Entrepreneur | Posted on
There are just 33,000 atheists in India. (Source)
Out of a population of 1,33,92,00,000 crore, there are only 33,000 people who do not believe in God.
Of course, this number might very well be under-reported. After all, it's not easy being an atheist. In a hyper-politically-religious country like ours, claiming that you're an atheist puts you at risk of social harassment.
Talking about the world, there are about 500 million atheists (and agnostics) globally. Even that, compared to the total population of 7,700,000,000 people, is quite low. (Source)
(China, Sweden, and the Czech Republic are the least religious countries in the world!)
(Courtesy: No Gods No Master)
So, even if you think that atheism is becoming more prevalentby passing days, that might not necessarily be the case. That population is very, very meager to the population of religious people.
Indeed it's true that the new generation is much liberated in their belief system. They are more rational than the previous generations. However, this doesn’t mean they have shunnedaway the idea of God. Even when they don’t consciously and regularly pray, they still entreat the same almighty when in trouble. Even when they don’t remember God the whole year, they still rejoice Christmas eve with just as much excitement.
So, it's not fair to say that the next generation doesn't believe in God. They might not actively partake in religious events and processing. But in their heart, they still believe in God. It's nothing about being "still orthodox". It’s about psychology. It feels right and comforting to think that there's someone who you can go to when in trouble. It feels right!
So, today's generation might not care about how Christ save the world, how Allah communicated with Muhammad and how Brahma created the universe. They sure believe in God. Because it feels right.
(Courtesy: WordPandit)
Talking about how things will be in the next 100 years… It's hard to suggest.
Foremost, there's a study that suggests that the number of atheists will actually decline in the coming decades. It will decline from 16 percent of the total population in 2015 to 13 percent by 2050.
(Courtesy: BuzzFeed)
(How reliable this study is debatable!)
I believe the number of religious people will decline in the coming years and decades. Not necessarily because people would primarily stop believing in God, but because of the bigotry of religious leaders. The hate and propaganda that a few groups would propagate in the name of religion would shun away many educated people.
However, at the same time, it shouldn’t be taken granted that the number of atheists would increase. The hypocrisy and ignorance even on this side has seen a massive increase in recent times. The atheists, in the garb of pseudo-rationalism, are shaming the religious people. And this will eventually shun away many atheists too.
The number of agnostics will increase. Agnostics are the people who believe that the existence and nature of God can never be known.
(Courtesy: Fox News)
In the end, there's a good chance that more and more people will have that "I don't care" attitude towards religious beliefs. They would be indifferent towards religions.
All said though, for centuries to come, religions will exist. If not for their own religious purposes, they will exist for political reasons at least. But they will exist nonetheless.
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