Religious people in many developed countries will be a minority by 2041, according to one Irish biopsychologist.
This transition was defined as a minority of the population believing in a god, or a minority considering that a god is important to their lives.
This was measured in terms of a country’s GDP, local prices and Human Development Index (HDI) and allowed Mr Barber to come to the conclusion the average country will transform into a secular society in 2041.
He said atheists are heavily concentrated in economically developed countries and religion will decrease as individuals’ personal wealth increases.
Religion declines not only because people are becoming richer, but also due to the increasing quality of life, decline of serious diseases, better education and welfare states.
He believes there is less demand for religion in societies such as Japan and Sweden where normal people are relatively comfortable and consequently the majority of the populations are already secular.
I – Word Understanding
Biopsychologist – a phsycology study of the biological foundations of behavior, emotions, and mental processes.
Minority – smaller number or part ot group of people.
Secular society – is the concept that government or other entities should exist separately from religion and/or religious beliefs.
Atheist – one who disbelieves or denies the existence of God or gods.
Secular – of or pertaining to worldly things or to things that are not regarded as religious, spiritual, or sacred.
II – Have your say
1. I can see religion becoming irrelevant by 2041 in already rich countries, but the progress of poor countries, economically, politically, and socially, seems too slow to eliminate religion in less than thirty years.Some countries are moving backwards. I think even the USA will take a couple of more generations to reduce the influence of religion .
2. The market for formal religion is also being squeezed by modern substitutes such as sports and entertainment.
3. ‘Even Facebook is killing religion because it provides answers for peculiarly modern narcissistic anxieties for which religion has no answer.’
