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Religion may become extinct in nine nations, study says
BBC News ^ | March 22, 2011 | Jason Palmer

Posted on 03/22/2011 8:51:02 AM PDT by van_erwin

A study using census data from nine countries shows that religion there is set for extinction, say researchers.

The study found a steady rise in those claiming no religious affiliation.

The team's mathematical model attempts to account for the interplay between the number of religious respondents and the social motives behind being one.

The result, reported at the American Physical Society meeting in Dallas, US, indicates that religion will all but die out altogether in those countries.

The team took census data stretching back as far as a century from countries in which the census queried religious affiliation: Australia, Austria, Canada, the Czech Republic, Finland, Ireland, the Netherlands, New Zealand and Switzerland.

(Excerpt) Read more at bbc.co.uk ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Extended News; Front Page News
KEYWORDS: atheism; extinct; humanism; religion
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Predictably and sadly, none of the nine nations are Muslim, all are Christian.
1 posted on 03/22/2011 8:51:11 AM PDT by van_erwin
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To: van_erwin
Who needs religion when you're fat and happy?

Which won't last forever.

2 posted on 03/22/2011 8:54:33 AM PDT by E. Pluribus Unum ("If they bring a knife to the fight, we bring a gun." -- Barry Soetoro, June 11, 2008)
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To: van_erwin

“Predictably and sadly, none of the nine nations are Muslim. . . “

Well, not yet. But since non-believers do not replicate themselves all will become Muslim eventually — unless they experience a Christian revival first.


3 posted on 03/22/2011 8:55:09 AM PDT by No Truce With Kings (Ten years on FreeRepublic and counting.)
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To: van_erwin

And, sadly, Christians aren’t often visibly present as missionaries in those countries, save the Czech Republic perhaps. Far too westernized and ‘wealthy’ to save, I guess. Our church devotes countless dollars to the poor in Africa, where there are many devout believers already, albeit living in abject poverty. It’s as though our Church mission has gone from saving souls to saving lives because it is more politically correct to do so.


4 posted on 03/22/2011 8:57:01 AM PDT by erkyl (We hang the petty thieves and appoint the great ones to public office --Aesop (~550 BC))
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To: van_erwin

There will be a religion in most of them. Islam.

The Christian religion is not what will become extinct. It is the traditional populations of these countries that is becoming extinct.

Demography is destiny. The new arrivals who are adherents of Islam have much greater fucundity. They will displace the current population. It is nearly inevitable.


5 posted on 03/22/2011 8:58:20 AM PDT by SargeK
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To: van_erwin

These folks ain’t going anywhere;

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hillsong_Church


6 posted on 03/22/2011 8:59:25 AM PDT by Grunthor (hcg diet, down 32 lbs in 5 weeks)
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To: van_erwin
Christianity is being replaced with another ideology. For most of these nations, it will be islam.
7 posted on 03/22/2011 8:59:57 AM PDT by redgolum ("God is dead" -- Nietzsche. "Nietzsche is dead" -- God.)
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To: van_erwin

In other words, worship the government like a true liberal.


8 posted on 03/22/2011 9:02:05 AM PDT by max americana (FUBO FKBRK)
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To: erkyl

Surprising it’s so high in the Czech Republic, but then again the Church wasn’t as big of a factor during the Velvet Revolution, as it was in Poland during Solidarity.


9 posted on 03/22/2011 9:02:53 AM PDT by dfwgator
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To: van_erwin

From the article: “The idea is pretty simple,” said Richard Wiener of the Research Corporation for Science Advancement, and the University of Arizona.

“It posits that social groups that have more members are going to be more attractive to join, and it posits that social groups have a social status or utility.”

In other words, people are like cattle and move with the herd. Or, in the case of Islam, they move in fear of the cattle-prod.


10 posted on 03/22/2011 9:02:57 AM PDT by erkyl (We hang the petty thieves and appoint the great ones to public office --Aesop (~550 BC))
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To: van_erwin
Religion may become extinct in nine nations, study says

These predictions are usually the source of amusement later, like the ones about human innovation being complete. I didn't read this study, but most models that talk about one or another trait that is universal among mankind "dying out" assume a straight-line, no-feedback world.

That would be a universe where the culture is not changed when the religious people are the ones having all the children; where the sheer social chaos of having no moral law causes no discontent or push-back; where groups do not grow alarmed in the face of foreign invasion and unite around beliefs they formerly took for granted; and where people don't compete with each other and try new things when the old ones aren't working for them.

11 posted on 03/22/2011 9:07:12 AM PDT by SamuraiScot
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To: van_erwin

At least half of those who claim no religious affiliation are actually pagan earth worshippers.


12 posted on 03/22/2011 9:09:09 AM PDT by steve86 (Acerbic by nature, not nurture (Could be worst in 40 years))
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To: van_erwin

The Catholic Church has taken a beating in Ireland lately, due to the malfeasance of its leaders. Going extinct? Hardly. 62% of Irish claim they go to mass every week (which is far higher than ever reported in the United States.)

Australia is only 24% (in 2004), but that’s nearly identical to the 25% who went weekly in 1995, and up from 21% in 1980.


13 posted on 03/22/2011 9:12:25 AM PDT by dangus
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To: van_erwin

Didn’t Karl Marx write the religion is the opiate of the masses?


14 posted on 03/22/2011 9:12:56 AM PDT by mlocher (Is it time to cash in before I am taxed out?)
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To: van_erwin

Reminds me of what a famous philosopher in history predicted....

In 1776 (at about the time the Declaration of Independence was signed), Voltaire, the French philosopher, announced that, “One hundred years from my day, there will not be a Bible on earth except one that is looked upon by an antiquarian curiosity-seeker.”

Yet, one hundred years later, his very own house and press were being used to print and store Bibles by the Geneva Bible Society. Ironically enough, at a public auction held one hundred years to the day of Voltaire’s prediction, the first edition of his work sold for 11¢ but a Bible manuscript was purchased for over half a million dollars!


15 posted on 03/22/2011 9:17:25 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
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To: erkyl; van_erwin

Interesting - my Church in Kenya (Mavuno, which means Harvest in Swahili) just sent missionaries to Germany. They were VERY well received, and there was a huge need for them.


16 posted on 03/22/2011 9:17:50 AM PDT by spetznaz (Nuclear-tipped Ballistic Missiles: The Ultimate Phallic Symbol)
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To: redgolum

Flipping retards.... Islam has grossly failed its people...

Christianity has been the largest contributor to modern man with the inventions, technologies, commerce, political thought, philosophy and ideas right down to the Magna Carta.

Islam? What has it produced? Nothing. Most of its people are still trapped in the 7th century as tribes. People speak of the clash of civilizations? Its a overstatement.
They are hardly a civilization as they have contributed nothing to modern man.


17 posted on 03/22/2011 9:20:00 AM PDT by himno hero
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To: van_erwin

I don’t know about the rest of the countries, but Austria surprises me. My wife and I were in a church in Mariahilf (Vienna) last summer, and it was packed; Standing room only. And no, it wasn’t a Holy Day.


18 posted on 03/22/2011 9:20:44 AM PDT by OldDeckHand
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To: van_erwin

Offical members of the global warming cult...


http://www.aps.org/policy/statements/07_1.cfm

The evidence is incontrovertible: Global warming is occurring.


19 posted on 03/22/2011 9:28:24 AM PDT by Crim
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To: van_erwin

Here’s an idea: run the poll again, but this time include “Socialism” and “Environmentalism” in that list of religions.


20 posted on 03/22/2011 9:28:54 AM PDT by Clioman
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