relilgions are growing worlwide.

Don't be too quick to embrace them, Lek.  They are heretics.

Chinese Christianity is different than traditional European or American Christianity in that women are usually the leaders in the churches and groups. Women are usually the majority at house church meetings or Three Self Church services. Chinese Christianity tends to be Pentecostal. This means that they regularly pray for miracles and believe in miraculous “gifts of the Spirit.”

http://www.chinahighlights.com/travelgui...ianity.htm

[The Grand Nudger]

Despite supression and persecution from the government, China has the second fastest growing christian population in the world, just a fraction of a percent behind Nepal.  Worldwide, christianity is still growing, although atheism is growing at a faster rate.  Of course, due to it's currently low numbers, it doesn't take a large number of new atheists to create a large percentage of gain.  I will agree that the western nations are quickly moving away from christianity and other organized religions, but those relilgions are growing worlwide.

B-mine, that should have jumped out at you.

As westerners move away from christendom, and as it's becoming increasingly apparent that outreach in western countries is prohibitively expensive compared to outreach in developing nations and nations which do not have considerable "christian competition", more evangelical dollars are being shifted to china and africa. Simply put, it's a better investment.

[robvalue]

Actually, religion has been dead for quite a long time in China. The Communist Party might have been dipshits, but they at least did one good thing. The banned all religion because they believed that it didn't allow society to advance.

Despite supression and persecution from the government, China has the second fastest growing christian population in the world, just a fraction of a percent behind Nepal.  Worldwide, christianity is still growing, although atheism is growing at a faster rate.  Of course, due to it's currently low numbers, it doesn't take a large number of new atheists to create a large percentage of gain.  I will agree that the western nations are quickly moving away from christianity and other organized religions, but those relilgions are growing worlwide.

This is why I prefer an attitude change over enforcement.

I mean, you'd think the correct religion couldn't possibly be suppressed by any government. But there you go.

[CapnAwesome]

Yeah, in the first world it is for sure. Which is pretty amazing considering the amount of money that religious organizations spend on proselytizing and that Atheists don't spend anything.

Globally though first world Atheists are being outbred by far. It's sort of a race to see if we can spread ideas faster then the Muslims can breed and brainwash.

[mlmooney89]

It is very clear that atheism is on the rise and I think it is because of a few reasons. Mostly though I credit science. Religion became so popular out of fear because humans couldn't explain any natural situations so to them it seemed magic. As science opened up minds and people realized it wasn't magic it made the gods less plausible. Unfortunately by then the gods were so entwined in life that it wasn't accepted to not believe. It was more scary to go against the church. Now the world is opening even further so being scared isn't always the case (although I acknowledge that in some places it is still dangerous) The more we show others it is okay the more people will come to their senses.

[SteveII]

Maybe when religion is all but dead in the west, people in the east will start to realize it's not doing them any favours.

Actually, religion has been dead for quite a long time in China. The Communist Party might have been dipshits, but they at least did one good thing. The banned all religion because they believed that it didn't allow society to advance.

Actually...quite the opposite: China on course to become 'world's most Christian nation' within 15 years
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnew...years.html

I wonder why? Kind of flies in the face of your theories that Christianity is mostly an inherited/cultural thing. Hundreds of millions of christians in an atheist-dominated culture in just 2 generations seems extraordinary.

[abaris]

Globally though first world Atheists are being outbred by far. It's sort of a race to see if we can spread ideas faster then the Muslims can breed and brainwash.

Oh, well.

Kind of expected from the usual suspects. And such beautiful choice of words. Breed for giving birth, since certain people do breed and not give birth. Hence their offspring is brood and can be safely considered to be subhuman.

It also leaves out the evangelical influence in Africa, which is strongly competing with Islam. Responsible for anti gay legislation in Uganda and other places. Purely coincidential, I'm sure.

[Minimalist]

Actually, religion has been dead for quite a long time in China. The Communist Party might have been dipshits, but they at least did one good thing. The banned all religion because they believed that it didn't allow society to advance.

Actually...quite the opposite: China on course to become 'world's most Christian nation' within 15 years
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnew...years.html

I wonder why? Kind of flies in the face of your theories that Christianity is mostly an inherited/cultural thing. Hundreds of millions of christians in an atheist-dominated culture in just 2 generations seems extraordinary.

Because they have a lot of ignorant peasants in China, too?

[Angrboda]

Atheism is making small gains in some first world nations, but relative numbers of atheists and religious worldwide does not show any significant movement. It appears that overall the status quo remains the status quo. The biggest change in those aforementioned first world nations is an increase in the number of those identifying as not affiliated with any religion.

[CapnAwesome]

Globally though first world Atheists are being outbred by far. It's sort of a race to see if we can spread ideas faster then the Muslims can breed and brainwash.

Oh, well.

Kind of expected from the usual suspects. And such beautiful choice of words. Breed for giving birth, since certain people do breed and not give birth. Hence their offspring is brood and can be safely considered to be subhuman.

It also leaves out the evangelical influence in Africa, which is strongly competing with Islam. Responsible for anti gay legislation in Uganda and other places. Purely coincidential, I'm sure.

What? I'm supposed to bring up evangelical influence in Africa when talking about Muslim birthrates being higher then Atheist ones? What?? It's two sentence post about birthrates, not a scholarly paper. Breed is the correct term when talking about large groups of people or anything else, I used 'outbred' to refer to both Atheists and Muslims, so you can stop imagining prejudice everywhere to fit your view that people who oppose Islam's shitty ideology must be bigots. 'Give birth' is probably what I'd say about an individual.

I oppose anti-gay legislation in Uganda, the vast majority of the Muslim world and everywhere else it occurs.