Decline of religion

[Angrboda]

I'm reminded of hanging out on IRC and people asking what they had to do to make their website popular. First, have content that people want.

[Fake Messiah]

Who knew the decline of religion would be this fun and creative.

This bold new design transforms a historic Dutch church into a swimming pool, where you can “walk on water” and lifeguards sit in the former pulpit



Holy Water will take over the nave of the 1923 church, which has been empty for two years, and turn it into a social space with a pool at its heart. And here’s the particularly divine twist: the pool has an adjustable floor, which means it can be hidden entirely (making the space flexible for different uses), or the entire room can be flooded with a shallow layer of water so visitors can "walk on water inside the church", according to a statement by MVRDV.

The design keeps much of the church’s character intact while cleverly reimagining the space. Church pews will be repurposed as poolside seating and café furniture, while stained glass windows will still bathe the space in coloured light. As for the old pulpit? That’s the new lifeguard seat.



https://www.euronews.com/culture/2025/04...k-on-water

[zebo-the-fat]

Who knew the decline of religion would be this fun and creative.

This bold new design transforms a historic Dutch church into a swimming pool, where you can “walk on water” and lifeguards sit in the former pulpit



Holy Water will take over the nave of the 1923 church, which has been empty for two years, and turn it into a social space with a pool at its heart. And here’s the particularly divine twist: the pool has an adjustable floor, which means it can be hidden entirely (making the space flexible for different uses), or the entire room can be flooded with a shallow layer of water so visitors can "walk on water inside the church", according to a statement by MVRDV.

The design keeps much of the church’s character intact while cleverly reimagining the space. Church pews will be repurposed as poolside seating and café furniture, while stained glass windows will still bathe the space in coloured light. As for the old pulpit? That’s the new lifeguard seat.



https://www.euronews.com/culture/2025/04...k-on-water

Looks nice!

[Fake Messiah]

America’s Religious Identity Is Vanishing — Gallup’s Newest Data

A report by Gallup finds that religion is rapidly vanishing among Gen Z and millennials—34% now identify as nonreligious.

[Fake Messiah]

It looks like one Christian denomination is about to perish. It's the one where they keep Jesus in the closet.

‘A huge loss.’ In remote Nagasaki islands, a rare version of Christianity heads toward extinction

After emerging from cloistered isolation in 1865, following more than 200 years of violent harassment by Japan’s insular warlord rulers, many of the formerly underground Christians converted to mainstream Catholicism.

Some, however, continued to practice not the religion that 16th century foreign missionaries originally taught them, but the idiosyncratic, difficult to detect version they’d nurtured during centuries of clandestine cat-and-mouse with a brutal regime.

On Ikitsuki and other remote sections of Nagasaki prefecture, Hidden Christians still pray to these disguised objects. They still chant in a Latin that hasn’t been widely used in centuries. And they still cherish a religion that directly links them to a time of samurai, shoguns and martyred missionaries and believers.

Now, though, the Hidden Christians are dying out, and there is growing certainty that their unique version of Christianity will die with them. Almost all are now elderly, and as the young move away to cities or turn their backs on the faith, those remaining are desperate to preserve evidence of this offshoot of Christianity — and convey to the world what its loss will mean.

“At this point, I’m afraid we are going to be the last ones,” said Masatsugu Tanimoto, 68, one of the few who can still recite the Latin chants that his ancestors learned 400 years ago. “It is sad to see this tradition end with our generation.”

https://apnews.com/article/japan-nagasak...1fea0e0fb4

[Fake Messiah]

Religion in Flux: Islam surges, Christianity shrinks; Hinduism holds steady

Between 2010 and 2020, the world’s population expanded-and so did nearly every major religious group-according to an analysis of over 2,700 censuses and surveys, a Pew Research Center report said. Christians remained the largest religious group, rising from 2.18 billion to 2.30 billion (+122 million), but their share of the global population shrank from roughly 30.6% to 28.8% (‑1.8 points). Muslims, meanwhile, surged ahead: adding 347 million adherents-the fastest increase among all groups-pushing their total to approximately 2 billion and boosting their global share by 1.8 points to 25.6%, the Pew report said.

Other faith categories saw varied trends: the religiously unaffiliated grew to comprise 24.2% of the world’s population (up from 23.3%), while Hinduism and Judaism held steady relative to global population growth.

Chris­tianity’s slowing share reflects not demographic stagnation, but religious switching. As Conrad Hackett, the lead author of the report, explains: “Among young adults, for every person around the world who becomes Christian, there are three people who are raised Christian who leave.”

Despite Christians having a demographic edge via fertility, disaffiliation reversed that advantage.

Conversely, the surge in the religiously unaffiliated reflects the same switching pattern: many individuals raised Christian have transitioned into non-affiliation, compensating for the group’s demographic disadvantage-its older population and lower fertility.

Islam's growth is fueled primarily by demographics: a youthful age-structure (average Muslim age 24 vs non-Muslim 33), higher fertility rates, and comparatively low levels of religious switching.

A dramatic geographic shift: sub‑Saharan Africa now hosts around 31% of the world’s Christians-up from 24.8% in 2010-while Europe’s share has declined sharply. The region’s high fertility and youth boost Christian numbers, even as disaffiliation wanes in Europe.

In one notable exception, Mozambique saw its Christian proportion rise by 5 percentage points.

The unaffiliated are most numerous in China (1.3 billion of 1.4 billion), followed by the US (101 million of 331 million) and Japan (73 million of 126 million). Despite many holding personal religious beliefs, only about 10% of Chinese residents formally identify with a specific denomination.

Buddhists were the only major religious group to shrink in absolute numbers-down from 343 million to 324 million-due to low fertility and defections.

https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/worl...749960.cms


So, sub-Sahara was the only place where Christianity was growing, but then Trump came along, and we all know what he did, so it will most likely decline.

[Pat Mustard]

Religion in Flux: Islam surges, Christianity shrinks; Hinduism holds steady

Between 2010 and 2020, the world’s population expanded-and so did nearly every major religious group-according to an analysis of over 2,700 censuses and surveys, a Pew Research Center report said. Christians remained the largest religious group, rising from 2.18 billion to 2.30 billion (+122 million), but their share of the global population shrank from roughly 30.6% to 28.8% (‑1.8 points). Muslims, meanwhile, surged ahead: adding 347 million adherents-the fastest increase among all groups-pushing their total to approximately 2 billion and boosting their global share by 1.8 points to 25.6%, the Pew report said.

Other faith categories saw varied trends: the religiously unaffiliated grew to comprise 24.2% of the world’s population (up from 23.3%), while Hinduism and Judaism held steady relative to global population growth.

Chris­tianity’s slowing share reflects not demographic stagnation, but religious switching. As Conrad Hackett, the lead author of the report, explains: “Among young adults, for every person around the world who becomes Christian, there are three people who are raised Christian who leave.”

Despite Christians having a demographic edge via fertility, disaffiliation reversed that advantage.

Conversely, the surge in the religiously unaffiliated reflects the same switching pattern: many individuals raised Christian have transitioned into non-affiliation, compensating for the group’s demographic disadvantage-its older population and lower fertility.

Islam's growth is fueled primarily by demographics: a youthful age-structure (average Muslim age 24 vs non-Muslim 33), higher fertility rates, and comparatively low levels of religious switching.

A dramatic geographic shift: sub‑Saharan Africa now hosts around 31% of the world’s Christians-up from 24.8% in 2010-while Europe’s share has declined sharply. The region’s high fertility and youth boost Christian numbers, even as disaffiliation wanes in Europe.

In one notable exception, Mozambique saw its Christian proportion rise by 5 percentage points.

The unaffiliated are most numerous in China (1.3 billion of 1.4 billion), followed by the US (101 million of 331 million) and Japan (73 million of 126 million). Despite many holding personal religious beliefs, only about 10% of Chinese residents formally identify with a specific denomination.

Buddhists were the only major religious group to shrink in absolute numbers-down from 343 million to 324 million-due to low fertility and defections.

https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/worl...749960.cms


So, sub-Sahara was the only place where Christianity was growing, but then Trump came along, and we all know what he did, so it will most likely decline.

Actually the "growth" of islam is fuelled by one thing, in countries where it's the majority, you get killed if you switch out or (often) refuse to switch in.  Without the compulsion, I'd say islam would be facing the same problems christianity does, i.e. people don't really believe.

[Fake Messiah]

Christians Among Most Likely to Ditch Their Religion

Christians, the world's largest religious group, have one of the lowest global retention rates among major religions, a new report has found.

A Pew Research Center report published last Thursday found that fewer Christians hold on to their religion than Muslims and Hindus.

Christianity, while still a majority among world religions, is losing members at a faster rate than nearly every other major tradition.

The phenomenon of religious "switching"—adults changing their religious identity from that of their upbringing—has the potential to reshape communities and influence political and social identities worldwide. Notably, most switching is not to another faith, but to religious disaffiliation.

Some 83 percent of adults raised Christian are still Christian, according to the analysis, based on surveys from 117 countries and territories covering 92 percent of the 2010 global population.

This trails both Muslims and Hindus, who each retain 99 percent of their adherents from childhood. Only Buddhists recorded a lower retention rate than Christians, at 78 percent worldwide.

Overall, the analysis shows around 10 percent of adults under 55 have switched from their childhood religion, often becoming religiously unaffiliated.

Most people who switch religions do not join another tradition; they leave religion altogether.

As a result, the category of the religiously unaffiliated—people who are atheist, agnostic, or "nothing in particular"—registered a net gain of nearly 17 people per 100 raised outside of any religion.

Religious switching is more common in countries with high Human Development Index (HDI) scores.

In places with an HDI of 0.8 or higher, a median of 18 percent of adults under 55 have switched religious identity, compared to just 3 percent in countries with low HDI (below 0.55).

Laws prohibiting religious switching in certain countries, such as Algeria, Brunei, Egypt, and Malaysia, correspond with very low reported rates of switching.

Pew reported that only 46 percent of Americans born after 1990 still identify as Christian. Younger adults are much more likely to claim no religion compared to seniors.

The shifting religious landscape impacts not just spiritual life, but also political and cultural identities worldwide. In the U.S., for instance, religious "nones" are increasing, while Christian affiliation remains higher among older and more conservative demographics.

Pew's research indicates that changing belief systems among younger generations will continue to shape debates over public policy, social norms, and family structure.

https://www.newsweek.com/christianity-re...is-2093185

[AFTT47]

Pew reported that only 46 percent of Americans born after 1990 still identify as Christian. Younger adults are much more likely to claim no religion compared to seniors.

That's a serious eye-popper and has got to scare church leaders to death.

[The Grand Nudger]

It's a runaway train. The breeders are faithless.