The Future of Religion and Belief

In the past it was widely assumed that, with the rise of science and technology and with dramatic improvements in living standards and life expectancy, religious belief would die out. This hasn’t happened although long-term trends spell trouble for mainstream denominations like the Church of England. Globally, religion appears to be surging with 85 per cent of the world’s population still identifying with a religion in some sense. Yet, when asked, millions of these ‘religious’ people say that religion is not very important to them. In countries like the UK, France, and the USA, the number of people saying they have ‘no religion’ is projected to overtake Christianity in the decades to come. Muslim populations are also set to rise. Some European countries, like Poland, are very religious whilst others, like the Czech Republic, are mostly atheist. What accounts for these differences?

David Warden will present some fascinating graphs and statistics from the Pew Research Center and lead a discussion on what it all means for the future of religion and belief.

This is our regular 'Out of the Box' dialogue meeting for Humanists, Christians, and other worldviews.