All truisms, right, believed by millions of people around the world to be the unstoppable future of faith?
But that’s the problem with truisms: They’re not always true.
In fact, around the world, religions are set to survive quite nicely, thank you.
That’s the surprising result of a Pew Research Center study that found that, in the next 25 years, religion isn’t going anywhere, but will, rather, maintain its strong hold on the hearts and minds of man.
“For the last hundred years or so religion has been beset with a relentless attack.”
Population demographics serve as the best indicator. Why? Well, you’re most likely to follow the religion of your mom and dad, so when your population group increases, your religious group does, too.
In 2010, there were 6.9 billion people on the planet. By 2050, that population is expected to reach 9.3 billion. But not all that growth will occur at the same rate across various faiths.
Muslims have the highest fertility rate—a rate of 3.1 children per woman—while Christians come in second, with 2.7. Hindus have a fertility rate of 2.4, while Jews worldwide have a fertility rate of 2.3 children per woman.
Thus, following population increase, Islam is expected to expand, with its members predicted to rise by 73 percent. It still won’t take over leadership in its share of the world’s believers, though. Christians make up about a third of the world’s population and, by 2050, it’s projected they will represent 31 percent, while Muslims will represent 30 percent—with the two religions neck and neck.
How about the unaffiliated, those who consider themselves atheists, agnostics or who identify with no specific faith? Well, the news isn’t so great for them. In 2010, they added up to about 1.1 billion. By 2050, they’re expected to reach only 1.2 billion, a less than 10 percent increase (not much in the way of bragging rights). And that group is expected to shrink from 16 percent of the world’s population in 2010 to 13 percent by mid-century.
That’s a very tiny minority—proving that the vast majority of the world is and will remain religious.
“For the last hundred years or so religion has been beset with a relentless attack. You have been told it’s the ‘opiate of the masses,’ that it’s unscientific, that it is primitive; in short, that it is a delusion,” Scientology Founder L. Ron Hubbard wrote. “But beneath all these attacks on organized religion there was a more fundamental target: the spirituality of man, your own basic spiritual nature, self-respect and peace of mind.”
“Convince a man that he is an animal, that his own dignity and self-respect are delusions, that there is no ‘beyond’ to aspire to, no higher potential self to achieve, and you have a slave,” Mr. Hubbard continued. “Let a man know he is himself, a spiritual being, that he is capable of the power of choice and has the right to aspire to greater wisdom and you have started him up a higher road.”
Some 83 percent of US adults say they believe in God or a universal spirit and 86 percent believe human beings have souls.
The moral of the story is clear: Religion will remain strong well into the future.
So we all can, too.
