More Statistics!

[nclean]

Hopefully, not bad statistics this time :P

One of the more gladdening pieces of this sort I've read in recent times:

WHY THE GODS ARE NOT WINNING by Gregory Paul & Phil Zuckerman
   http://www.edge.org/3rd_culture/paul07/paul07_index.html

Excerpts:
A myth is gaining ground... The proposition is that after God died in the secular 20th century, He is

Comments

[actrealdon]

The paper does admit that their stats probably underestimate the numbers of nonreligious, but how are they below 1 billion? What do the 1+ billion Chinese count as? Buddhist presumably.

[actrealdon]

Read further - they do cover this point.

[actrealdon]

Okay - I've read the whole paper now and it is very interesting.

I don't think some of their assumptions are as cut and dry as they make out, but I agree with their overall theory.

It's funny (but does make sense) that the more liberal religion gets, the quicker it dies.

[originaluddite]

I have noticed your last point (anecdotally) that _within_ Christianity in a secular society like ours the fundamentalists seem to get more adherents than the moderates who tend to fade into the background. There seems to be a drift from (say) the Uniting Church to things like Hillsong. The ones who want religion go for the big revivalist movements whose churches are converted warehouses in the outer suburbs. The fundamentalists understand something that the moderates have forgotten - that a part of what they have to offer is an emotional experience and an event full of music and dancing and a sense of belonging to something bigger than oneself. And it seems at its strongest in those areas that lack community spirit - the aforementioned outer suburbs.

Well, there is this also....

[bar_barra]

... what happens when Muslim women learn enough English to be able to read the instructions on a packet of contraceptives????

Re: Well, there is this also....

[pezzae]

I imagine they will be killed in horrible ways if any evidence is found...
You are right that when women get access to and control of contraception that the birth rate drops massively. The quickest way to a better world is supporting women's control over their own lives.
(Sorry, preaching to the converted...)

Preaching to the converted?

[bar_barra]

Regrettably so. killed in horrible ways?? Oh yes. I am still trying to bury the memory of some of the details of which I have heard. (You do not want to know.) However, we should not underestimate Muslim women. The tide is turning in their favour, and the only reason this isn't bigger news is that we don't want the Cro-Magnons to think about it too much.... we want the takeover of their repellent culture to come as a surprise to them.

Re: Well, there is this also....

[sticky_toffee]

Contrary to popular belief contraception is not taboo in Islam as many "supposed" preachers say. It's not allowed to have pre-marital sex but married women are under Islam allowed to control their lives and take contraceptive pills. Not many people can afford to have a bazillion amount children and well, every couple should be allowed to decide when they want to have children, or at least try to (accidents do happen... but you know what I mean...) - hence contraception is allowed once their married, cause the idea is that you don't have pre-marital sex, but when you're married there are options provided to counter pregnancy.

[pezzae]

Interesting.
Also worrying, as if the world does go to hell in a handbasket due to climate change/peak oil and other resource limitations/overpopulation/ecological diversity crashes/multi-antibiotic-resistant bacteria/whatever else is apparently going to hit us this century, religion of the scary fundie sort is going to be back in a big way.

[zenmetheus]

I really do hope that once people adopt modern secularism they find it a lot harder to let go of than primitive secularlism was. If indeed primitive secularism ever existed.

[zenmetheus]

Thanks for this.

I read the whole article but I couldn't help laughing at this part, "Churches are being converted into libraries, laundromats and pubs."

Was this insensitive of me I wonder?