Is religion Dying?

[Mitja]

just wondering will we ever achive that our planet will be called united atheist alliance and that we would all be atheists?

[Cosmic Ape]

Instead of saying Religion is dying, which I think is true. I'd go ahead and say that Atheism is growing. A little off topic but, South Park had a great episode about the future of Atheism in the episode "Go God Go". Which dealt with a future where everybody's Atheist (very realistic imo) and instead of fighting about religion they fight about Science and what everyone should be called (Allied Atheist Alligeance, United Atheist League, Unified Atheist Alliance) which I could see happening but its almost an equivication fallacy by saying Science would have holy wars over different Science or even Atheism.

[Voltair]

If I am not mistaken while Christianity may be diminishing in America it is growing due to evangelistic efforts in Africa, Asia, etc.

I believe it is changing though. I think Christianity is getting more and more away from Hell/punishment and more towards love/charity. To be brutually honest if Christianity was completely pro-science + humanitarian and all about treating their fellow men better it would actually help instead of hurt.

I think it will continue to evolve/change until it pretty much looks nothing like what it does now. There are already Christian groups that don't believe in Hell. Just think of where Christianity was fifty years ago compared to today.

The catholic church is a good example of this I think. They recently accepted evolution as being true etc. The catholic church will be the last Christian group to go in my opinion because it will just adapt and adapt and adapt

[kılıç_mehmet]

I think that religion is declining, not dying.
The numbers of people who live a christian lifestyle in Europe are not much, at least from what I've seen.
Although I must add that I also met quite a lot of people that went to church every sunday while my time in Germany.
I've even attended a few sermons myself, and played with friends at the church courtyard.

And as always, religiosity declined with the ages of the people nearing their teenages, where they want to be wild, and either going that way, or increasing as the teens go over to university. From there on, it can also influence their political standpoints.
How?
I once had a friend who supported the TKP(Turkish communist party) back when he was 17, but when we met up with him later on when he was 20, he told me over the drinking table that he voted for the MHP(the polar opposite of the TKP), in the last elections, just like me.
He also became mildly religious, attending friday prayers, whereas he acted quite *atheistic* back in high-school.
Not that I've not seen the reverse, but well...

[Rev. Rye]

Well, I honestly think that more and more people are growing away from religion, and have heard that a few nations may have religion die out in 100 years, like Canada, Australia, New Zealand, the Netherlands, Ireland (I know, right?), Austria, the Czech Republic, Finland and Switzerland.

That said, I think that if the world does away with religion altogether, I honestly think that the term "atheist" will stop being used mainly because it will be as useful as a term for people who believe that the Holocaust happened, Barack Obama was born in Hawaii, or that Elvis died in 1977.

[AthiestAtheist]

Well IMO religion is dying, but all is not great because of it. People are becoming less religious mostly due to laziness and not so much because of an increase in intelligence (which is obvious, because intelligence is not really increasing). So I guess yes religion is dying, but in the slowest, most painful and most half-assed way possible.

I guess I would rather live in a country of lazy, averagely intelligent atheists than of smart-ass Christians. (Does that make me a bad person?)

[KichigaiNeko]

I understand that religion is becoming less of a focus in the lives of your average person. I also understand that there are a number of "Doomsday predictions" yet to be gotten past until people will stop worrying about "Getting in good with the guys in charge"

I would posit that the emergence of extremist religious nut-jobs is the result of the decline in numbers for the mainstream religious groups globally.... humans have always sought safety in numbers, it is a comforting thing. As we now have greater access and knowledge to the global community this will still cause people to cling to something that has given comfort over the years.

I don't think Australia will be rid of religious nonsense any time soon thanks to the Asylum Seeker movement but one can hope.

[The Magic Pudding]

Religion died long ago.
It simply hasn't realised it yet.
It's just a zombie thing.

[Godscreated]

I do not know much about other religions so it's hard to say whether they are in decline or not. Islam is growing from what I have heard, can not say for sure. As for Christianity it's on the decline in the US but, I believe it's those who do not take it seriously and if this is so then there will be less ambiguity in Christianity making it stronger but, with fewer people. Christianity is growing in many parts of the world, I've been told that there are more Christians in China than people in the US. Christianity has grown so strong in South Korea they have been sending missionaries to the US. Generally when there is truth in a religion they last and last, so many have died out through the centuries but Christianity 2000 years and will last till the end.

[thesummerqueen]

I would say that god-belief might be waning, but I agree with Atheist - it's not necessarily because of intelligence. There's plenty of other stuff in this world people cling to with religious-like fervor because they don't use their noggins. "Woo" is on the rise plenty. It's also plenty easy to argue about science thanks to the illiteracy of the general public, great marketing departments and skillful orators - otherwise we wouldn't have this anti-vax bullshit currently KILLING children.