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Extinction is too strong a word, however irrelevancy might be more appropriate.

It's no huge surprise, some of the nations you note have shifted in less than 50 years from being church states to places run for the state by the state, with the church as a separate institution. Think of the UK as it is now, OK religion is still very much at the front of peoples minds, and plenty of people still identify with one group or another, however religion does not rule our country. It does not shape our lives any more.

Religion won't "die out", it can't, its a facet of human nature, it will simply become less and less relevant to most people.

What I do hope however is that nations still dominated by their religion, especially in cases where their religion teaches intolerance, do not take it upon themselves (any further than they already have) to intervene because they feel they have some holy duty to do so. By all means, if your beliefs lead you to feel superior to those who don't hold the same beliefs, stand back and be smug about it. But let those in the world who don't believe make their own mistakes...
 
The issue is with the word "religious" and how people percieve it.

Many people who state they are christian or have some form of spiritual belief, when asked if they are religious, say No. Not because they don't believe or are atheist but because of the negative perception of the word "religious" in modern Western Society.

They dont see it as simply following a religion or believing, but specifically being fervant or extremist about their belief.

This is the issue, not whether people are suddenly after 10,000 years of civilisation becoming atheist, but the perception of what "religious" actually means and stands for.
 
Agreed, it's all comparative. When it says it's going extinct I don't think it will stop people and their beliefs, but more that communities en masse will stop going to church/temple. That is, actively taking part in their religion.
 
Zid_ said:
Can't see everyone in Ireland becoming Atheist/Agnostic any time soon.
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It's interesting that England isn't in that group, which I'd have said was far far far less religious than Ireland.

Perhaps it's assuming that a group which is largely religious now will more easily replace one dogma for another (atheism) than a group which is already largely apathetic to the whole idea of religion.
 
I think that most people are not atheist but agnostic to some extent, requiring proof of existance of a god before allowing belief. This is not a dogma but describes an apathy or lack of relevance to god in most peoples lives.
I could describe myself as protestant or church of england by birth, but as non practising what point is there in such a description. I would claim agnosticism as my standpoint. I do not say there is no god, on the balance of probabilities I think that it is very unlikely that god exists, if that balance were to change I would be more likely to accept it.
I also believe that organised religion has done more to hold back the human race than any other factor of society.
 
As religion is (on the whole, obviously not entirely) something that is taught rather than organically develops I would say that there is probably some merit behind it. If parents are not religious they are much less likely to bring up religious children and so on.
 
Religion will not be extinct because its religious people (immigrants particularly) that provide the growth of our future population. Israel is good example, Ultra Orthodox Jews are projected to be in the majority in 20/30 years because the secular ones just don't have the reproduction numbers.
 
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I think the survey suggests people are sheep, religious or not, peoples opinions will be swayed by the mass consensus. Religion is just a casualty. It is finally cool to be agnostic.
 
vonhelmet said:
As far as I'm aware Finland still has plenty of practising Christians :confused:
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It surprised me to see it in the list too, as with Canada since there seems to be a fair amount of religious people in both countries from my limited experience.

I don't imagine religion will ever become extinct as such, as manic_man says it may fade to irrelevancy in many ways but to use the term extinct suggests it will not be practiced at all which seems unlikely in the extreme.
 
semi-pro waster said:
It surprised me to see it in the list too, as with Canada since there seems to be a fair amount of religious people in both countries from my limited experience.

I don't imagine religion will ever become extinct as such, as manic_man says it may fade to irrelevancy in many ways but to use the term extinct suggests it will not be practiced at all which seems unlikely in the extreme.
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A few religions have gone such as
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sumerian_religion.
I don't think that any of the big ones will get remotely close in the next thousands years though.
A few might go though like offsets of Paganism.
 
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