The following post comes to us from Steve Addison, church planter and author of Movements That Change the World; What Jesus Started; and Pioneering Movements.
Rodney Stark is Professor of the Social Sciences at Baylor University. I read just about everything he writes.
His latest is entitled The Triumph of Faith: Why the World is More Religious Than Ever.
Here’s a summary of what Stark has to say about the world in which we live.
It is a very religious world, far more religious than it was 50 years ago. Gallup World Poll Surveys of more than a million people living in 163 nations show that:
- 81 percent claim to belong to an organized religious faith, and most of the rest report engaging in religious activities such as prayer or making offerings to the gods in various “folk religion” temples.
- 74 percent say religion is an important part of their daily lives.
- 50 percent report they have attended a place of worship or religious service in the past seven days.
In very few nations do as many as five percent claim to be atheists, and only in China, Vietnam, and South Korea do they exceed 20 percent.
Furthermore, in every nook and cranny left by organized faiths, all manner of unconventional spiritual and mystical practices are booming. There are more occult healers than medical doctors in Russia, 38 percent of the French believe in astrology, 35 percent of the Swiss agree that “some fortune tellers really can foresee the future,” and nearly everyone in Japan is careful to have their new car blessed by a Shinto priest.
Almost weekly in the United States the media seems to celebrate new evidence that America is no longer the religious nation it has always been, that secularization has finally arrived. But these are always false alarms. Consider just two of the more recent sensational claims.
- The latest polls show that people under 30 have far lower church attendance rates than do the older generations. But that has been true as far back as polling goes.
- It is argued that the percentage of Americans who say they have no religion is skyrocketing. But, all that reflects is an increase in the percentage who have no denominational preference. They are not irreligious. Most of them pray and say they believe in God.
Despite the wishful thinking of most secular academics, Stark shows that the world remains very religious.
To read the entire article, click here.
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Nelson
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