World Without God

Recently the New Scientist's deputy editor Graham Lawton wrote an article about the World without God or people losing their religion.

People in various countries were asked in 2005 and seven years later in 2012: Are you religious?

The decrease in the number of "believers" over the seven years is dramatic. In Germany, their percentage fell from 60 to 51%, and in France, la fille ainée de l'Eglise (the adult daughter of the Roman Church), from 57 to 37%. Most Europeans regard the people in the States as very religious, i.e., a "people of God," but even in the US, although starting out at a high figure of 74% in 2005, the believers dropped to 57% in 2012.

Red Baron noticed with astonishment the numbers for Ireland. Irish monks brought Christianity to Central Europe, and Eire has remained a Catholic stronghold for nearly 2000 years. Within seven years, the percentage of religious people dropped from 69% to 46%. There are a few exceptions to the general downtrend. In the Netherlands, traditionally critical of religious issues, Dutch believers increased between 2005 and 2012 from 42 to 43%.

Nearly empty basilica of St. Blasien. Award-winning photo ©Sebastian Morlock, Wikipedia

Being non-religious is not the same as being an atheist. The fact is that people, in particular in the "Western" countries, simply no longer care about religion, so, as Lawton states, by now, the "nones" are holding the majority in the world.

For example, for people experiencing security and wealth, the Scandinavian countries no longer pray Aus tieffer not schrey ich zu dir, Herr Gott (Out of the depth I cry to you, o Lord), a text taken from Psalm 130 and set into a cantata by Bach. We, the 21st-century bourgeois, no longer feel the need to follow Christ's invitation: Come to me, all weary and burdened, and I will give you rest (Matthew 11:28).

Modern over-consuming societies are no longer searching for God but rather adore golden calves and dance around as described in Exodus Chapter 32: And the people said to Aaron: Make us a god, which shall go before us ... And he received all their gold, and fashioned it with a graving tool, and made it a molten calf; and the people said: "This is thy god, O Israel" ... And the LORD said unto Moses: "I have seen these people, and, behold, it is a stiffnecked people" ... And it came to pass, as soon as Moses came nigh unto the camp, that he saw the calf and the dancing ...

I remember a classmate who said that in times of examination stress, he tended to become religious, a fact that Lawton describes as the Christchurch phenomenon where the natural disaster of the New Zealand earthquake in 2011 caused a resurgence of religion.

The argument remains that religions hold societies together, a statement that most people will buy. However, a survey has shown that on just about every measure of societal health, the more secular a country or a state, the better it does, including the States in the US. Lawton quotes Professor Zuckerman: I now believe there are aspects of the secular worldview that contribute to healthy societies. First, if you believe that this is the only world and there is no afterlife, that's going to motivate you to make it as good a place as possible. Number two is the emphasis on science, education, and rational problem-solving that seems to come with the secular orientation - for example, are we going to pray to end crime in our city, or are we going to look at the root causes?

However, dancing around golden calves is not sufficient for people in a secular society. The longing for some belief even drives enlightened people into all kinds of spiritualism, astrology, karma, voodoo, you name it, proving that there is a human need for religion or some sort of ersatz religion.

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