Why the world is becoming atheist?

• Phil Zuckerman, a professor secular studies at Pitzer College, California says More Atheist to “There’s absolutely more atheists around today than ever before, both in sheer numbers and as a percentage of humanity”.
• According to a Gallup International survey in 57 countries: 57 Coun • The number of individuals claiming to be religious fell from 77% to 68% between 2005 and 2011. • Self-identified atheist rose by 3% – bringing the world’s estimated proportion of non-believers to 13%.

Secularisation Theory:

• According to the basic tenets of secularization theory, religious influence will fade with the advance of modernity The development of scientific knowledge, economic growth, urbanization, and higher levels of education tend to undermine the role of religion and religious practice in people’s lives.

Concept of Deconversion:

• Everyone who adopts a religious identity, everyone who switches religions, and everyone who exits with a religious identity is a convert. Deconversion is a process that implies the diminution of religiosity over time resulting in the adoption of a nonreligious identity in the form of atheism or agnosticism (being not sure about existence of god).

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Factors Responsible for atheist belief or Deconversion

Reason & enquiry

• The core category of reason and enquiry is characterized by an intellectual impetus, the use of reason, and the act of questioning This develops by having attended higher level education, by talking to different people who would encourage one to start wondering about different issues, and by reading books and other materials.
• This analytical approach leads people to reflect variety of topics pertaining to religion and belief including: • The origins of religious dogma; • Incompatibility with science; Inefficacy of theological arguments; The “problem of evil”.
• Faith-based answers to these questions are particularly Unsatisfying. People feel that answers grounded in logic and everyday experience were more appropriate.

Criticism & Discontent

• Criticism and discontent, is defined by a disapproval of religious institutions, ideas, and behaviours on moral and ethical grounds. Issues For instance Discontent with the Church’s stance on issues such as contraception, abortion, mistreatment of women, and child abuse.
• Hypocrisy and bigotry from some religious individuals and leaders also fosters discontent with religion and undermines belief. For example: Religious influence on politics and incitement of intolerance towards other groups.

Changing perception of Security

• Part of religion’s appeal is that it offers security in an uncertain world. Nations that report the highest rates of atheism tend to be those that provide their citizens with relatively high economic, political and existential stability.
• Japan, the UK, Canada, South Korea, Germany, France etc. now report some of the lowest belief rates in the world. These countries feature strong educational and social security systems, low inequality and are all relatively wealthy Basically, people are less scared about what might befall them.

Effect of Internet on religion

• A traditional religion is one built on “right belief,” & requires a closed information system. Religions have spent lot of efforts to keep outside information away from insiders. Such defenses worked beautifully during humanity’s infancy but they weren’t really designed for the curren information age.
• For people living in homogeneous communities, the internet provides opportunities to find information about people of other religions (and atheists), and to interact with them personally. Also, for people with religious doubt, the internet provides access to people in similar circumstances all over the world.
• Exploitative, Oppressive, Violent sides of religion are exposed on internet. For example Evilbible.com: catalogues incidents sex slavery, polygamy and incest in Christianity. A student surfing web can find a proclamation in which Puritans give thanks to God for the burning of Indian villages. Such exposure may arouse moral conscience in people and they may be tilted towards disbelief.

Modern Lifestyle

• People find that there’s a whole secular world waiting for them on the web. This can be a lifesaver, literally, for folks who are trapped in closed religious communities. On the web, they can explore lifestyles in which people stay surprisingly decent and kind without a sacred text or authority figures telling them what to do.