Study suggests religion will go extinct in at least nine countries

http://www.pinknews.co.uk/2016/02/05/study-suggests-religion-will-go-extinct-in-at-least-nine-countries/

Pink News/By Joseph Patrick McCormick   02/05/2016

"Census data from nine countries suggests that religion will be extinct there, say researchers.

The study, which used the data from Australia, Austria, Canada, the Czech Republic, Finland, Ireland, the Netherlands, New Zealand and Switzerland, suggested that religion could become extinct there. "

This looks like a purely mathematical calculation with no real analysis or interpretation, so the headline may be a bit of a stretch.  I wonder sometimes whether the decline of organized religions will open up an opportunity for 12 Step (AA, AlAnon, etc..) to emerge as an alternative spiritual outlet.  It's a very personal approach to spirituality emphasizing responsibility and choice, not threatening people with eternal punishment. 

I'm familiar with several countries on that list.  I may have to ponder a move to Ireland. 

I don't know, I think the need for some sort of religion or spirituality runs pretty deep in the human psyche. There are just so many aspects to what people get out of it. And it can be neatly packaged and distributed en masse, as opposed to splitting up the various social, emotional, and world view/morality aspects. These ready-made, easily marketable frameworks may not be called a religion, as Dayta points out regarding 12 step programs, but you're going to have SOMETHING filling those voids.

As mainstream religions continue to fall out of favor you might get a rise in organizations like the Freemasons or relatively small, localized cults. As education levels increase you'll likely find more people replacing religious beliefs with science or academia. This study was itself conducted by the American Physical Society; a group of physicists that get together and do physicist things (which includes applying mathematical models to things such as the decline in use of languages or religious membership, wheee!).

So basically https://xkcd.com/605/

Something else will replace it...in fact something already has.


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I know that there is a division in society between people who would be happy to see religion dissappear, and those who are o.k with it...

"Religion" itself is too broad a word. It can mean anything. The major religions, and then the hundreds of smaller religions that reside under their umbrella. It can mean that someone calls themselves religious but practices it in different ways. It can be dogmatic and restrictive, but it doesn´t have to be.

Have you seen the episode in South Park when they said: "if only there were no religion, there would be no wars". It´s a gazillion years in the future (Cartman froze himself because he was waiting for a game console to come out), and now there´s three atheist coalitions fighting each other over what they should be called. My point being that dogmatic thinking will be around whether there is religion or not.

Religion means a lot to a lot of people and is interpreted differently by each one of them...

Not sure how that could work since globalisation is moving people and their religions in and out of almost all countries all the time.

 Alleluiah

... it's a beginning!

Aly

Quote from: T.K.G.W. on February 12, 2016, 08:56:02 AM
Not sure how that could work since globalisation is moving people and their religions in and out of almost all countries all the time.

The title of the article is slightly misleading, as is the article itself says "all but die out", which is more reasonable. Given enough people there's always some on the fringes for anything. I'll settle for that.

Quote from: Colleen M on February 07, 2016, 09:29:30 AM
I'm familiar with several countries on that list.  I may have to ponder a move to Ireland.

I live in Ireland. We are not losing religion. Ireland is more religious than most countries... I don't know if that article is satire or what, but to say Ireland is going to lose religion is extremely unrealistic.

If you are interested in moving, though, contact me.