Desecularization

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Atheism is in decline worldwide, with the number of atheists falling from 4.5% of the world’s population in 1970 to 2.0% in 2010 and projected to drop to 1.8% by 2020.[1]

Desecularization is the process by which religion reasserts its societal influence though religious values, institutions, sectors of society and symbols in reaction to previous and/or co-occurring secularization processes.[2] Desecularization can also occur through providential acts of God and in reaction to God granting Christian's prayers.[3]

The theologian and Harvard University academic Harvey Cox asserted that grassroots movements such as fundamentalism and the Charismatic movement/pentecostalism are significant religious forces that are resistant to secularization forces.[4][5] In her book The Battle for God, Karen Armstrong wrote: "One of the most startling developments of the late 20th century has been the emergence within every major religious tradition of a militant piety known as 'fundamentalism'… this religious resurgence has taken many observers by surprise."[6]

The American sociologist and author Peter L. Berger introduced the concept of desecularization in 1999.[7][8]

Many of the areas of the former areas of the Soviet Union, including Russia, experienced a rapid desecularization since the fall of the Soviet Union.[9] Communist China is currently experiencing rapid desecularization due to the growth of Christianity in China.[10] In the United States, the role of religion in society has recently increased notably as religious voices have increasingly been: influencing public policy decisions, engaging in debates on values and morality, and helping to set the public policy agenda.[11]

On July 24, 2013, CNS News reported:

Atheism is in decline worldwide, with the number of atheists falling from 4.5% of the world’s population in 1970 to 2.0% in 2010 and projected to drop to 1.8% by 2020, according to a new report by the Center for the Study of Global Christianity at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary in South Hamilton, Mass."[12]

In April of 2010, the British academic and agnostic Eric Kauffmann declared that "the rate of secularisation has flattened to zero in most of Protestant Europe and France."[13] Kaufmann also declared that secularism "appears exhausted and lacking in confidence".[14] In April of 2012, French scholars reported that evangelical Christianity was likely the fastest growing religion in France.[15]

One of the steepest declines of atheism that is expected to occur is in China which currently has the largest atheist population in the world. China is experiencing a rapid growth of theologically conservative Christianity which will have a significant effect on the global atheist population.[16] It will also have an effect on the United Kingdom (UK) in the 21st century as Chinese immigrants are currently the largest group of immigrants arriving in the UK.[17]

According to the British sociologist of religion James A. Beckford in the Department of Sociology at the University of Warwick, the term "postsecular" is currently proliferating amongst scholars in the humanities and social science fields.[18] In terms of the English speaking world, Google trend data as of August 2013 indicates that the world's interest in the topics of atheism and evolution has declined since 2004 while interest in God has increased.[19]

Causes of the global resurgence of religion and the failure of secularism

Citing the work of the French researcher Gilles Kepel who wrote the book The Revenge of God and the work of Harvard University political scientist Samuel Huntington, who authored the work The Clash of Civilizations, the Christian ministry Tomorrow's World declared:

Growing numbers of people around the globe are becoming disenchanted with the effect of secularism on our modern world—the fragmentation of society, the weakening of social cohesion, the absence of noble ideals worth pursuing, the lack of solid values, the social acceptance of what was formerly considered perversion, the spread of crime and the lack of effective punishment, the emptiness of consumerism and materialism, the breakdown of the "welfare state," the failure of communism, the chaos in schools and the breakdown of families (Kepel, p. 5).

Once-formidable ideologies have been found unsatisfactory and have even collapsed. Millions are abandoning the depressing philosophical wasteland of theories that consider human beings mere animals with no future beyond death, and no purpose in life other than to survive. In place of communism and consumerism, many are searching for "new sources of identity, new forms of stable community, and new sets of moral precepts to provide them with a sense of meaning and purpose… there is a quest for some higher explanations about man's purpose, about why we are here" (The Clash of Civilizations, p. 97).[20]

Sub-replacement levels of fertility of atheistic populations. High fertility of the religious

See also: Atheism and marriage and Atheist marriages

On December 23, 2012, Professor Eric Kaufmann who teaches at Birbeck College, University of London wrote: "I argue that 97% of the world's population growth is taking place in the developing world, where 95% of people are religious."[21]

Michael Blume, a researcher at the University of Jena in Germany, wrote about the sub-replacement level of fertility among atheistic populations: "Most societies or communities that have espoused atheistic beliefs have not survived more than a century."[22] Blume also indicated concerning concerning his research on this matter: "What I found was the complete lack of a single case of a secular population, community or movement that would just manage to retain replacement level."[23]

Future of desecularization via the continued global resurgence of religion

Eric Kaufmann, a professor at Birkbeck College, University of London, using a a wealth of demographic studies argues the decline of atheism in terms of its global adherents is an established trend that will persist for the foreseeable future and the rate of decline will accelerate.[24]

See also: Atheism vs. Christianity

Eric Kaufmann using a a wealth of demographic studies argues the decline of atheism in terms of itd global adherents is an established trend that will persist for the foreseeable future and the rate of decline will accelerate.[25][26][27][28] In addition, Kaufmann argues that religious conservatism has a long term trend of rising and that their influence in the world will significantly increase.[29] Kaufmann is author of the book Shall the Religious Inherit the Earth?.[30][31] In the Western World due to immigration and the higher birth rates of religious people, Kaufman writes: "Committed religious populations are growing in the West, and will reverse the march of secularism before 2050."[32]

Kaufmann told a secular audience in Australia: "The trends that are happening worldwide inevitably in an age of globalization are going to affect us."[33] Furthermore, Kaufmann also argues that secularization may reverse itself significantly earlier than 2050 in the West due to religious immigration and a religious population which is increasingly resistant to secularization in Europe.[34][35]

Growth of Christianity in atheistic China

See also: Growth of Christianity in China and Decline of the secular left

On November 1, 2014, an article in The Economist entitled Cracks in the atheist edifice declared:

Officials are untroubled by the clash between the city’s famously freewheeling capitalism and the Communist Party’s ideology, yet still see religion and its symbols as affronts to the party’s atheism...

Yang Fenggang of Purdue University, in Indiana, says the Christian church in China has grown by an average of 10% a year since 1980. He reckons that on current trends there will be 250m Christians by around 2030, making China’s Christian population the largest in the world. Mr. Yang says this speed of growth is similar to that seen in fourth-century Rome just before the conversion of Constantine, which paved the way for Christianity to become the religion of his empire.[36]

In front of the Great Hall of the People in Tiananmen Square in Beijing.

A January 2011 news article entitled Third Church' China's New Face of Christianity indicated:

Christianity in China began decades ago in the countryside, but today, a dramatic shift is happening.

Young professionals in big cities like Beijing and Shanghai are changing the face of Chinese Christianity, as faith moves from rural to more urban areas.

On a recent Wednesday evening, a group of men and women in their late 20s met in an apartment not too far from the city center to discuss how to thrive in their rapidly changing nation.

Those who attended are members of China's new privileged class -- highly educated, cosmopolitan, middle or even upper class of urban professionals. And they're all Christians.

"We've never had it so good in China today," Jia Li Tian, a member of the group, told CBN News. "But there's more to life that just money and materialism."...

Although Christianity continues to grow in China's countryside, experts say it's in big cities like Beijing where the church is growing fastest.

"Whereas the rural church was not able to have an impact on society as a whole, the 'Third Church' in the cities is able to do that because they are comprised of leaders who can have an impact," Peter explained. "[They are] businessmen, government officials, professors, leaders in engineering, every aspect of life...

The Chinese government has always maintained a tight grip on religion. Torture, arrests, imprisonment, and beatings of Christians are still practiced in the country.

But in recent years, authorities have made positive overtures towards house church leaders -- especially those in urban areas.[37]

Desecularization of secular Europe in the 21st century

Collapse of atheism in the former Soviet Union

See also: Collapse of atheism in the former Soviet Union and Decline of the secular left

A Soviet propaganda poster disseminated in the Bezbozhnik (Atheist) magazine depicting Jesus being dumped from a wheelbarrow by an industrial worker as well as a smashed church bell; the text advocates Industrialisation Day as an alternative replacement to the Christian Transfiguration Day. see: Militant atheism

In 2003, the Weatherhead Center for International Affairs at Harvard published a paper by Assaf Moghadam entitled A Global Resurgence of Religion? which declared:

As the indications leave little doubt, Russia is showing clear signs of a religious resurgence. In fact, all seven criteria by which change in religious behavior and values are measured here confirmed that Russia is experiencing what could be called a religious revival. Since 1970, the nonreligious/atheist population has been on steady decline, from 52% in 1970 to 33% in 2000. Further, the percentage of this population is projected to decrease even further, possibly reaching the 20% mark in 2025. Between 1990 and 1997, belief in God has risen from 35% to a whopping 60%, while belief in the importance of God has climbed to 43% in 1997, up from 25% in 1990. More people have been raised religious in Russia in 1997 (20%) than at the beginning of the decade (18%), and 8.39% more Russians believed religion to be important toward the end of the 1990s, when compared to 1990. “Comfort in Religion” has also sharply increased within this time period, from less than 27% to over 46%. Finally, more and more Russians attend church services more regularly in 1997 than they did in 1990.

In the three Eastern European countries that were included in the WVS survey on belief in God, a drastic rise could be witnessed of respondents who answered this question in the affirmative. In Hungary, the percentage of believers in God jumped from 44% to 58% from 1981 to 1990, even prior to the collapse of the former Soviet Union. In Belarus, the number of people who believe in God nearly doubled over the course of the 1990s, from 36% to 68%, while in Latvia this figure almost quadrupled, from 18% to 67% in the same time period. Similar trends held true when it came to the importance of God, where there was a sharp rise in all three countries.[38]

Biblical creationism and desecularization

Global creationism is expanding rapidly.[39]

In 2011, a supporter of the Question evolution! campaign wrote:

Atheism is a religion. And atheists, time and time again, take away the religious liberty of Christians in order to promote their false religion. Evolution is the air supply of atheism. Directly confronting atheism can be useful. But, the best way for Christianity to prevail against secularism is through preventative medicine. Reaching young people with the gospel and discipling them is a first step. Yet to truly prevail against atheism, cutting off the air supply of atheism is crucial....

The direct approach of confronting atheism is important, but the indirect approach of preventing atheism through the cutting off of its air supply is also far more efficient. If Christendom is going to conquer atheist ideology, it makes perfect sense to do so in the quickest and most efficient manner possible. Let's cut atheism off at the knees and vigorously spread the Question evolution! campaign on the internet and in our local communities.[40]

The atheist Michael Ruse, evolutionist science philosopher admitted, “Evolution is a religion. This was true of evolution in the beginning, and it is true of evolution still today.”[41] See also: Evolution as a secular origins myth

Financial instability and desecularization

Evangelical Christianity has grown quickly in many countries that were experiencing economic and political instability (for example, in several areas of Latin America).[42] Given the Eurozone Crisis and the high indebtedness of many Western countries, conservative Mary Eberstadt believes that a coming imploding welfare state could cause some Western societies to shift more to a focus of faith and family and spark a religious revival. [43]

See also

Recommended books

  • Religion and the State in Russia and China: Suppression, Survival, and Revival by Christopher Marsh, 2011, ISBN 13: 9781441112477
  • The Desecularization of the World: Resurgent Religion and World Politics by Peter L. Berger, Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company (143p), 1999, ISBN 978-0-8028-4691-4 [44]

External links

Notes

  1. http://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/global-study-atheists-decline-only-18-world-population-2020 Global Study: Atheists in Decline, Only 1.8% of World Population by 2020]
  2. Religion and the State in Russia and China: Suppression, Survival and Revival by Christopher Marsh, 2011, page 11 (Christopher Marsh cites the definitions of desecularization given by Peter L. Berger and Vyacheslav Karpov)
  3. Publisher's Weekly Review of The Desecularization of the World: Resurgent Religion and World Politics by Peter L. Berger
  4. Kirkus Reviews- FIRE FROM HEAVEN: Pentecostalism, Spirituality, and the Reshaping of Religion in the Twenty-First Century by Harvey Cox
  5. Karen Armstrong, The Battle for God, p. 9
  6. Journal of Church and State, Desecularization: A Conceptual Framework by Vyacheslav Karpov, 2010
  7. Peter L. Berger, “The Desecularization of the World: A Global Overview,” in The Desecularization of the World: Resurgent Religion and World Politics, ed. Peter L. Berger (Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1999)
  8. What does the historical record say about how fast secularism can collapse in countries?
  9. World's biggest atheist population about to see a big decline
  10. Religion in the Public Sphere - Ford Foundation
  11. http://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/global-study-atheists-decline-only-18-world-population-2020 Global Study: Atheists in Decline, Only 1.8% of World Population by 2020]
  12. British academic Eric Kaufmann says "the rate of secularisation has flattened to zero in most of Protestant Europe and France". Also, Kaufmann writes that secularism "appears exhausted and lacking in confidence"
  13. Shall the Religious Inherit the Earth?: Demography and Politics in the Twenty-First Century by Eric Kaufmann, Belfer Center, Harvard University/Birkbeck College, University of London
  14. France and evangelicalism - Christian Post
  15. 10 reasons why biblical Christianity will flood the UK in the 21st century
  16. 10 reasons why biblical Christianity will flood the UK in the 21st century
  17. Postsecular - James A. Beckford in the Department of Sociology at the University of Warwick
  18. Google trends: Interest in atheism and evolution down. Google searches for God are up. Atheism beaches will be softened up before major attacks on atheism
  19. The Return of Religion - Tomorrow's World
  20. "97% of the world's population growth is taking place in the developing world, where 95% of people are religious" (April 30, 2013). Question Evolution Campaign. Retrieved on October 29, 2014.
  21. Atheist: A dying breed as nature favours faithful
  22. Atheist: A dying breed as nature favours faithful
  23. Shall the Religious Inherit the Earth?: Demography and Politics in the Twenty-First Century by Eric Kaufmann, Belfer Center, Harvard University/Birkbeck College, University of London
  24. Eric Kaufmann: Shall The Religious Inherit The Earth?
  25. Eric Kaufmann's Atheist Demographic series
  26. Eric Kaufmann: Shall the Religious Inherit the Earth?, Australian Broadcasting Corporation
  27. Shall the Religious Inherit the Earth?: Demography and Politics in the Twenty-First Century by Eric Kaufmann, Belfer Center, Harvard University/Birkbeck College, University of London
  28. Shall the religious inherit the earth by David Kaufmann
  29. Early paper - Shall the Religious Inherit the Earth?: Demography and Politics in the Twenty-First Century by Eric Kaufmann, Belfer Center, Harvard University/Birkbeck College, University of London
  30. Early paper - Shall the Religious Inherit the Earth?: Demography and Politics in the Twenty-First Century by Eric Kaufmann, Belfer Center, Harvard University/Birkbeck College, University of London
  31. Shall the religious inherit the earth
  32. European immigration will pour Christian creationists into Europe
  33. The future of European Darwinism and atheism is bleak
  34. [Cracks in the atheist edifice], The Economist, November 1, 2014
  35. Third Church' China's New Face of Christianity, January 2011 CBN News article
  36. A Global Resurgence of Religion? by Assaf Moghadam, Weatherhead Center for International Affairs at Harvard University
  37. Global creationism
  38. Cutting off the air supply of atheism
  39. 15 questions for evolutionists
  40. Economics adn Darwinism
  41. An Interview With Mary Eberstadt On Her New Book “How the West Really Lost God: A New Theory of Secularization”, interview by John Hawkins.
  42. Publisher's Weekly Review of The Desecularization of the World: Resurgent Religion and World Politics by Peter L. Berger