Yes, its a genreation thing. I think more and more young people are not convinced by religion. When I was young you had to be pretty strong willed not to fall in with religion even if only for social reasons. Now its easier for young poeple to ignore advances from the religious.
I used to think so. But learning more about history and some other things, I no longer think so. There has always been a fair minority of atheists and it has not substantially grown over time. Why? I think the primary reason is the exponential growth of theists. Theists have, on average, lower IQ's. People with lower IQ's tend to have higher numbers of children. Therefore, theists tend to have more children than atheists. And of course you tend to be a theist when you are conditioned by theist parents. So as long as theists are having more children than atheists, atheists have little chance of every being a majority.
I think the reality of that will be different than what survey responses show.
I've relatives in Italy. If you asked them, they'd all say they're Christians, and when an Italian says "Christian," she means "Roman Catholic." None of them actually go to church, tithe, or otherwise do anything that would distinguish them in their daily lives from atheists; in private moments they are dismissive and in some cases contemptuous of the moral guidance of the RCC regarding things like abortion, homosexuality, and contraception.
Are they "religious"? I'd say "no," but they'd say "yes," even while acknowledging that they sure don't behave as if they are.
I suspect that there's already a very large number of Americans like this too.
We have been forced into this religious world and it will take force to get us out of it. We have to outlaw child indoctrination as the first step into ridding ourselves of the religious curse /spell / mind virus. Child indoctrination is a human rights violation and it has to stop before any progress will ever be made.
I don't know, but I'm pretty sure there are more atheists out there that will not admit to it. If actions truly speak louder than words, then it seems clear that many (most?) people who claim to be among the faithful with their words fall far short in their actions, and I suspect that many (most?) of those people simply refuse to acknowledge that they don't really believe because of the stigma that atheism carries within their social circle.
If this is really true, then it's possible that there are already more atheists than true believers in the United States.
I don't think it will ever stabilize, history tends to cycle.
I'm sure it will. I'm not so sure it will be any time soon, depending on what your idea of soon is considering it's religion and people feel deeply about it. That kind of thing is hard to weed out of most people when deep belief is involved regardless of the topic. In all honesty I think there are probably a lot more agnostics and atheists than we know because many get stuck in family and life situations to the point of being afraid to be honest about it for fear of being ostracized from their family and community. I'd like to think when this whole freedom of religion becomes better understood as freedom from it as well that it will become more possible.
It will happen about the same time that the second amendment is repealed.
What's 2nd amendment are you speaking of?
Maybe eventually but it will definitely take awhile. Unfortunately religious organizations have enormous power and it’s going to take awhile to overcome that. If we were to fall on hard times it would take even longer as people tend to become more religious during wars or other disasters.
I think it's going to take another generation or two, but we're definitely going in that direction.
With open learning now, and the truth about what religion does, yes. But it will be a long, slow growth--say, 1,000 years? Well, maybe the new knowledge will speed it up some.
I read the word atheism was first seen in print the 1st quarter of the 19th century. It may take the lack of printed bibles and the lack of individuals reading the text in alternative reading e-formats.
The habit of congregating humans with a printed bible will kick and scream out of the 23rd century in pure reminiscent of an antiquity out of the artisans creations 5,000 years before it's time. God/ Jesus has already been considered schizophrenic.
Yes, I think around 2050 +/- 10 years. Each generation is less and less religious and I think we've hit a tipping point. We just can't let this new wave of science denial (which primarily exists in America and muslim countries to any significant degree) prevail.
Eventually but I don't think it will be for at least 100 years. To many people that are not very well educated, easily influenced, followers not leaders and critical thinking takes effort.
Knowledge has to get to the very restricted. You know they say, educate women and you advance a people.