Religion's Sudden Decline

[Robert_Tulip]

Religion's Sudden Decline - What's Causing It and What Comes Next?

 

Research book published by Oxford University Press, 2021.

 

This Google Books Link includes the Preface, Table of Contents and First Chapter - 'the shift from pro-fertility norms to individual-choice norms'.

 

https://www.google.com.au/books/edition/Religion_s_Sudden_Decline/rqkPEAAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1

[Joshpantera]

At the grass roots level, members of this community come and post in the extimonies section. And one after another personal stories can be found of individual reasons for leaving christianity. The article is broadly speaking of religion in general. I've been predicting this since the last century. Against sharp debate at times from people who either didn't see it coming themselves or didn't want to be too optimistic about religion finally taking a dump. But the polls have shown steady decline this century and now that we're into the 3rd decade it's become glaring. 

 

 

[TheRedneckProfessor]

48 minutes ago, Joshpantera said:

I've been predicting this since the last century.

Pffft... amateur... I've been predicting it since the last millennium.

[Robert_Tulip]

I highly recommend reading the chapter available at the link, which provides an overview of the findings of the World Values Surveys that track religious trends in many countries.  A key theme is that popular religion largely rests upon the moral principle of having large families, but this social value has been undermined by the rise of individualism. 

I find it strange that this natalist basis for the conventional religious position on divorce, abortion and homosexuality seems not to get much prominence in the debate.   I rarely see people arguing for religion on the basis of the moral need for larger families.  But I suppose that is what family values means - the desire to have a lot of children.  An article backs this up saying "Facebook groups for large families seem to be 95 percent Christians, often with fundamentalist ideologies." 

Apparently the USA has secularised more rapidly than any other country.  The rise of technology has taken away the previous role of children as insurance, so people want less children, and as a result want less religion, since religious is all about justifying the sacrifices parents make to have big families. Abandoning the traditional cult of fertility destroys religiosity.  I find it mildly ironic that "motherhood statements" are a cliche for things everyone supports.  That was true of motherhood in the 1950s but it is certainly not true today. Acceptance of 'motherhood statements' rests upon shared religiosity.

Traditional and modern worldviews are now in bitter political conflict.  Here is another irony.  Traditionalists are basically collectivist, calling on people to do their patriotic duty to the nation by having lots of children, while modernists are totally individualistic, seeing parenthood as a lifestyle choice and religion as obsolete.

Traditional morality worked in a context of high infant mortality and low life expectancy, but has been undermined by the advances of modern medical care. 

The secular reaction against religion includes moral abhorrence toward xenophobia, authoritarianism, homophobia, pedophilia and terrorism, all of which have a strong religious base.  Conservative political support for religion has driven liberals out of the church.  The politics of personal autonomy drives young people away from the nexus of Christianity and Republicanism.

The persistence of mass religion despite scientific modernisation has defied predictions of secularisation.  And yet as personal situations become more affluent and secure, the psychological need for religion withers away.  But religion persists precisely because believers have much bigger families than atheists on average.  Natural selection therefore used to favour religiosity, justifying the formerly controversial concept of group selection for social evolution.

Evolutionary modernisation theory puts physical and psychological security at the heart of secularisation.  This shift mostly occurs gradually, but can reach tipping points of rapid change, as seen among young educated people today.  Conformist pressures now accelerate changes that the previous conformism resisted.  The frontier of emancipation has evolved from the abolition of slavery through to current celebration of diversity.  Many people now see humanity as a plague upon the planet, and therefore regard religion as morally evil for maintaining its natalist support for high fertility.  The ancient tribal emphasis on population growth as a moral duty was a central social function of religion, justifying gender segmentation and hostility to non-reproductive sexuality, but this central ethical vision is now widely considered obsolete.

Hope and happiness used to be bound up with religion but this is no longer the case.  The view that belief in God is an irrational fantasy prompts people to find hope in purely secular visions, mocking the repressive housewife morality of conventional religion.

The rise of individual-choice norms for social and personal ethics is a defining force against religion.  It will be interesting to see if religion can adapt to somehow become relevant to these modern secular values.

[Joshpantera]

24 minutes ago, Robert_Tulip said:

The rise of individual-choice norms for social and personal ethics is a defining force against religion.  It will be interesting to see if religion can adapt to somehow become relevant to these modern secular values.

 

Another long running argument is for individual choice oriented spiritual independence from organized religions. I don't think religions will be able to adapt to people going spiritually independent and weaning off the tit of the people herding institutions. 

[florduh]

It appears to me organized religion, at least in this country, was in decline well before I left it. Knowledge is the natural enemy of parasitic religions and knowledge is easier to come by these days.

 

In other breaking news, cigarette sales have had an unexplained sudden decline. More at 6:00.

 

[walterpthefirst]

12 minutes ago, florduh said:

It appears to me organized religion, at least in this country, was in decline well before I left it. Knowledge is the natural enemy of parasitic religions and knowledge is easier to come by these days.

 

In other breaking news, cigarette sales have had an unexplained sudden decline. More at 6:00.

 

 

Agreed.  Organized religion is on the wane.

 

But religion itself is alive and well in the hearts (emotions) of the believers.

 

The heart overcomes the rational mind with ease.

 

Knowledge can make little headway against what is known to be true with the heart.

 

Thank you.

 

Walter.

[TheRedneckProfessor]

7 hours ago, walterpthefirst said:

The heart overcomes the rational mind with ease.

I know in my heart that you are right.

[walterpthefirst]

2 minutes ago, TheRedneckProfessor said:

I know in my heart that you are right.

 

Then that is the truth, Prof.

 

[Robert_Tulip]

8 hours ago, florduh said:

In other breaking news, cigarette sales have had an unexplained sudden decline.

The point of the post was to say that the decline of religion can be explained, not that it is unexplained.

[Robert_Tulip]

Speaking of the sudden reversal in the global fortunes of religion, the attached table shows that from 1981 to 2007, many more countries in the World Values Study were in a period of religious increase (33 countries) than decrease (14 countries). Religion was doing quite well at the turn of the millennium by this measure.

 

But since then this has suddenly reversed - from 2007 to 2019 religion was expanding in only 6 countries in the WVS, while it was declining in 42 countries.

 

Obviously the seeds of this reversal were sown a long time ago, but it is interesting to see how rapidly the movements of secular modernity that find no need for religion have borne fruit.  

 

The idea in this study that changing attitudes about fertility are central to this social change is an interesting hypothesis.  It makes me wonder if the line from Jesus banning lust as 'adultery of the heart' at Matthew 5:28 has been far more central to Christian identity than is often recognised.

[Joshpantera]

2007 - 2019 = Smart phones and big rises on the internet and it's usage. 

 

I remember how primitive it was in 2007 in the world of online counter apologetics. The christ myth theory was very poorly known among theists and atheists. We had to argue all the time with skeptical atheists and fervent believers both. Not very many people wanted to believe that popular beliefs about the jesus myth could have been that wrong for that long. How could the academics be that wrong? It was early on in a paradigm shift. But constant and steady debate began to cause changes. I remember watching the arguments evolve on all sides. Everyone had to evolve their arguments to try and keep up. 

 

In 2007, a lot of members here now were sitting in pews praising jesus bach then, while we were out there online debating apologists every day. In the time frame beyond 2012 I started seeing people come here brand spanking new and within 1 or 2 years of leaving christianity attaining massive gains in knowledge.

 

Gains that probably took me 10 years to make without all the technology and interaction. I was trudging along slowly learning things as they popped up through the 90's and early 2,000's. People have such a massive advantage now when it comes to truth seeking. They can see all sides of a given argument quickly. And the evolution of arguments seems to have greatly sped up as well. Because so many people have instant access. Social media added a new dynamic altogether. 

[pantheory]

The primary agent of Satan here is modern science. It claims to cast undeniable rejection concerning the validity of religious books such as the Bible. How shocking! Who could possibly deny the certainty of the Biblical books of Genesis, Revelations, and the history of Noah's Flood?

[Orbit]

https://www.pewforum.org/2021/12/14/about-three-in-ten-u-s-adults-are-now-religiously-unaffiliated/

 

Latest stats on decline of religion in the US.