Where do you think Atheism will be in 10 years time ?
Will it still be stuck with slow growing numbers and will Atheists still be seen as heathen ? Or will the world open up more, bit by bit where religion slowly dies out and in a centuries time the tables will have turned. Instead of two/thirds of the world being religious they will either be Atheist or simply non-believers.
I'm willing to argue that religion is no longer necessary, like Christopher Hitchens once said; it was a nice attempt at making sense of things.
Now I think it's high time to move on, but will the rest of the world think so, too ?
Subscription Note:
Choosing to subscribe to this topic will automatically register you for email notifications for comments and updates on this thread.
Email notifications will be sent out daily by default unless specified otherwise on your account which you can edit by going to your userpage here and clicking on the subscriptions tab.
I'm hopeful the tide is shifting in favor of the godless. But I'm not optimistic enough to make a wager on it in Vegas. I think there will always be those who are natural doubters of fantastic claims and those who need to feel there's a greener pasture out there for the cow clever enough to get through the fence.
As a teacher I am amazed that children are questioning the belief in a god so early in life. I believe the more educated our public becomes the bigger the population of agnostics and/or atheists will be. The proof is already there when you look at the percent of Americans who believe in God is high around 95%, then the percent of college grads is less, then compare the percent of PHDs s lesser. When you get to the top scientist, those who teach at the universities and are in research; the percent is down to less than 5%.
Here are the stats:
http://wiki.answers.com/Q/Approximately_what_percentage_of_recognized_Sc...
Ten years out, we will still be where we are today with atheism. It hasn't grown very strong in its many years of existence and ten more years won't make much more difference. It's going to take hundreds more years for us to become the majority and for people to realize what's right and what's not.
I don't know that 10 years will be that much different than today, but I think that we'll definitely see dramatic differences in 50-100 years.
Religions are dying, and it looks like they're doing their own undoing at h this point, and making themselves look bad left and right. After the kids who grew up seeing this are old enough to trust themselves fully, I think religions will be forced to deal with what they've done.
I think the number will increase exponentially every year primarily due to awareness by godless forums. I still think the growth in numbers will get setbacks from counter atheism by losing religious apologists. Eventually, there may be a more than 50% of the world population made of non-believers not necessarily atheists or agnostics but with people who do not want anything about gods and have little or no opinion about them. I would give a range of 20-40 years from now.
I agree with you on the fact that perhaps the majority of people will not be atheists per se, but people who simply feel that religious concepts are irrelevant to their lives.
I think it will change greatly. People are getting tired of religion. A great many people are changing from the christain deity toward a more natural diety. For example I have 5 siblings. We were rasied very strict. Only 1 of us still believes that strictly. Two of us are Atheist, and the rest believe in energy and the universe/nature is their god. Atheism has had a long hard road but I believe it will increase in numbers faster now.
Ok finally deciding to weigh in here, gods will come and go but people will always turn to some sort of faith to restore order to their perceived disorders. Religions may weaken, come and go but there will always be new gods to replace the old ones they may start out logical or even metaphorical but they will,... evolve into gods.
There will never be a day when we as humanity are all atheist nor will there be a day when we are all of one religion unless unless we have lost our minds and individuality. I have said it before and I'll say it 10,000 times religion does fulfill necessary functions it will continue to evolve to be better at that and adapt new functions while moving away from old ones. people got to stop treating religions like the're stone and realize them for the ever changing fluid beast they are. Some religions as they become less fluid will harden and splinter and some of those splinters will evolve to be more pertinent.
Sorry to burst everyone's bubble but religion is here to stay as long as there are Humans. I at least think it's largely unlikely to entirely disappear.
Very well said Zaph! We will always have religions to some degree, they may be different and they may be the same, but they will always be here knocking on our doors trying to get us to convert to something or another.
As whud91 said, the amount of college students and youngster atheists is increasing and the very religious people are old and will soon die. Once the grandparent and great grandparent generation are gone, there will be a big shift imo. Of course, those generations continued to share their beliefs with the younger generations and indoctrinating them, and most people want a small comfort in their lives like God is perceived to be. My mother is a deist herself, hates religion, but says she has a personal relationship with Jesus. Myself and most of my friends being atheist or non-religious really shows where things are heading.
Instead of shunning the skeptics and nonbelievers out and persecuting us, we are allowed to speak our minds. Mandatory prayer is out of schools, as well as any bible teachings. Soon enough, the United States and its people will come to a consensus that 'In God We Trust' shouldn't be allowed on our money(not that it does anything). But still, gradually, human beings are developing a more open mind.
In ten years? No, the older two/three generations wouldn't be gone by that time. The time span for this to all play out would need to be more than 50 years or so.
I have to disagree with you on that. There will always be religion in some form and there are many areas in our country where people are still deeply religious and they outweigh the non-religious my a large margin.
Yes, travel through the U.S. bible belt and you will start to think there is no hope for the rest of us! There is still a large population of religious people who aren't going to let go so quickly.
I see what you mean. I must admit my figure of 50 years was off, but in 50 years or so, I feel the amount of atheists will increase