Personal Freedoms Kill Religion

by | September 19, 2021

By James Haught

Why is religion collapsing in all Western democracies — and most rapidly in the United States?

A major researcher lists multiple reasons:

 — Revulsion by young liberals against the sanctimonious partnership between bigoted white evangelicals and America’s Republican Party.

 — Revulsion by nearly everyone, including Catholics, against child molesting by priests.

 — Revulsion by nearly everyone, including Muslims, against hideous massacres by volunteer suicide “martyrs.”

 — Rising prosperity and better living conditions that make affluent, educated people no longer need supernatural promises of heaven.

 — And, especially, rising personal freedoms unleashed by the Sexual Revolution that discredit outdated church Puritanism.

Dr. Ronald Inglehart of the University of Michigan outlines all these causes and more in his latest book, Religion’s Sudden Decline: What’s Causing It and What Comes Next?, by Oxford University Press.

Repeatedly, he says all major religions spent centuries enforcing “pro-fertility norms” that require women to stay home raising babies, subservient to husbands — and also demonizing birth control, homosexuality, masturbation, divorce, abortion “and any other sexual behavior not linked with reproduction.”

Churches presented these taboos as divine commands from God, with violations punishable by eternal burning in hell. But the Sexual Revolution freed billions to make their own choices, without fear. Dr. Inglehart writes:

“Since the Enlightenment, the struggle for human emancipation — from the abolition of slavery to the recognition of human rights — has been a defining feature of modernization. This struggle virtually always aroused resistance from reactionary forces….

“The recent legalization of abortion and same-sex marriage in many countries constitutes a breakthrough at society’s most basic level: its ability to reproduce itself. These changes are driven by growing mass support for sexual self-determination, which is part of an even broader trend toward greater emphasis on freedom of choice in all aspects of life….

“In 1945, homosexuality was still criminal in most Western countries; it is now legal in virtually all of them. In the postwar era, both church attendance and birth rates were high; today, church attendance has declined drastically and human fertility has fallen.”

Page after page, he outlines how religion has fizzled and secularism has soared — mostly since 2007 when churchless people reached a “tipping point” that guaranteed escalating change.

“Since 2007, [the United States] has been secularizing at a more rapid rate than any other country for which we have data….

“In the earliest U.S. survey in 1982,” he wrote, “52 percent of the American public said that God was very important in their lives; in 2017, only 23 percent made this choice.

“In 1982, 83 percent of Americans described themselves as ‘a religious person’; in 2017, only 55 percent did so.

“Conversely, in 1982, only 16 percent of Americans said that they ‘never or practically never’ attended religious services; in 2017, 35 percent said that….

“In 1982, 46 percent of Americans said they had ‘a great deal’ of confidence in their country’s religious institutions; in 2017, only 12 percent said this — only about a fourth as many as in 1982….

“[Internationally] in high-income countries, the younger birth cohorts are much less religious than their older compatriots; among those born between 1894 and 1903, 42 percent said that God was very important in their lives; among those born between 1994 and 2003, only 11 percent said this.”

On and on, he spells out the relentless march of secularism.

Dr. Inglehart doesn’t declare specifically that religion will die in Western democracies in coming decades — or that the GOP will lose its white evangelical base and become toothless — but all his findings hint strongly toward that future. Hurrah.

— 

*Associates and resources listing last updated May 31, 2020.*

Canadian Atheist Associates: Godless Mom, Nice Mangoes, Sandwalk, Brainstorm Podcast, Left at the Valley, Life, the Universe & Everything Else, The Reality Check, Bad Science Watch, British Columbia Humanist Association, Dying With Dignity Canada, Canadian Secular Alliance, Centre for Inquiry Canada, Kelowna Atheists, Skeptics, and Humanists Association.

— 

Other National/Local Resources: Association humaniste du Québec, Atheist Freethinkers, Central Ontario Humanist Association, Comox Valley Humanists, Grey Bruce Humanists, Halton-Peel Humanist Community, Hamilton Humanists, Humanist Association of London, Humanist Association of Ottawa, Humanist Association of Toronto, Humanists, Atheists and Agnostics of Manitoba, Ontario Humanist Society, Secular Connextions Seculaire, Secular Humanists in Calgary, Society of Free Thinkers (Kitchener-Waterloo/Cambridge/Guelph), Thunder Bay Humanists, Toronto Oasis, Victoria Secular Humanist Association.

— 

Other International/Outside Canada Resources: Allianz vun Humanisten, Atheisten an Agnostiker, American Atheists, American Humanist Association, Associação Brasileira de Ateus e AgnósticoséééBrazilian Association of Atheists and Agnostics, Atheist Alliance International, Atheist Alliance of America, Atheist Centre, Atheist Foundation of Australia, The Brights Movement, Center for Inquiry (including Richard Dawkins Foundation for Reason and Science), Atheist Ireland, Camp Quest, Inc., Council for Secular Humanism, De Vrije Gedachte, European Humanist Federation, Federation of Indian Rationalist Associations, Foundation Beyond Belief, Freedom From Religion Foundation, Humanist Association of Ireland, Humanist International, Humanist Association of Germany, Humanist Association of Ireland, Humanist Society of Scotland, Humanists UK, Humanisterna/Humanists Sweden, Internet Infidels, International League of Non-Religious and Atheists, James Randi Educational Foundation, League of Militant Atheists, Military Association of Atheists and Freethinkers, National Secular Society, Rationalist International, Recovering From Religion, Religion News Service, Secular Coalition for America, Secular Student Alliance, The Clergy Project, The Rational Response Squad, The Satanic Temple, The Sunday Assembly, United Coalition of Reason, Union of Rationalist Atheists and Agnostics.

— 

About Canadian Atheist

Canadian Atheist is an independent blog with multiple contributors providing articles of interest to Canadian atheists, secularists, humanists, and freethinkers.

Canadian Atheist is not an organization — there is no membership and nothing to join — and we offer no professional services or products. It is a privately-owned publishing platform shared with our contributors, with a focus on topics relevant to Canadian atheists.

Canadian Atheist is not affiliated with any other organization or group. While our contributors may be individually be members of other organizations or groups, and may even speak in an official capacity for them, CA itself is independent.

For more information about Canadian Atheist, or to contact us for any other reason, see our contact page.

— 

About Canadian Atheist Contributors

Canadian Atheist contributors are volunteers who provide content for CA. They receive no payment for their contributions from CA, though they may be sponsored by other means.

Our contributors are people who have both a passion for issues of interest to Canadian atheists, secularists, humanists, and freethinkers, and a demonstrated ability to communicate content and ideas of interest on those topics to our readers. Some are members of Canadian secularist, humanist, atheist, or freethought organizations, either at the national, provincial, regional, or local level. They come from all walks of life, and offer a diversity of perspectives and presentation styles.

CA merely provides our contributors with a platform with almost complete editorial freedom. Their opinions are their own, expressed as they see fit; they do not speak for Canadian Atheist, and Canadian Atheist does not speak for them.

For more information about Canadian Atheist’s contributors, or to get in contact with any of them, or if you are interested in becoming a contributor, see our contact page.

— 

Image Credit: James Haught.

Category: Education Tags: ,

About Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Scott Douglas Jacobsen is the Founder of In-Sight: Independent Interview-Based Journal and In-Sight Publishing. Jacobsen works for science and human rights, especially women’s and children’s rights. He considers the modern scientific and technological world the foundation for the provision of the basics of human life throughout the world and advancement of human rights as the universal movement among peoples everywhere. You can contact Scott via email, his website, or Twitter.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.