posted May 02, 2013 08:04 PM            

Countries with the best standard of living are turning atheist. That shift offers a glimpse into the world's future.

Religious people are annoyed by claims that belief in God will go the way of horse transportation, and for much the same reason, specifically an improved standard of living.

The view that religious belief will give way to atheism is known as the secularization thesis. The specific version that I favor (1) is known as the existential security hypothesis. The basic idea is that as people become more affluent, they are less worried about lacking for basic necessities, or dying early from violence or disease. In other words they are secure in their own existence. They do not feel the need to appeal to supernatural entities to calm their fears and insecurities.

The notion that improving living conditions are associated with a decline in religion is supported by a mountain of evidence (1,2,3).

That does not prevent some serious scholars, like political scientist Eric Kaufmann (4), from making the opposite case that religious fundamentalists will outbreed the rest of us. Yet, noisy as they can be, such groups are tiny minorities of the global population and they will become even more marginalized as global prosperity increases and standards of living improve.

Moreover, as religious fundamentalists become economically integrated, young women go to work and produce smaller families, as is currently happening for Utah's Mormons.

The most obvious approach to estimating when the world will switch over to being majority atheist is based on economic growth. This is logical because economic development is the key factor responsible for secularization. In deriving this estimate, I used the nine most godless countries as my touchstone (excluding Estonia as a formerly communist country).

The countries were Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Germany, Japan, Netherlands, Sweden and the United Kingdom. These nine countries averaged out at the atheist transition in 2004 (5) with exactly half of the populations disbelieving in God. Their gross domestic product (GDP) averaged $29,822 compared to $10,855 for the average country in the world. How long will it take before the world economy has expanded sufficiently that the GDP of the average country has caught up to the average for the godless countries in 2004?

Using the average global growth rate of GDP for the past 30 years of 3.33 percent (based on International Monetary Fund data from their website), the atheist transition would occur in 2035.

Belief in God is not the only relevant measure of religion, of course. A person might believe in God in a fairly superficial way without religion affecting his or her daily life. One way of assessing the depth of religious commitment is to ask survey participants whether they think that religion is important in their daily lives as the Gallup Organization has done in worldwide nationally representative surveys.

If fewer than 50 percent of the population agreed that religion was important to them, then the country has effectively crossed over to a secular majority. The godless countries by religiosity were Spain, South Korea, Canada, Switzerland, Uruguay, Germany and France. At a growth rate of 3.33 percent per year it would be 2041 before the average country in the world would be at an equivalent level of affluence as these godless nations.

If national wealth drives secularization, the global population will cross an atheist threshold where the majority see religion as unimportant by 2041.

Averaging across the two measures of atheism, the entire world population would cross the atheist threshold by about 2038 (average of 2035 for disbelief and 2041 for religiosity). Although 2038 may seem improbably fast, this requires only a shift of approximately 1 percent per year whether in religiosity or belief in God. Using the Human Development Index as a clock suggests an even earlier arrival for the atheist transition (1).

Is the loss of religious belief something fear? Contrary to the claims of religious leaders, Godless countries are highly moral nations with an unusual level of social trust, economic equality, low crime and a high level of civic engagement (5). We could do with some of that.

Sources
1. Barber, N. (2012). Why atheism will replace religion: The triumph of earthly pleasures over pie in the sky. E-book, available at: http://www.amazon.com/Atheism-Will-Replace-Religion-ebook/dp/B00886ZSJ6/
2. Norris, P., & Inglehart, R. (2004). Sacred and secular: Religion and politics worldwide. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
3. Barber, N. (2011). A Cross-National test of the uncertainty hypothesis of religious belief Cross-Cultural Research, 45, 318-333.
4. Kaufmann, E. (2010). Shall the religious inherit the earth? London: Profile books.
5. Zuckerman, P. (2008). Society without God: What the least religious nations can tell us about contentment. New York: New York University Press. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/nigel-barber/atheism-to-defeat-religion-by-2038_b_15 65108.html

Right around when I retire.

posted May 03, 2013 03:18 AM            

I wonder how the process will effect religious nations....

And france is my destination for now and living there is a huge goal in my life

posted May 03, 2013 06:06 AM            

------------------
Passion, Lust, Desire. Check out my journal

posted May 03, 2013 08:42 AM            

religion is too necessary, for too many people. I also think it is a crutch. That word crutch sounds derogatory; it may be.

quote:

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The view that religious belief will give way to atheism is known as the secularization thesis. The specific version that I favor (1) is known as the existential security hypothesis. The basic idea is that as people become more affluent, they are less worried about lacking for basic necessities, or dying early from violence or disease. In other words they are secure in their own existence. They do not feel the need to appeal to supernatural entities to calm their fears and insecurities.

---

This ^ bit makes sense, I also think that self worth or esteem is a factor as well.

prayer/bible meetings that became so popular in the south, and then in the Midwest during the dust bowl era...desperate, destitute people looking for some hope, too bad most of the preachers were soaking them for the egg money.

posted May 03, 2013 04:10 PM            

quote:

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Originally posted by iQ:
Atheism is the best thing to happen for Spirituality. Atheism helps rid the brain of the mental illness called Fundamentalist Religion, whose only exploit has been the Mass Death of non-believers. Once the mental illness is deleted, the Mind is ready to look at new data, observe more and slowly understand the Cosmic Design in All That Is. This paves the way for Kundalini Flow and the reward of "Knowing"/Gnosis of God and One's Own Soul as Connected to God.

---

What a VERY dangerous leap and coupling you've made, dear iQ ..... oh no....

(I must go run errands right now... I will be back.... sooooooo sorry for the brevity!)

posted May 03, 2013 04:20 PM            

quote:

---

Originally posted by iQ:
Atheism is the best thing to happen for Spirituality. Atheism helps rid the brain of the mental illness called Fundamentalist Religion, whose only exploit has been the Mass Death of non-believers. Once the mental illness is deleted, the Mind is ready to look at new data, observe more and slowly understand the Cosmic Design in All That Is. This paves the way for Kundalini Flow and the reward of "Knowing"/Gnosis of God and One's Own Soul as Connected to God.

---

Urrggg IQ

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Passion, Lust, Desire. Check out my journal

posted May 04, 2013 09:06 AM              

Divine Heresy:
shattering concepts of God
that limit the awareness of God

Heretical Faith:
shattering the awareness of God
that limits the concepts of God

Renowned Kabbalist, Rabbi Abraham Isaac Kook(yes, "kook"), saw the challenge which free-thinkers posed to various conceptions of God as a positive phase in the development of religion. The following words are translated from the rabbi's writings. The essential thrust is that any conception of God is, in some sense, heretical, and ideas concerning God easily calcify into rigid forms of idol worship. He believed that the athiests were, by attempting to tear down these concepts, accomplishing something which the faithful had lost the ability to do for themselves; which is, to see the lack of fluidity in their conceptions about God, and how these concepts actually hinder the connection to the true source of God's wisdom, which is intuitive. The Rabbi wrote: "As the Messiah approaches, insolence will increase." The word translated here as "insolence" is hutspa, which may also be translated as "nerve" or "audacity". As the forms become more rigid, their detractors become more audacious.

The following appears in "The Essential Kabbalah",
under the heading of "Heretical Faith":

“The essence of faith is an awareness of the vastness of Infinity. Whatever conception of it enters the mind is an absolutely negligible speck in comparison to what should be conceived, and what should be conceived is no less negligible compared to what it really is... Every definition of God leads to heresy; definition is spiritual idolatry. Even attributing mind and will to God, even attributing divinity itself, and the name "God" -- these, too, are definitions. Were it not for the subtle awareness that all these are just sparkling flashes of that which transcends definition -- these, too, would engender heresy... The greatest impediment to the human spirit results from the fact that the conception of God is fixed in a particular form, due to childish habit and imagination. This is a spark of the defect of idolatry, of which we must beware.

All the troubles of the world, especially spiritual troubles such as impatience, hopelessness, and despair, derive from the failure to see the grandeur of God clearly. It is natural for each individual creature to be humble in the presence of God, to nullify itself in the presence of the the whole -- all the more so in the presence of the source of all being, which one senses as infinitely beyond the whole. There is no sadness or depression in this act, but rather delight and a feeling of being uplifted, a sense of inner power. But when is it natural? When the grandeur of God is well portrayed in the soul, with clear awareness, beyond any notion of divine essence.

We avoid studying the true nature of the divine, and as a result, the concept of God has dimmed. The innermost point of the awareness of God has become so faint that the essence of God is conceived only as a stern power from whom you cannot escape, to whom you must subjugate yourself. If you submit to the service of God on this empty basis, you gradually lose your radiance by constricting your consciousness. The divine splendor is plucked from your soul.

"Every sensitive spirit feels compelled to discard such a conception of God. This denial is the heresy that paves the way for the Messiah, when the knowledge of God runs dry throughout the world. The crude complacency of imagining God in words and letters alone puts humanity to shame. Heresy arises as a pained outcry to liberate us from this strange, narrow pit, to raise us from the darkness of letters and platitudes to the light of thought and feeling. Such heresy eventually takes its stand in the center of morality. It has a temporary legitimacy, for it must consume the filthy froth clinging to mindless faith. The real purpose of heresy is to remove the particular forms from the thought of the essence of all life, the root of every single thought... removing the dross that separates us from genuine divine light. On the desolate ruins wrought by heresy, the sublime knowledge of God will build her temple. Utter heresy arises to purify the air of the wicked, insolent filth of thinking about the essence of divinity -- an act of peeping that leads to idolatry. In itself this heresy is no better than what it attacks, but it is absolutely opposed to it, and out of the clash of these two opposites, humanity is aided immensely in approaching an enlightened awareness of God, which draws it toward temporal and eternal bliss...

"Pure belief in the oneness of God has been blurred by corporeality. From time to time, this confusion is exposed. Whenever a corporeal aspect falls away, it seems as if faith itself has fallen, but afterward it turns out that, in fact, faith has been clarified. As the human spirit verges on complete clarity of faith, the final subtle shell of corporeality falls away -- attributing existence to God. For truly, existence, however we define it, is immeasurably remote from God. The silhouette of this denial resembles heresy but when clarified is actually the highest level of faith. Then the human spirit becomes aware that the divine emanates existence and is itself beyond existence. What appeared to be heresy, now purified, is restored to purest faith. But this denial of existence in God -- this return to the source of all being, to the essential vibrancy of all existence -- requires exquisite insight. Each day one must trace it back to its authentic purity.

The Infinite transcends every particular content of faith."

~ Rabbi Abraham Isaac Kook

posted May 04, 2013 09:39 AM            

The way i see it - humanity will split in two at one point - as the cyborg age is closer and thus - many will chose to renounce pain of any kind - a new type of civilization that's separated from the main source. Hard to say how that we'll workout - might be for the best... or not. Either way - it's an evolution - which goes hand in hand with atheism and a pragmatic approach in terms of existence. It's hard to acknowledge this fact and even harder to understand, some people fear this idea - other embrace it.

posted May 04, 2013 09:47 AM              

Others may call it "existential", and categorize themselves as secular, but we ought to recognize the extent to which our experience itself has changed, and the extent to which we have merely exchanged one language for another. To my mind, the word "existential" has only been substituted in place of the word "religious". The experience has not gone away, or changed substantially, but the alteration of the language does suggest some deadening of soul (or "psyche", if you prefer).

The trend I see in modernity is one of intellectual distantiation -- of removing ourselves, further and further, away from the immediate reality of life, and into the conceptual dismantling of life which is encouraged by a purely intellectual approach. We are no longer people, let alone individuals. Now, we are cases, or case studies. Every surface has been scoured of the true essence which it exuded so naturally, in the analytical pursuit of some "hidden" essence. Every phenomenon has been "debunked"; its particularity deflated into some category or complex overlapping of categories. As we seek to know what lies under, within, around, and behind things, we lose touch with the authentic experience of what is. Seeing is not always "seeing into" -- sometimes it is just seeing; and recognizing what is there as a unique and miraculous occurrence, without having to reduce it or explain it away.

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posted May 04, 2013 10:19 AM            

quote:

---

Originally posted by iQ:
Atheism is the best thing to happen for Spirituality. Atheism helps rid the brain of the mental illness called Fundamentalist Religion, whose only exploit has been the Mass Death of non-believers. Once the mental illness is deleted, the Mind is ready to look at new data, observe more and slowly understand the Cosmic Design in All That Is. This paves the way for Kundalini Flow and the reward of "Knowing"/Gnosis of God and One's Own Soul as Connected to God.

---

Excellent. I do agree, iQ. My journey through atheism was relatively brief, yet essential. I liken it to decompressing or a purge. As mirage noted, there is some danger involved but the rewards are bountiful. I think maybe it is an essential step in a larger process. And as the individual is a microcosm of the collective, atheism and agnosticism in large numbers may benefit society.
We must first empty our pockets before they can be filled again with something better, yes?

posted May 04, 2013 01:28 PM              

The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams.
~ Eleanor Roosevelt

Must then a Christ perish in torment in every age to save those that have no imagination?
~ George Bernard Shaw

Many live in the ivory tower called reality;
they never venture on the open sea of thought.
~ Francois Gautier

You can't depend on your judgment when your imagination is out of focus.
~ Mark Twain

The problems of the world cannot possibly be solved by skeptics
or cynics whose horizons are limited by the obvious realities.
We need men who can dream of things that never were.
~ John F. Kennedy

I am imagination. I can see what the eyes cannot see.
I can hear what the ears cannot hear. I can feel what the heart cannot feel.
~ Peter Nivio Zarlenga

I am certain of nothing but the holiness of the heart's affections and the truth of imagination.
~ John Keats

Do not quench your inspiration and your imagination; do not become the slave of your model.
~ Vincent van Gogh

One of the virtues of being very young is that you don't let the facts get in the way of your imagination.
~ Sam Levenson

Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once he grows up.
~ Pablo Picasso

posted May 04, 2013 01:59 PM            

quote:

---

Originally posted by Heart--Shaped Cross:
Imagination is intelligence with an erection.
~ Victor Hugo

The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams.
~ Eleanor Roosevelt

Must then a Christ perish in torment in every age to save those that have no imagination?
~ George Bernard Shaw

Many live in the ivory tower called reality;
they never venture on the open sea of thought.
~ Francois Gautier

You can't depend on your judgment when your imagination is out of focus.
~ Mark Twain

The problems of the world cannot possibly be solved by skeptics
or cynics whose horizons are limited by the obvious realities.
We need men who can dream of things that never were.
~ John F. Kennedy

I am imagination. I can see what the eyes cannot see.
I can hear what the ears cannot hear. I can feel what the heart cannot feel.
~ Peter Nivio Zarlenga

I am certain of nothing but the holiness of the heart's affections and the truth of imagination.
~ John Keats

Do not quench your inspiration and your imagination; do not become the slave of your model.
~ Vincent van Gogh

One of the virtues of being very young is that you don't let the facts get in the way of your imagination.
~ Sam Levenson

Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once he grows up.
~ Pablo Picasso

Everything you can imagine is real.
~ Pablo Picasso

---

Lovely quotes. Thank you HSC!

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Passion, Lust, Desire. Check out my journal

posted May 04, 2013 07:14 PM            

quote:

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Originally posted by 7thGuardian:
That can't be true, that would imply a society that's "completely" driven by ego and pragmatism. That illness - is already part of current society - so in a way we already have a ego driven society... though - not completely (as in - there's still hope). It's quite harmful even now - with 3000 suicides every day, one million suicides every year, 300.000 failed attempts... and who knows how many cries for help... If we reach a point where every society is completely driven by ego - we'll probbaly see - more than 1 billion suicides ever year. So, what that article is really saying is that - humanity it's on its way to self-destruction. I don't believe that.

---

I don't believe that a rejection of religious orthodoxy (even if it meant outright atheism) would mean society became even more ego-driven than it is right now, as I see many religions fueled by ego...and also a lot of suicide (and murder) as inspired by religion, plus making people take stupid chances out of faith (like believing "God is bigger than any mugger" and then having to deal with the trauma of rape which might lead to suicide as a direct result of such a belief, and I'm sure I read of some politician's wife who had been angry at God for failing to protect her from the consequences of running a stop sign which got someone killed, IIRC...again, such ego). Oh yeah, I recently read of a guy upset that his appeal was denied for manslaughter because he drove recklessly (and tried to evade police) when he crashed into a car seriously injuring a mother and killing her child, and he thinks he should be excused because his "religious values" were offended (and thus couldn't help himself as he was in a state of rage at the time of the crash while fleeing police) when he saw 2 women kissing (playfully, not actually gay as he'd assumed).

As for suicide, that's like crime, that comes from poverty, disease, and the like, and if the countries are prospering then the rates (suicide and homicide both) will be relatively low. If not so prosperous, then the suicide rates will rise, but they'll also become more religious, too. I suspect some consciously try to make life an unnecessary veil of tears for others, "cruel to be kind," just so people embrace God before they die (after all, the church used to torture people to accept Christ before executing them, so this would be no big deal to them).

posted May 04, 2013 11:37 PM            

quote:

---

Originally posted by iQ:
Atheism is the best thing to happen for Spirituality. Atheism helps rid the brain of the mental illness called Fundamentalist Religion, whose only exploit has been the Mass Death of non-believers. Once the mental illness is deleted, the Mind is ready to look at new data, observe more and slowly understand the Cosmic Design in All That Is. This paves the way for Kundalini Flow and the reward of "Knowing"/Gnosis of God and One's Own Soul as Connected to God.

---

posted May 05, 2013 12:52 AM            

It scares me when you speak of deleting... sounds like atheISM has mind-control enthusiasts.

But if you're speaking of the difficulty of letting go of the conditioning that occurs when we've had a lot of religious home training or history in a church, then I'm with you...

____________
BTW--- Lexxigramer, the spellcheck device must be very frustrating to you, especially! It just "corrected" my word "atheism" when I wanted to stress that it has ISM to it.... as in Funda-mental-ISM.....

(I wish there was a box where we could dis-able the 'spellchecker' or 'auto-correction' feature per post we create, same way we can "Disable Smilies in This Post" ?) sorry, I'm sorta burnt out right now... skimpier answers.
______

posted May 05, 2013 01:02 AM            

quote:

---

Originally posted by mirage29:
^^ iQ... What you said sounds like what one of those mentally ill Fundamentalists would say...

It scares me when you speak of deleting... sounds like atheISM has mind-control enthusiasts.

But if you're speaking of the difficulty of letting go of the conditioning that occurs when we've had a lot of religious home training or history in a church, then I'm with you...

____________
BTW--- Lexxigramer, the spellcheck device must be very frustrating to you, especially! It just "corrected" my word "atheism" when I wanted to stress that it has ISM to it.... as in Funda-mental-ISM.....

(I wish there was a box where we could dis-able the 'spellchecker' or 'auto-correction' feature per post we create, same way we can "Disable Smilies in This Post" ?) sorry, I'm sorta burnt out right now... skimpier answers.
______

Everyone---- There are some EXCELLENT thoughts in this thread...! There's "quality" here

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posted May 05, 2013 11:41 AM            

quote:

---

Originally posted by iQ:
Atheism is the best thing to happen for Spirituality. Atheism helps rid the brain of the mental illness called Fundamentalist Religion, whose only exploit has been the Mass Death of non-believers. Once the mental illness is deleted, the Mind is ready to look at new data, observe more and slowly understand the Cosmic Design in All That Is. This paves the way for Kundalini Flow and the reward of "Knowing"/Gnosis of God and One's Own Soul as Connected to God.

---

Absolutely, one must empty to fill again.

posted May 05, 2013 11:47 AM            

There was a man sleeping under a tree. A giant snake crawled up to him and entered the man's open mouth.
A wise man was watching and ran up to the man. The sage took a large stick and began to beat the man. The man woke in fright and began to run. The sage chased him.
After further beating, running and torment the man collapsed in a heap and began to heave. After some time he threw up and out came the snake
Seeing himself free of this parasite, the man turned to the Sage and said "Thank you for helping me, but why did you beat me so severely. Why didnt you just tell me these was a snake inside me and we could work together on the problem?"
The sage replied "if you had known that which existed inside you, you would have died of fright. nothing I could do would have saved you."

posted May 05, 2013 03:23 PM            

As that is moved away from, the standard of living will slowly decline as the guiding philosophies of the majority will become amoral over time.

That amoralism will then lead to ill conceived, but popular concepts that will be implemented politically.