Atheism and irreligion in the world-a perspective

 THE VARIOUS RELIGIONS AND THEIR ADHERENTS IN THE WORLD

Religion and world [Source: Get Religion]

A 2010 survey reveals that adherents of religions in the world are as follows:

Christians form 31.4% of the world people. Muslims are next with 23.2% of the world population. Next, come secular/agnostic/non-religious/atheist people who are now 15.65 of the world population. After this is 15.2% of Hindus, 6.6% of Buddhists, 5% of Chinese traditional religions, 3% ethnic religions, 1.2% of African traditional religions, 0.3% Sikhism, 0.19% spiritism, 0.18% Judaism, 0.07% Bahai, 0.05% Jainism, 0.05% Shinto, 0.05% Cao Dai, 0.03% Zorastranians, 0.02% Tenrikyo, 0.02% animism, 0.01% each of Neo-paganism and Unitarian Universalism, and 0.007% Rastafari.

RELIGION-THE CURRENT SCENARIO IN THE WORLD

Religion was meant for human benefit. Every religion points to some great figures of their time who started the religion and talk of what they preached them to do. These are put down in their holy books as well. But how many of the people who say that they are adherents of a particular religious sect practice the teaching of their religion ‘truthfully’? The answer would be an insignificant number. Hence, true adherents of the religion would actually form just a fraction of that particular sect.

Religion and world [Source: Fox News]

So we can conclude that though people say that they are belonging to a particular religion and mention that they are practicing it are actually a namesake. They do write the name of their religion in the columns to be filled in papers for administrative purposes. They do perform the rituals related to their religion. But they are not actually practicing the preaching of their God. Thus they are not truly religious but are falsely so. There is a lot of falsity and sham associated with every religion in this world. Religions are splitting up into different factions and there are internal disputes and fights. It has reached a stage of fanaticism and most of the religions of the world have become commercial activities rather than true places of humane teachings.  

Also, read Poverty lines and how it may be wrong? 

Besides, each religion is fighting with other religions to increase their numbers and prevent people from going out of their religion. They are using force, coercion, and punishment to make people cling to their religion. But the free will of the people is not being respected. They fail to understand that if a religion is good at the current moment, they will have nothing to fear. But if their current status of the religion as regards to freedom for people and women is not good, their religion will wither over time despite all their efforts to preserve it. They have to concentrate on improving and respecting each member of their community rather than harassing them or merely imposing rituals on them. If people are happy, their religion will flourish and if people are unhappy their religion will die over time.

Religious nations are poorer [Source: YouTube]

But none of the religions in the world currently are able to ensure that inner happiness to their people. Hence an increasing number of people are turning away from religion. They prefer to remain humans, rather than be associated with any particular religion in the world. These are atheists or irreligious people and their proportion is mounting in the world.

IRRELIGION AND THE WORLD COUNTRIES

More and more people tired of the wrong practices ongoing in every religion are turning to atheism and humanity as a religion. A 2015 survey done by Gallup International and the WI Network of Market Research used the data from 65 countries. They revealed that China had 90% of its people not following any religion. Sweden was next with 76% of its people being irreligious. And The Czech Republic had 75% non-believers of religion in its population. Hong Kong has 70% of people with no religion.

Irreligion and countries [Source: The Washington Post]

In Western Europe, UK (66%) and Netherlands (66%) are next in the list followed by Germany (59%), Switzerland (58%), Spain (55%), Austria (54%), and France (53%). It is a surprise that the study revealed that 65% of the people of Israel consider themselves to be atheists. In the West Bank and Gaza, the irreligious people were less than 19%. Japan has 62% of people with no religion and Australia has 58%. Korea has 55% atheist population. Azerbaijan has 54% of atheists and Vietnam has 54%. Canada has 53%, Denmark 52%, Ireland 51%, Latvia 50%.

IRRELIGION AND DEMOGRAPHY

In the USA, increasingly younger people do not identify themselves with any religion. The study also revealed that education played no role in pushing a person to irreligion. But people with a better income were less religious (Less than 50% vs 70%). The cause-effect relationship could not be determined. It might be that people who are not religious tend to have higher income or it may be that due to the better living, these people with higher income becomes less religious! An earlier study by the Pew Research Center also revealed that richer countries were less religious than poorer nations.

Religion and wealth [Source: Washington Post]

Considering the facts above, it can be seen that richer nations are less religious. Also, if we add to this list of irreligion people in the world the number of people who claim to be adherents of religion but do not follow its teaching, then the ‘actual’ and TRUE number of irreligion people in the world would be the highest of all!!!