Today is the traditional beginning of Lent in western Christianity, and it is also known as Ash Wednesday. The day marks 46 days before Easter, and is considered to be a time of sacrifice commemorating Jesus' time if deprivation spent in the desert before beginning to preach or minister to the masses. Lent is a time when followers of Jesus traditionally give up thing like alcohol, meat, or chocolate in order to show their own ability to sacrifice.
I did not grow up in a religious tradition, but it has been a part of the fabric of civilization for thousands of years and therefore I feel like I should try to continue to understand parts of it that I can. As an undergraduate I majored in philosophy and religion, and although I switched from religious studies to social work in graduate school I still have a lot of interest in religion in general. Here are some facts before I get down to some of my own understandings and views on these complicated belief systems.
Rank Order of Largest Religions or Belief Systems by Total Number of Adherents Worldwide: 1. Christianity, 2. Islam, 3. Secular/Atheist/Nonreligious, 4. Hinduism, 5. Traditional Chinese Religions. *
Rank Order of Largest Religions or Belief Systems by Percentage in the United States: 1. Christianity (76-82%), 2. Unaffiliated, Agnostic, or Atheist (11.6-16.1%), 3. Judaism (1.2-2.2%), 4. Islam (0.6-2.6%), 5. All other beliefs (Hinduism, Buddhist, etc.) are fewer than 1% of total U.S. population. *
Number of Christians in the World: 2.2 Billion *
Percentage of World Population who are Christian: 33.2% *
Largest Christian Denomination: Roman Catholic (50% of total) *
World Population Growth Rate: 1.13% per year *
Growth Rate of Christianity Worldwide: 1.3% per year *
Religions with Higher Growth Rates per Year than Christianity: Islam (1.84%), Bahai (1.7%), Sikhism (1.62%), Jainism (1.52%), Hinduism (1.52%) *
Taking into account these figures, it would seem as though the trend around the world is toward more and more numbers of believers in Christianity but a decreasing percentage overall due to increasing growth rates of other religions as well as increases in numbers of people who do not believe in religion at all.
Christianity continues to dominate American culture and politics. With 76-82% of Americans listing themselves as Christian, this may continue to be a reality for some time to come. Christians are very different of course. Some are liberal, some are conservative. Some are not either. The fastest growing Christian churches are ones that are evangelical. The slowest growing churches, and those who are actually losing members, are the older and more established ones. Even among members of the largest church in America, the Roman Catholics, views are varied about social justice and political issues such as women's rights, war, and poverty.
What does all of this complicated information mean? Time will tell, but my personal belief is that the world's most highly organized religions are struggling to remain in control (politically and just in terms of survival) in a world where science and secularism has shown that it is clearly more useful in society. Denominations that are non-hierarchical and have less bureaucracy will be more successful in the long term as long as they are perceived to be helping their adherents. Once a religion does not offer any help to its followers, it will cease to be relevant and people will cease to call themselves adherents even if they believe only part of the particular system. Religion and the concept of the nation-state will continue to be intertwined and bog down the world in war and inequality for many years to come. Atheists and secularists will continue to be marginalized in the United States until they outnumber people of other belief systems. The current political divisions in the United States have only to do with Christianity and not much else (taxes, abortion, war on terror, welfare reform, etc.), and therefore it has shown itself to be a very divisive element in our society.
That all being said, I don't think we need to throw the baby out with the bath water. Religion is a valuable part of our history. There are great teachings that we can take from religion, and our churches provide comfort and safety to millions of people. Religion is a part of the fabric of our lives and we should not attack it. We must, on the other hand, allow it to recede and let other belief systems like Humanism to come forward.
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