Will Christianity be the first religion to die of natural causes?
Christianity is the most popular religion in the West, however this old glue horse is dying in the West and ready to go out to pasture, by the latest surveys. Results of this has been showing for many decades now, with abandoned churches being bulldozed, sold off and converted into studio apartments. A 2021 study from Lifeway Research, based on data from three-dozen denominations, found that 4,500 churches closed in 2019.
Is Christianity dying? Almost 40% (38.9 per cent) of Australia’s population reported having no religion in the 2021 Census, an increase from 30% since 2016. The 60% of Australians left, breaks up into all the multiple religions, making Christianity smaller than the non-religious in Australia.
The latest British Social Attitudes Survey has shown that the share of the population belonging to no religion has continued to grow, now standing at 53%. That is more than half the population of the UK.
Nearly one in four Americans (23%) are not religious, which has been one of the most religious Western countries in the world. About three-in-ten Canadians say they are either atheist (8%), agnostic (5%) or “nothing in particular” (16%).
Eurobarometer European survey of 2019, has revealed that there are 17%,
non believer/Agnostic account throughout Europe and 10% Atheist, making 27% of Europeans non-religious.
Atheism is a growing personal enlightenment, which unlike religion does not suppress, indoctrinate or Crusades in wars for their cause. Some will say out of ignorance, that Communism is atheism, however Communism is political, atheism is not. Freedom of thought is why atheism is winning this battle without a single drop of blood. At this rate, God will be assigned with all the other un-worshipped musky old gods from forgotten mythology in no time.
This wave of atheism is also hitting the very religious Middle East. In the World Values Survey conducted from 2010 to 2014, results show that in Yemen, Jordan, and Iraq, fewer than 0.5% of those surveyed self-defined themselves as atheists; meanwhile, the highest percentage of self-defined atheists within the Middle East was in Kuwait, at 0.8%. The numbers will be greater, because in many of these countries it is illegal to be atheist on penalty of death.
This slow-wave is hitting Africa. In a 2012 Gallup poll, it was found that 7% of all Africans claiming they are “not a religious person. ” Considering the lack of resources to education in vast parts in this continent of Africa and it’s heavy religious influences, this is a healthy percent.
Of the global atheist and non-religious population, 76% reside in Asia and the Pacific. According to a Pew Research Center study released in 2012, more than 1.1 billion people—roughly one-in-six (16%) people worldwide at the time—considered themselves “religiously unaffiliated”.
Survey results are showing that the world is steadily changing towards non-belief and it looks like religion will see it’s end day. Perhaps the apocalypse should now really means, the revealing of the end of world religions through enlightenment.