Posted on 10/17/2019 9:15:56 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
A few months ago, the good folks at the Center for the Study of Global Christianity released the 2019 edition of their “Status of Global Christianity” report. There’s a lot of fascinating info in there. Some of the more significant stats are detailed in the LifeWay article, 7 SURPRISING TRENDS IN GLOBAL CHRISTIANITY IN 2019, like the fact that Christianity is growing faster than the population is, or that the percentage of unevangelized individuals in the world has shrunk, from 54.3% in 1900 to 28.4% today.
Perhaps most fascinating, though, is the projected decrease in atheism worldwide. According to the report, atheism reached its peak in 1970, with over 165 million atheists worldwide. Since then, atheism has been steadily decreasing, with 138 million today, a number that’s expected to drop to 129 million by 2050. That’s huge. Right?
Well…it’s important, when reading stats like this, to take into account the host of other statistics that complexifies the issue. For instance, a 2015 study from Pew Research showed that while the number of nonbelievers will likely shrink over the next 25 years, this decline will not be evenly distributed: Europe, America and China will continue to move away from religion while Christianity grows exponentially in Sub-Saharan Africa, resulting in what researcher Alan Cooperman calls “the secularizing West and the rapidly growing rest.” We also can’t forget that Millennials are three times as likely to consider themselves atheists when compared to Baby Boomers.
In other words, atheism may be projected to decline, but don’t get the party hats out just yet, believers. There are a lot of factors at play.
So what should Christians do with this information? I was joking about the party hats, but for many Christians, that’s not too far from the truth. Somewhere along the way, atheists became the rival team. They’re the villains in Christian movies. They’re the kids we warn our kids to be careful around. They’re the “white whale” of evangelism, the biggest catch you can reel in. They’re a nice thing to have been—we’re very proud that C.S. Lewis and journalist Lee Strobel used to be atheists because it demonstrates that, hey, intelligent people can find their way to God, too!—but they’re a horrifying thing to currently be. So, when you hear that atheism is going to drop in the next few decades, maybe you breathe a sigh of relief, without necessarily knowing why.
Or maybe you know exactly why. Maybe you believe that atheists should be feared because there is nothing more detrimental to the moral fabric of our world than someone who has no god.
You wouldn’t be alone in this idea. It’s an old one. John Locke, an English philosopher who argued for religious liberty, wrote in 1689 that “those…who deny the being of God” should not be tolerated because “promises, covenants and oaths which are the bonds of human society can have no hold on [them]…” This understanding was baked into the founding of America. James Madison, a Founding Father and the fourth president, wrote in 1785 that “before any man can be considered as a member of Civil Society, he must be considered as a subject of the Governor of the Universe…” This would seem to exclude people who don’t believe in any “Governor” at all.
Throughout the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, atheism was linked with radical ideas and dangerous behavior. Witches were atheists. The suffragette Elizabeth Cady Stanton was supposedly agnostic. Leon Czolgosz, the man who assassinated President McKinley in 1901, had renounced his Catholic beliefs. America’s fear of atheism culminated in the twentieth century with Cold War hysteria. “From the root of atheism stems the evil weed of communism,” politician Louis Rabaut argued before Congress in 1954. “Unless we are willing to affirm our belief in the existence of God…[we] open the floodgates to tyranny and oppression.” (Over the next three years, America would hold its first prayer breakfast, add “under God” into the Pledge of Allegiance and stamp “In God We Trust” on all currency.) These antipathies toward atheists still linger today.
Maybe that’s why, when Christians hear that atheism is diminishing, they feel like celebrating. Ding dong, the witch is dead! A point for the home team. But is that the best response, I wonder. Or is there a, dare I say, more “Christian” response?
I think there might be. First off, as we’ve already seen, this issue is not black and white; it’s far more complex than simply one team losing and the other team winning. For instance, one of the complicating factors that Christians would do well to explore is the fact that many Millennials, despite moving away from traditional belief, still consider themselves spiritual. In 2017, students from Harvard Divinity School released this tremendous study that explored the ways that Millennials are creating new forms of spiritual community. The study points to organizations like Crossfit, SoulCycle, The Millennial Trains Project and the Harry Potter Alliance, groups that “use secular language while mirroring many of the functions fulfilled by religious community,” including “fellowship, personal reflection, pilgrimage, aesthetic discipline, liturgy, confession and worship.” I don’t know about you, but I find this profoundly encouraging. To me, I see this study as evidence that human beings can’t get away from their need for something bigger. We have “restless” hearts, to quote St. Augustine.
My hope would be that, starting immediately, Christians would not assume that Millennials are void of all religious impulse. In fact, quite the opposite: Millennials are in desperate need of purpose and connection, so much so that they’re forging their own. Christians would do well to acknowledge them.
Second, and last, I think it’s high time for the war between Christians and atheists to end. I know it’s a two-sided conflict—I can picture the face of many a smug atheist, and I’m sure you can, too—but someone has to lay down their arms, and who better than those called to “turn the other cheek?” Atheists are not the enemy, folks. Sin is. Human frailty and pride is at the “root” of all “evil.” But not a particular group of people.
As usual, whenever we turn people into a monolith, that’s when we get into trouble. We make assumptions that may or may not be true. We fear them. We avoid relationships, because we’re afraid that we’ll lose our faith as a result. The truth is, obviously, God is bigger than atheism. God is big enough for you to befriend an atheist.
And you better do it quickly, too. Apparently, atheism is in decline. And how much a bummer would that be, to not have befriended an atheist when you had the chance?
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Yeah wAtch out for the spread of Islam
Christians should do exactly what Paul instructed them to do 2000 years ago. Preach the Gospel in season and out. Leave the rest to God.
Several factors at play.
One is Russia going from officially atheist to officially Christian, something that bounced their birth rate from just one one kid per woman to almost two. The neighboring nation of Georgia managed to get birth rates to replacement level AND without more illegitimacy, thanks to their religious leader’s efforts. Poland is doing something similar. In short, the change in political treatment of faith in the former Soviet States helps explain some of the turn around.
Another is demographics. In the US, religious Christians have 30% more kids than the non-religious. Average Christian 2.1, average non-religious, 1.5. Assuming Christians maintain their culture, the atheist share declines. Conversely, that’s why liberals intentionally infiltrated and took over K-college in the first place - to indoctrinate our kids to their world view.
no one loves an atheist...
not twice.
My Catholic church started a mass in Spanish Sunday morning 8:30 -we have lots of Hispanic gas /oil folks staying in our area building the lines.
The Spanish mass is packed, standing room only and lots of younger folks and the anglo/native Sunday mass has empty seats and the ones who do go are 70+ or older.
report on ‘the blaze’ this mornin states christianity in America is ‘declining rapidly’ which is a lie- False religions are losing congregants due to all the ‘political correctness’ that undermines God’s word- people aint stupid- they know hypocrisy and false teaching when they see it-, but born again Christianity is not declining-
Somewhere there is a “Book of Life” with the name of every true believer. We are “called” and “predestined” if our names are in this Book of Life. Jesus said in the Gospels that he did not know the time or date that He would return.
I heard a preacher say recently that He won’t return until every person in the Book of Life has accepted Him. Once that is done, Jesus will come back which is why the Great Commission is vital. Until Jesus returns, nothing moves forward in the Biblical timeline.
We yearn and pray for Jesus to come so we need to be preaching the Gospel to all corners of the world until then so the world can move forward toward the Rapture and Armageddon.
The unspoken secret the media won’t tell you is that Christian revival is going on in Asia and Africa while Europe and North America become increasingly insensitive or hostile to Christianity.
Be in prayer that we spread His Word to every nation for His glory and so that His will may be done.
Ding! Ding! Winner.
The growth of Islam, and the mutation of Christianity into the Pope Frank-Clinton-Buttigieg variety doesn’t bode well. Is pop Hinduism/Buddhism an improvement?
Is that why Ron Reagan was in a TV ad during the Democrat debates the other day pitching Atheism?
Also got to remember that there is the mortality question as well and that is boost for faith.
Yet the young people are being attracted to traditional Latin Mass Catholicism.
Yes. It does seem like traditionally religious people are increasingly abandoning previous generations’ attempts at modernism
Atheism is a religion, just like the religions it hates so much.
Atheists are like pederasts and necrophiliacs in that few of them advertise their presence. Anybody who tells you they have a reliable accounting of the numbers of any of them is blowing smoke up your skirt.
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