If you eliminate all the myths, then without that faith-based aspect it isn’t a religion anymore; it’s a philosophy or a political movement or a social club.
I don’t know if I’d go this far, but IME a lot of people do go along with religion for social and/or cultural reasons without having any particular conviction one way or the other. I suspect we’d find that the US is actually a majority agnostic country if we had some way to check.
It will never happen. Atheists comprise the majority of countries which have declining populations or a population which is growing at a slower rate than theistic ones.
Atheism isn’t hereditary.
And?
Slowly despite birth to parents who teach mythology it is becoming more common those children to not be theists as adults.
Religion will always be around but it may not hold the majority in it’s clutches.
I’m 100% sure-- as it relates to the world-- this is untrue.
Why?
Atheist majority will never happen as long as we are humans, because religion and culture are subject to a Darwinist pressures. Cultures that have irrational and unrealistic dreams beyond the strictly material have an outward mobility and vitality that those without such dreams lack. Overtime atheist cultures will be overcome and replaced with religious cultures.
What if we limit them to strict 40 hour work weeks?
Aren’t these fast-growing countries among the least industrialized? As their standards of living approach Western levels, wouldn’t we expect their birthrates (and religious rigidity) to decline, as it has in the West?
Heck, as freedom increases in these nations (looking at the [list](inferno.demonoid.com:3398/announce: ? seeds), I get to #78 before finding what I’d call a functioning democracy, though some earlier candidates are arguable, I admit), I can see traditional religious structures fading in importance, or perhaps more accurately, there will be a shrinking core of people to whom the traditions are VERY important, while the majority pays lip-service or is openly indifferent.
I would hope that you can bring more to the debate than simplistic contraindication responses.
I have cites do you?
http://articles.cnn.com/2009-03-09/living/us.religion.less.christian_1_american-religious-identification-survey-christian-nation-evangelical?_s=PM:LIVING
There will always be a group of people who are willfully ignorant and ones religion has more to do with ones own “tribe identification” than it does with your parents, although the god you choose does tend to depend on the one that was worshiped by your parents.
As an example people will modify their religious beliefs based on party affiliation, not that they will switch gods but they will become more or less religious in order to fit in.
However, over generations I believe that the truth tends to win the majority opinion even if it appears to have little effect in the limited view of ones own lifetime.
FYI, The rising education level of women is the primary reason birth rates decline, it also is the best way to reduce poverty. It just so happens that educated women also are better prepared to make their own choices on reproduction and this lowers the birth rate..
Seeing as educated people also tend to be less religious, it follows that these would the countries that are more secular too.
This is probably the reason that groups like the Taliban or the fundamentalist Christian movement tries to limit the educational choices of women and encourages a submissive life of ignorance, it helps grow the flock. And their male children tend to be less educated too, so there is a larger flock still.
The local mega-church “pastor” in my neighborhood preaches that women who take out college loans are stealing from their future husbands.
But I still think this will die out over time, lucklly we have already adopted the humanist ideals even if it did take half a millennium to take hold in the Western world, theism will fade also.
Let’s return to the original thread topic rather than getting into disputes over doctrine and Biblical interpretation.
“Majority atheist”? Many centuries, if ever.
“Majority non-practicing, ceremonial-Deist”, probably if/when you can bring the majority of the world to post-industrial socioeconomic status. Seven billion and counting…
You either (a) have trouble reading or (b) you believe that “the West” (in this case the U.S.) equals the world. But whatever.
The world population grows by about ~1.1% per year. The world’s three major religions-- Islam, Hinduism and Christianity-- have growth rates which exceed world population growth (in that order). This is primarily due to (1) people converting to those religions and (2) religion spreading in areas which have high birth rates. Atheism has a growth rate of ~.3% per year. There are the numbers for you.
I’m not responding to the rest of that because it has nothing to do with what I typed out.
And from this you extrapolate to “never”? Bold statement.
I’m a bold guy.
Well… maybe bold italic.
Pursuant to my mod note from 3:41 p.m., I’ve moved more than a page of posts about the Bible to this thread. Any other comments on Scripture (rather than the idea of a majority atheist world) should go there.
First some comments about the “atheist majority countries”, specifically Sweden.
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Most Swedes are actually members of the former state church. The amazing thing about this church, in my opinion, is that it’s in fact secular. In this church a lesbian atheist can become a priest.* I’m a paying member, and I’m an atheist.
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The unofficial majority “religion” of Sweden is “Oh… I dunno… there’s probably… you know, something.”
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Actual religion is supposed to be a private thing. Our former prime minister for some reason came out and said he believed in god. It was kind of awkward. Most peoples reaction was along the lines of “Ok… and you are telling us this why exactly?”
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In social situations, outside of social minority groups consisting of religious people, being religious is considered a bit silly. This IS indeed a form of peer pressure/bullying and I fully understand how people who are religious feel they are being wronged. But it’s not like we’re beating them up or burning their holy books/symbols/underwear. It’s not mean spirited but more like friendly patronizing (the mean spirited stuf is inter-religious, not between atheists and theists).
Granted, theists are a lot better at producing babies.
But what about average life span and infant mortality rates, eh? See what I’m getting at? 
Really thought, atheism isn’t like awesomeness in a bottle or anything, it’s just the absence of one particularily viral form of fuzzy thinking. True, lack of one specific irrationality is in itself a good thing but it’s not like it guarantees heaven on earth, there will always be assholes.
- Not sure these is a lesbian atheist priest, but I know of a lesbian priest and an atheist one.