How far do you think we are from a majority atheistic world? What major global/national events or circumstances will need to happen for us to get there?
Or do you think that it will never happen and religion will always dominate most of the world?
I think an atheistic world is possible. I give it another 300 years, minimum.
The closer you come, tyhe farther away you’ll get. Eventually, you’d just substitute bad religion for good, including superstition and state worship.
Not for a long time, if ever. It’s entirely possible our descendants could end up genetically engineered for religious fanaticism, and that the future will be 100% religious.
Then again, if we blow ourselves up then the world will technically be 100% atheist; rocks and ash don’t believe in gods.
That assumes that there is such a thing as “good” religion. And it presumes that presently popular religions aren’t already full of superstition.
Descendants. You have an interesting definition of “entirely possible”, especially since it is unlikely there is a “religious fanaticism” gene.
Um… so what’s the point of having the majority of the population’s being atheist? I do not think that religion will ever die out. Religions provide thoughtful philosophies of life, and people live according to those philosophies of life. Religions console people’s fears and focus more the people’s spiritual relationship with the god(s). Now, there is nothing wrong with being an atheist either. I think that being an atheist person frees one from following one set of philosophies and allows the said person to enjoy whatever works.
:smack: Thank you.
Religion does appear to have a genetic component. And given the existence of instincts, even if one doesn’t exist now, with sufficient genetic knowledge we ought to be able to make one. Or possibly adding a sufficiently detailed & powerful set of instincts to make people instinctively follow the “right” religion, like making people compulsively Catholic.
Religion is both factually wrong and highly destructive.
If that’s true, can you show us where other majority atheist states always have this happen?
Can you explain why you believe this is likely when Switzerland, Germany, Luxembourg, Hungary, Belgium, Finland, Bulgaria, Iceland, United Kingdom, Latvia, Slovenia, France, Netherlands, Norway, Denmark, Sweden, Czech Republic, Estonia or any of the non-European majority atheist countries haven’t had this happen yet?
Also, there is no good religion. They are all bald assertions with no evidence, and I suggest that living your life under a willful delusion is seldom good.
That said, some are worse than others. I’d rather live in a nation run by Shintoism than the old Aztec faith.
Anytime.
Again, more in the realm of SciFi than “entirely possible”.
As for the OP, I suppose if you consider Western Europe to be “majority atheist”, then all you have to do (ha!) is introduce Western European culture to the majority of the globe.
Highly destructive - you do have a point in some cases.
Factually wrong - well, religions are not supposed to claim facts. It’s like a good luck charm. You know that the good luck charm has no real magic going on, but the good luck charm can provide confidence. Sort of like a placebo effect.
Sheesh, I hope it doesn’t take 300 years, but I fear it may be longer.
On the one hand, I’m encouraged by the advent of global communications, and the ever-increasing access to it, which is helping to spread testable and repeatable hypotheses and theories throughout the world. Also, just because belief in the supernatural has existed for thousands of years doesn’t mean that it will take as long to dissipate. Atheism is becoming an increasingly acceptable philosophy, even in the US, surprisingly.
On the other hand, large enclaves of politically motivated and willful ignorance still exist among those with full access to the latest communication and media dissemination outlets in the world, as well as the newest and most innovative technologies which, funnily enough, wouldn’t even exist if the purveyors of theistic supernaturalism had their way and could suppress scientific research.
Barring a collapse, the future by nature is going to look rather “sci-fi”.
Incorrect; they’ve made a huge number of such claims throughout history and making such claims was one of the major reasons they were originally created. They have just stopped trying in many cases because whenever they have made claims about facts they’ve been wrong. They’ve been proven wrong again and again, been driven back farther and farther from their claims of how the world works until now they are reduced to making assertions about things that can’t be perceived and pretending that’s as far as their dogma ever went. Like a dying empire, they are clinging to a tiny remnant of their former (intellectual) territory and trying to pretend that it was never any larger.
It depends on how you count atheist. If you count all religions which do not believe in any personal god or gods, we are pretty close to a plural majority already, with Buddhists, Taoists, Atheists and Agnostics, and “spiritual not religious” making up close to the largest group worldwide.
Or do you mean, how long until people hold no metaphysical beliefs whatsoever? I don’t think that will ever happen.
I’m mildly curious what effect an asteroid hit that obliterates the Vatican or Mecca would have. Would the destruction of its center cause religions like Catholicism or Islam gradually dissipate?
But, yeah, global communications (including in no small part steady access to porn) will do quite a bit to erode the exclusivity that all religions push to various degrees. I could picture Stephenson’s Diamond Age coming about, where like-minded people can form religions (and social/national groups in general) despite being wildly scattered by geography.
I have proposed before that the only way to have a 100% atheistic world is a world without any suffering and eternal joy. Basically and ironically the Kingdom of God on earth. As people are oppressed, held back, treated unfairly or in pain, they will seek out solutions, and if atheism doesn’t have them they will reject it and seek out something else. Perhaps this can be controlled by drugs, or even more so by genetic manipulation or even ‘matrix’ like pods, but to what extent, can deception fool all.
Now a world without religion would be interesting and may be achievable, but religious authority seem to be a check on other authorities such as state authority, so we may run into a more oppressive situation without religion, though neither has to do with god.
Even that is in dispute:
So I suggest you have to get rid of the rocks too unless you wish to put forth a differentiation between rocks and stones 
I think Americans vastly overestimate the number of atheists in Europe. In my home country of Finland 80% of the population are members of the state church. In Sweden the corresponding number is 70%.
I’d like to see some stats for that, Hoss. about 82% of Danes, for instance, are members of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Denmark, and as for beliefs about God, a 2005 study found
So, 19% atheist isn’t all that dissimilar from the 20% who identify as atheist in the US.
That same poll for Sweden states “23% of Swedish citizens responded that “they believe there is a god”. 53% answered that “they believe there is some sort of spirit or life force”. 23% answered that “they do not believe there is any sort of spirit, god, or life force”.”
In fact, of all the countries surveyed, the one with the most people not believing in any sort of spirit, god or life force was France ,and that was 33%.
Membership in the church doesn’t mean they aren’t atheists. Plenty of Jews are atheists.
Believing in a life force isn’t theism. Believing in a God is theism.
Perhaps, but can atheism and spirituality play well together?