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
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
teachings of the Bible are so muddled and self-contradictory that it was possible for Christians to happily burn heretics alive for five long centuries. It was even possible for the most venerated patriarchs of the Church, like St. Augustine and St. Thomas Aquinas, to conclude that heretics should be tortured (Augustine) or killed outright (Aquinas). Martin Luther and John Calvin advocated the wholesale murder of heretics, apostates, Jews, and witches. - Sam Harris, "Letter To A Christian Nation"
