Atheism is on the rise around the world, so does that mean spirituality will soon be a thing of the past?
A growing number of people, millions worldwide, say they believe that life definitively ends at death – that there is no God, no afterlife and no divine plan. And it’s an outlook that could be gaining momentum.
Part of religion’s appeal is that it offers security in an uncertain world. So not surprisingly, nations that report the highest rates of atheism tend to be those that provide their citizens with relatively high economic, political and existential stability. Access to technology and education may also correlate with a corrosion of religiosity in some populations.
Places where religion was important just a century or so ago, 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. Decline in religious beliefs seems to be occurring across the board.
The US, too, is an outlier in that it is one of the wealthiest countries in the world, but also has high rates of religiosity. In a recent Pew survey revealed that, between 2007 and 2012, the proportion of Americans who said they are atheist rose from 1.6% to 2.4%.)
Decline, however, does not mean disappearance. As climate change wreaks havoc on the world in coming years and natural resources potentially grow scarce, then suffering and hardship could fuel religiosity, for some reason, religion seems to give meaning to suffering.
This is because a god-shaped hole seems to exist in our species’ neuropsychology, understanding this requires a delve into “dual process theory. This psychological staple states that we have two very basic forms of thought: System 1 and System 2.
System 2 evolved relatively recently. It’s the voice in our head – the narrator who never seems to shut up – that enables us to plan and think logically. System 1, on the other hand, is intuitive, instinctual and automatic. These capabilities regularly develop in humans, regardless of where they are born. They are survival mechanisms.
System 1 bestows us with an innate revulsion of rotting meat, allows us to speak our native language without thinking about it and gives babies the ability to recognize parents and distinguish between living and nonliving objects. It makes us prone to looking for patterns to better understand our world, and to seek meaning for seemingly random events like natural disasters or the death of loved ones. In addition to helping us navigate the dangers of the world and find a mate, some scholars think that System 1 also enabled religions to evolve and perpetuate.
Millennia ago, that tendency probably helped us avoid concealed danger, such as lions crouched in the grass or venomous snakes concealed in the bush. But it also made us vulnerable to inferring the existence of invisible agents. Many scholars believe that religion arose as “a byproduct of our cognitive disposition.
For many of these reasons – psychological, neurological, historical, cultural and logistical – experts guess that religion will probably never go away. Religion, whether it’s maintained through fear or love, is highly successful at perpetuating itself. If not, it would not be with us now.
Even if we lose sight of the Christian, Muslim and Hindu gods and all the rest, superstitions and spiritualism will likely prevail. Humans need comfort in the face of pain and suffering, and many need to think that there’s something more after this life, that they’re loved by an invisible being.
Atheism is on the rise around the world, so does that mean spirituality will soon be a thing of the past? In the 2018 General Social Survey of US attitudes, “no religion” became the single largest group, edging out evangelical Christians. Despite this, religion is not disappearing on a global scale. For all of these reasons – psychological, neurological, historical, cultural and logistical, experts guess that religion will probably never go away.
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