December 1, 201114 yr Year 2011: Less atheists, more believers Recent studies estimate that atheism has lost 28 million followers in the space of 41 years According to the annual “Status of Global Missions” study, in this first part of the millennium non-believers will lose two million seven hundred thousand members, whilst declared atheists will lose one million and 370 thousand “faithful”. "Catholicism is growing at a rate of 34 thousand people a day, while Islam is gaining 79 thousand followers per day, and Hinduism 37 thousand. Between 2000 and 2011, the “non religious” category lost 700 members every day, while the “atheist” category lost 300 per day. The figures published by the agency “Analisis Digital”, showed if we compare current figures with those from 1970, the height of the “sexual revolution” in the Western world and of communist atheism in Eastern Europe, we see that in 41, years atheism has lost 28 million followers. In return, the number of non-religious individuals has gone up by more than one hundred million. More at http://vaticaninsider.lastampa.it/en/homepage/inquiries-and-interviews/detail/articolo/religione-religion-religion-10231/ Some interesting data for religion watchers. It appears that the decline in declared "atheists" results from the collapse of the Soviet Union and its satellites and the increasing tolerance of mainstream religious practice in China. Pentecostalist-type denominations are the big movers in the Christian surge. It was a surprise to see that the number of Christian denominations had increased from 1,600 a century ago to 42,000 now. There are 468 million Buddhists, mainly in Asia, and a daily increase of 13,800.
December 1, 201114 yr I believe in (an undefined) God and not hurting others, but that is the extent of my religious beliefs.
December 1, 201114 yr Author I believe in (an undefined) God and not hurting others, but that is the extent of my religious beliefs. Ulysses, how can you believe in something you can't define? Do you mean "can't define" or "cannot be defined"? If the latter, can anything be ascribed to something undefinable? If not, can it be called God in any meaningful way? Just thinking aloud. No response is fine. These discussions can go round and round and ..... :sleepy: Disclosure: I'm a "theological non-cognitivist".
December 1, 201114 yr I wonder how much the numbers are affected by birthrate !! I can accept the increase in Catholics on that basis alone. Sad really. Patrick
December 1, 201114 yr I believe in (an undefined) God and not hurting others, but that is the extent of my religious beliefs. Ulysses, how can you believe in something you can't define? Do you mean "can't define" or "cannot be defined"? If the latter, can anything be ascribed to something undefinable? If not, can it be called God in any meaningful way? Just thinking aloud. No response is fine. These discussions can go round and round and ..... :sleepy: Disclosure: I'm a "theological non-cognitivist". How about God is Good? I do not know if any religion is correct, but I think that there is a Supreme Being that planned the entire Universe and that is about the best that I can do. I would prefer it if he appeared like George Burns in Oh God, but am not counting on it.
December 2, 201114 yr The substantial increase in non-proselytising religions (Hinduism, Taoism, ethnic religions so-called) indicates that a large proportion of the increases is due to births exceeding deaths. The Catholic Church has always loved statistics to the extent that it sometimes obscures what is more important, that each individual person should consider the whole question of religion for himself. Although I'm a Catholic myself, I have more respect for UG's rather vague conclusion, or for an atheist, than for a Catholic who has done all the right things all his life and never really thought about what he's doing.
December 2, 201114 yr Author I believe in (an undefined) God and not hurting others, but that is the extent of my religious beliefs. Ulysses, how can you believe in something you can't define? Do you mean "can't define" or "cannot be defined"? If the latter, can anything be ascribed to something undefinable? If not, can it be called God in any meaningful way? Just thinking aloud. No response is fine. These discussions can go round and round and ..... :sleepy: Disclosure: I'm a "theological non-cognitivist". How about God is Good? I do not know if any religion is correct, but I think that there is a Supreme Being that planned the entire Universe and that is about the best that I can do. I would prefer it if he appeared like George Burns in Oh God, but am not counting on it. Fair enough. Even Richard Dawkins accepts the possibility that there may be some supernatural force. From the 2006 Time discussion with Richard Dawkins and Francis Collins: DAWKINS: To me, the right approach is to say we are profoundly ignorant of these matters. We need to work on them. But to suddenly say the answer is God--it's that that seems to me to close off the discussion. TIME: Could the answer be God? DAWKINS: There could be something incredibly grand and incomprehensible and beyond our present understanding. COLLINS: That's God. Read more: http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1555132,00.html#ixzz1fLANtaG7 Personally, I think Dawkins' comment is meaningless, though it does leave open the possibility that one day we might understand. This is "contingent agnosticism" rather than the "atheism" for which Dawkins is so famous. Contingent agnosticism acknowledges the possibility that [the existence of] God can be known. Its contrast is negative agnosticism, which holds that it is impossible for human minds to know whether there is a God or not.
December 2, 201114 yr Author The Catholic Church has always loved statistics to the extent that it sometimes obscures what is more important, that each individual person should consider the whole question of religion for himself. The Church also includes as "Catholic" everyone who has been baptized, even if they never set foot inside a church building or have a clue about basic Catholic teaching or gospel narratives. Mass attendance among Catholics in Australia is now down to about 13%. It's also declining markedly in the US and Ireland. The figures would be quite different in countries like Nigeria, where conversion to Catholicism in the 20th century was phenomenal - from almost zero in the mid 19th century to 19 million in 2005. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/4243727.stm
December 2, 201114 yr "Atheism has lost 28 million followers....." Do people follow atheism? I thought the whole point was that they didn't follow anything. "How about God is Good?" (Ulysses G.) This sounds like Plato... a bit old-fashioned, but there are worse people to follow!
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