Irreligion

Irreligion (adjective form: non-religious or irreligious) is the absence, indifference, rejection of, or hostility towards religion.[1]

Irreligion may include some forms of theism, depending on the religious context it is defined against; for example, in 18th-century Europe, the epitome of irreligion was deism,[2] while in contemporary East Asia the shared term meaning "irreligion" or "no religion" (無宗教, Chinese pron. wú zōngjiào, Japanese pron. mu shūkyō), with which the majority of East Asian populations identify themselves, implies non-membership in one of the institutional religions (such as Buddhism and Christianity), and not necessarily non-belief in traditional folk religions collectively represented by Chinese Shendao and Japanese Shinto (both meaning "ways of gods").[3]

According to the Pew Research Center's 2012 global study of 230 countries and territories, 16% of the world's population is not affiliated with a religion, while 84% are affiliated.[4] By 2060, according to their projections, the number of unaffiliated will increase by over 35 million, but the percentage will decrease to 13% because the total population will grow faster.[5][6]

According to cross cultural studies, secularism is expected to decline throughout the 21st century since religion and fertility are positively related, while secularism and fertility are negatively related.[7]

Kinds of irreligion

  • Secular humanism embraces human reason, ethics, social justice, and philosophical naturalism while specifically rejecting religious dogma, supernaturalism, pseudoscience, and superstition as the bases of morality and decision making. Secular humanism posits that human beings are capable of being ethical and moral without religion or a god.
  • Freethought holds that positions regarding truth should be formed on the basis of logic, reason, and empiricism, rather than authority, tradition, revelation, or other dogma. In particular, freethought is strongly tied with rejection of traditional religious belief.
  • "Spiritual but not religious" rejects organized religion as the sole or most valuable means of furthering spiritual growth. In contrast to religion, spirituality has often been associated with the interior life of the individual.
  • Theological noncognitivism is the argument that religious language – specifically, words such as "God" – are not cognitively meaningful. It is sometimes considered as synonymous with ignosticism.
  • Antireligion is opposition to religion of any kind. It can describe opposition to organized religion, religious practices, religious institutions, or specific forms of supernatural worship or practice, whether organized or not.

Human rights

In 1993, the UN's human rights committee declared that article 18 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights "protects theistic, non-theistic and atheistic beliefs, as well as the right not to profess any religion or belief."[8] The committee further stated that "the freedom to have or to adopt a religion or belief necessarily entails the freedom to choose a religion or belief, including the right to replace one's current religion or belief with another or to adopt atheistic views." Signatories to the convention are barred from "the use of threat of physical force or penal sanctions to compel believers or non-believers" to recant their beliefs or convert.[9][10]

Most Western democracies protect the freedom of religion, and it is largely implied in respective legal systems that those who do not believe or observe any religion are allowed freedom of thought.

A noted exception to ambiguity, explicitly allowing non-religion, is Article 36 of the Constitution of the People's Republic of China (as adopted in 1982), which states that "No state organ, public organization or individual may compel citizens to believe in, or not to believe in, any religion; nor may they discriminate against citizens who believe in, or do not believe in, any religion."[11] Article 46 of China’s 1978 Constitution was even more explicit, stating that "Citizens enjoy freedom to believe in religion and freedom not to believe in religion and to propagate atheism."[12]

Non-denominational

A non-denominational person or organization is not restricted to any particular or specific religious denomination. The term has been used in the context of various faiths including Jainism,[13] Bahá'í Faith,[14] Zoroastrianism,[15] Unitarian Universalism,[16] Paganism,[17] Christianity,[18] Islam,[19] Judaism,[20] Hinduism,[21] Buddhism[22] and Wicca.[23] It stands in contrast with a religious denomination.

Demographics

Although 11 countries listed below have non-religious majorities, it does not mean that the majority of the populations of these countries don′t belong to any religious group. For example, 68% of the Swedish population belongs to the Lutheran Christian Church,[24] while 59% of Albanians declare themselves as Muslims. Also, though Scandinavian countries have among the highest measures of nonreligiosity and even atheism in Europe, 47% of atheists who live in those countries are still members of the national churches.[25]

A Pew 2015 global projection study for religion and nonreligion, projects that between 2010 and 2050, there will be some initial increases of the unaffiliated followed by a decline by 2050 due to lower global fertility rates among this demographic.[26] Sociologist Phil Zuckerman's global studies on atheism have indicated that global atheism may be in decline due to irreligious countries having the lowest birth rates in the world and religious countries having higher birth rates in general.[27]

According to Pew Research Center's 2012 global study of 230 countries and territories, 16% of the world's population is not affiliated with a religion, while 84% are affiliated.[4] A 2012 Worldwide Independent Network/Gallup International Association report on a poll from 57 countries reported that 59% of the world's population identified as religious person, 23% as not religious person, 13% as "convinced atheists", and also a 9% decrease in identification as "religious" when compared to the 2005 average from 39 countries.[28] Their follow-up report, based on a poll in 2015, found that 63% of the globe identified as religious person, 22% as not religious person, and 11% as "convinced atheists".[29] Their 2017 report found that 62% of the globe identified as religious person, 25% as not religious person, and 9% as "convinced atheists".[30] However, researchers have advised caution with the WIN/Gallup International figures since other surveys which use the same wording, have conducted many waves for decades, and have a bigger sample size, such as World Values Survey; have consistently reached lower figures for the number of atheists worldwide.[31]

Being non-religious is not necessarily equivalent to being an atheist or agnostic. Pew Research Center's global study from 2012 noted that many of the nonreligious actually have some religious beliefs. For example, they observed that "belief in God or a higher power is shared by 7% of Chinese unaffiliated adults, 30% of French unaffiliated adults and 68% of unaffiliated U.S. adults."[32] Out of the global nonreligious population, 76% reside in Asia and the Pacific, while the remainder reside in Europe (12%), North America (5%), Latin America and the Caribbean (4%), sub-Saharan Africa (2%) and the Middle East and North Africa (less than 1%).[32]

The term nones is sometimes used in the U.S. to refer to those who are unaffiliated with any organized religion. This use derives from surveys of religious affiliation, in which "None" (or "None of the above") is typically the last choice. Since this status refers to lack of organizational affiliation rather than lack of personal belief, it is a more specific concept than irreligion. A 2015 Gallup poll concluded that in the U.S. "nones" were the only "religious" group that was growing as a percentage of the population.[33]

Country Percentage of population
that is non-religious		 Date and source
 Czech Republic 75 [34]
 Estonia 70 [35]
 Netherlands 68 [36]
 Vietnam 63 [35][37]
 Denmark 61 [35]
 Sweden 54 [35]
 Albania 52 [38][39][40]
 Japan 52 [35]
 Azerbaijan 51 [41]
 China 51 [35][37][42]
 Uruguay 47 [43]
 France 44 [35]
 Cuba 44 [44]
 Russia 44 [37]
 Belarus 44 [37]
 South Korea 43 [37][45]
 Finland 43 [35]
 Hungary 43 [37]
 Iceland 42 [46]
 New Zealand 42 [47]
 Latvia 41 [37]
 Chile 38 [48]
 United Kingdom 38 [49][50]
 Belgium 35 [37]
 Australia 30 [51]
 Germany 21–34 [52][53][54][55][56]
 Luxembourg 30 [37]
 Slovenia 30 [37]
  Switzerland 24 [57]
 Canada 24 [58]
 Spain 23 [59]
 Slovakia 23 [37]
 United States 23 [60]
 Argentina 21 [61]
 Botswana 21 [62]
 Lithuania 19 [37]
 El Salvador 19 [63]
 Singapore 17–19 [64]
 Italy 18 [37]
 Ukraine 16 [65]
 Nicaragua 16 [66]
 Belize 16 [67]
 South Africa 15 [68]
 Croatia 13 [37]
 Guatemala 13 [69]
 Austria 12 [37]
 Portugal 11 [37]
 Costa Rica 11 [70]
 Bulgaria 11 [37]
 Philippines 11 [37]
 Honduras 9 [48]
 Brazil 8 [71]
 Ecuador 8 [72]
 Peru 8 [73]
 Ireland 7 [74]
 Mexico 7 [48]
 India 7 [37]
 Venezuela 6 [48]
 Serbia 6 [37]
 Poland 5 [37]
 Greece 4 [37]
 Montenegro 3 [75]
 Panama 3 [76]
 Turkey 3 [37]
 Romania 2 [37]
 Puerto Rico 2 [37]
 Tanzania 2 [37]
 Malta 1 [37]
 Iran 1 [37]
 Uganda 1 [37]
 Nigeria 1 [37]
 Thailand <1 [77]
 Bangladesh <1 [37]

See also

Notes

    References

    1. ↑
      • "Irreligion as presented in 26 reference works".
      • "Definition including hostility and indifference", Compact Oxford Dictionary
      • "Definition including lack and indifference", Collins Dictionary
      • "Irreligion", Encyclopedia of Religion and Society, retrieved 2012-02-18 Includes rejection.
      • Colin Campbell, "Irreligion", Encyclopedia of Religion and Society, retrieved 2012-02-18
    2. ↑ Campbell, Colin. 1971. Towards a Sociology of Irreligion. London:McMillan p. 31.
    3. ↑ Bestor, Theodore C.; Bestor, Victoria; Yamagata, Akiko, eds. (2011). Handbook of Japanese Culture and Society. London: Routledge. pp. 66–67. ISBN 0415436494. 無宗教 mushūkyō, "no religion", in Japanese language and mindset identifies those people who do not belong to organised religion. To the Japanese, the term "religion" or "faith" means organised religions on the model of Christianity, that is a religion with specific doctrines and requirement for church membership. So, when asked "what is their religion", most of the Japanese answer that they "do not belong to any religion". According to NHK studies, those Japanese who identify with mushūkyō and therefore do not belong to any organised religion, actually take part in the folk ritual dimension of Shinto. Ama Toshimaru in Nihonjin wa naze mushukyo na no ka ("Why are the Japanese non-religious?") of 1996, explains that people who do not belong to organised religions but regularly pray and make offerings to ancestors and protective deities at private altars or Shinto shrines will identify themselves as mushukyo. Ama designates "natural religion" what NHK studies define as "folk religion", and other scholars have named "Nipponism" (Nipponkyō) or "common religion".
    4. 1 2 Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life. "The Global Religious Landscape". Retrieved December 18, 2012.
    5. ↑ "Why People With No Religion Are Projected To Decline As A Share Of The World's Population". Pew Research Center. April 7, 2017.
    6. ↑ "The Changing Global Religious Landscape: Babies Born to Muslims will Begin to Outnumber Christian Births by 2035; People with No Religion Face a Birth Dearth". Pew Research Center. April 5, 2017.
    7. ↑ Ellis, Lee; Hoskin, Anthony W.; Dutton, Edward; Nyborg, Helmuth (8 March 2017). "The Future of Secularism: a Biologically Informed Theory Supplemented with Cross-Cultural Evidence". Evolutionary Psychological Science. 3 (3): 224–42. doi:10.1007/s40806-017-0090-z.
    8. ↑ "CCPR General Comment 22: 30/07/93 on ICCPR Article 18". Minorityrights.org. Archived from the original on 2015-01-16.
    9. ↑ International Federation for Human Rights (1 August 2003). "Discrimination against religious minorities in Iran" (PDF). fdih.org. Retrieved 3 March 2009.
    10. ↑ Davis, Derek H. "The Evolution of Religious Liberty as a Universal Human Right" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 23 July 2011. Retrieved 3 March 2009.
    11. ↑
    12. ↑ People's Republic of China 1978 Constitution (PDF). 1978. p. 41. Retrieved 2014-02-02.
    13. ↑ Jainism in a global perspective. p. 115, Sāgaramala Jaina, Shriprakash Pandey, Pārśvanātha Vidyāpīṭha – 1998
    14. ↑ Earth Versus the Science-fiction Filmmakers. p. 70, Tom Weaver – 2005
    15. ↑ Zoroastrianism: An Introduction. p. 227, Jenny Rose – 2011
    16. ↑ Resourcewomen (2000). Religious Funding Resource Guide. p. 439.
    17. ↑ Mammone, Andrea (2013). Varieties of Right-Wing Extremism in Europe.
    18. ↑ Models for Christian Higher Education, Richard Thomas Hughes, William B. Adrian – 1997, p. 403
    19. ↑ Pollack, Kenneth (2014). Unthinkable: Iran, the Bomb, and American Strategy. p. 29. Although many Iranian hardliners are Shi'a chauvinists, Khomeini's ideology saw the revolution as pan-Islamist, and therefore embracing Sunni, Shi'a, Sufi, and other, more nondenominational Muslims
    20. ↑ Continuity and Change, Steven T. Katz, Steven Bayme – 2012, p. 268
    21. ↑ Personality Of Adolescent Students . p. 42, D.B. Rao – 2008
    22. ↑ The Buddhist Experience in America. p. 147, Diane Morgan – 2004
    23. ↑ Wiccan Warrior: Walking a Spiritual Path in a Sometimes Hostile World. p. 173, Kerr Cuhulain – 2000
    24. ↑ "Kyrkan i siffror, Swedish Lutheran Christian Church in numbers".
    25. ↑ Zuckerman, Phil, ed. (2010). "Ch. 9 Atheism And Secularity: The Scandinavian Paradox". Atheism and Secularity Vol.2. Praeger. ISBN 0313351813.
    26. ↑ "The Future of World Religions: Population Growth Projections, 2010–2050". Pew Research Center. April 5, 2012.
    27. ↑ Zuckerman, Phil (2007). Martin, Michael, ed. The Cambridge Companion to Atheism. Cambridge Univ. Press. p. 59. ISBN 0521603676.
    28. ↑ "Global Index of Religion and Atheism" (PDF). WIN/Gallup International. Archived from the original (PDF) on 16 October 2012. Retrieved 13 January 2015.
    29. ↑ "Losing our Religion? Two Thirds of People Still Claim to be Religious" (PDF). WIN/Gallup International. WIN/Gallup International. April 13, 2015. Archived from the original (PDF) on April 30, 2015.
    30. ↑ "Wayback Machine" (PDF). 2017-11-14. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2017-11-14. Retrieved 2018-02-27.
    31. ↑ Keysar, Ariela; Navarro-Rivera, Juhem (2017). "36. A World of Atheism: Global Demographics". In Bullivant, Stephen; Ruse, Michael. The Oxford Handbook of Atheism. Oxford University Press. ISBN 0199644659.
    32. 1 2 "Religiously Unaffiliated". The Global Religious Landscape. Pew Research Center: Religion & Public Life. December 18, 2012.
    33. ↑ "Percentage of Christians in U.S. Drifting Down, but Still High".
    34. ↑ "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2017-03-09. Retrieved 2018-01-05.
    35. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Zuckerman, Phil (2007) [First printed 2006]. Martin, Michael, ed. "Atheism: Contemporary Rates and Patterns" (PDF). The Cambridge Companion to Atheism (Essay collection). Cambridge Companions to Philosophy, Religion and Culture. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press: 47–66. doi:10.1017/CCOL0521842700.004. LCCN 2006005949.
    36. ↑ Bernts, Tom; Berghuijs, Joantine (2016). God in Nederland 1966–2015. Ten Have. ISBN 9789025905248.
    37. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 "Religions in Puerto Rico - PEW-GRF". www.globalreligiousfutures.org.
    38. ↑ "Albania". State.gov. 2006-09-15. Retrieved 2011-02-04. US Department of State – International religious freedom report 2006
    39. ↑ "Lycos.com" (PDF). lycos.fr. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2009-03-03.
    40. ↑ "Adherents.com". Adherents.com. Retrieved 2011-02-04. Some publications
    41. ↑ "Global Index Of Religion and Atheism" (PDF). Redcresearch.ie. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2012-10-16. Retrieved 2011-11-01. Publications are taken from Gallup
    42. ↑ "Adherents.com". Adherents.com. Retrieved 2011-02-04. Some publications
    43. ↑ "Atheism to Defeat Religion By 2038". The Huffington Post. Retrieved 17 January 2015.
    44. ↑ https://fusiondotnet.files.wordpress.com/2015/04/fusion_cuba-poll-charts-1.pdf
    45. ↑ According to figures compiled by the South Korean National Statistical Office. "인구,가구/시도별 종교인구/시도별 종교인구 (2005 년 인구총조사)". NSO online KOSIS database. Archived from the original on September 8, 2006. Retrieved August 23, 2006.
    46. ↑ "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2012-10-16. Retrieved 2013-09-03.
    47. ↑ "2013 Census totals by topic". stats.govt.nz.
    48. 1 2 3 4 "Cifra de chilenos que se declaran católicos bajó de 73% a 45% en la última década" (in Spanish). Latinobarómetro. January 2018.
    49. ↑ "UK Census". ONS. 2012. Retrieved 4 May 2012.
    50. ↑ Philby, Charlotte (12 December 2012). "Less religious and more ethnically diverse: Census reveals a picture of Britain today". The Independent. London.
    51. ↑ Statistics, c=AU; o=Commonwealth of Australia; ou=Australian Bureau of. "Media Release - 2016 Census: Religion". www.abs.gov.au.
    52. ↑ "End of year 2016 Germany" (PDF). WIN-Gallup International. p. 40. Archived from the original (PDF) on 25 May 2017. Retrieved 10 May 2017.
    53. ↑ "End of year 2014 Germany" (PDF). WIN-Gallup International. p. 38. Archived from the original (PDF) on 25 May 2017. Retrieved 10 May 2017.
    54. ↑ "Religionszugehörigkeit Bevölkerung Deutschland" (PDF) (in German). Forschungsgruppe Weltanschauungen in Deutschland. Archived from the original (PDF) on 15 January 2016. Retrieved 24 January 2016.
    55. ↑ (in German) Religionen in Deutschland: Mitgliederzahlen Religionswissenschaftlicher Medien- und Informationsdienst; 31 October 2009. Retrieved 19 November 2009.
    56. ↑ REMID Data of "Religionswissenschaftlicher Medien- und Informationsdienst" retrieved 16 January 2015
    57. ↑ "Ständige Wohnbevölkerung ab 15 Jahren nach Religions- / Konfessionszugehörigkeit, 2015". www.bfs.admin.ch (in German, French, and Italian). Neuchâtel: Swiss Federal Statistical Office. 2015. Retrieved 2017-03-01.
    58. ↑ "96F0030XIE2001015 – Religions in Canada". 2.statcan.ca. Retrieved 2013-05-08. Canada 2011 census
    59. ↑ Socialogical Research Centre, January 2012
    60. ↑ "America's Changing Religious Landscape". Pew Research Center: Religion & Public Life. May 12, 2015.
    61. ↑ "El Papa Francisco y la Religión en Chile y América Latina, Latinobarómetro 1995 – 2017" (PDF), www.cooperativa.cl, January 2018
    62. ↑ "Pew Research Center", Accessed 23 March 2016.
    63. ↑ "International Religious Freedom Report for 2012". U.S. State Department. Retrieved 2014-03-27.
    64. ↑ "Youth in Singapore shunning religion". The Straits Times. Retrieved March 21, 2016.
    65. ↑ Релігія, Церква, суспільство і держава: два роки після Майдану [Religion, Church, Society and State: Two Years after Maidan] (pdf) (in Ukrainian), Kiev: Razumkov Center in collaboration with the All-Ukrainian Council of Churches, 26 May 2016, pp. 22, 27, 29, 31, archived (PDF) from the original on 2017-04-22
      Sample of 2,018 respondents aged 18 years and over, interviewed 25–30 March 2016 in all regions of Ukraine except Crimea and the occupied territories of the Donetsk and Lugansk regions.
    66. ↑ "2005 Nicaraguan Census" (PDF). National Institute of Statistics and Census of Nicaragua (INEC) (in Spanish). pp. 42–43. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2006-11-29. Retrieved 2007-10-30.
    67. ↑ "Table Of Statistics On Religion In The Americas". Prolades.com. April 2001. Retrieved 2011-02-04. Gallup-Belize survey
    68. ↑ Güney Afrika 2001 census Archived April 11, 2005, at the Wayback Machine.
    69. ↑ The Latin American Socio-Religious Studies Program / Programa Latinoamericano de Estudios Sociorreligiosos PROLADES Religion in America by country
    70. ↑ International Religious Freedom Report 2008: Costa Rica. United States Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor (September 14, 2007). This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.
    71. ↑ "Census 2010; Sistema IBGE de Recuperação Automática SIDRA". Retrieved 2013-06-29.
    72. ↑ (in Spanish) El 80% de los ecuatorianos afirma ser católico, según el INEC
    73. ↑ (in Spanish)
    74. ↑ "This is Ireland. Highlights from Census 2011, Part 1" (PDF). March 2012. Retrieved 2013-06-29.
      • "Secular Sunday #14 – Census Special". April 2012.
    75. ↑ "Census of Population, Households and Dwellings in Montenegro 2011" (PDF). Monstat. pp. 14&ndash15. Retrieved July 12, 2011. For the purpose of the chart, the categories 'Islam' and 'Muslims' were merged; 'Buddhist' (.02) and Other Religions were merged; 'Atheist' (1.24) and 'Agnostic' (.07) were merged; and 'Adventist' (.14), 'Christians' (.24), 'Jehovah Witness' (.02), and 'Protestants' (.02) were merged under 'Other Christian'.
    76. ↑ "Religión en Panamá" (PDF).
    77. ↑ ประชากรจำแนกตามศาสนา หมวดอายุ เพศ และเขตการปกครอง (in Thai). สำมะโนประชากรและเคหะ พ.ศ. 2543 (2000 census), National Statistical Office of Thailand. Retrieved 2013-10-26.

    Further reading

    • Coleman, T.J. III, Hood Jr., R., & Shook, J. (2015). An Introduction to Atheism, Secularity, and Science. Science, Religion and Culture, 2(3), 1–14. doi:10.17582/journal.src/2015/2.3.1.14
    • John Allen Paulos (2009). Irreligion: A Mathematician Explains Why the Arguments for God Just Don't Add Up. Macmillan. ISBN 978-0-8090-5918-8.
    • Richard Henry Popkin; Arie Johan Vanderjagt (1993). Scepticism and irreligion in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Brill. ISBN 978-90-04-09596-0.
    • Eric Wright (2010). Irreligion: Thought, Rationale, History. BiblioBazaar. ISBN 978-1-171-06863-1.
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