ohwilleke

I think that the 90% believe statement has serious issues.

Certainly 90% don't believe the same thing. They believe all sorts of different things. Some are various kinds of Muslims, some Jews, some Hindus, some Sihks, some Taoists, some Buddhists, etc.

Even more importantly, the nature of a lot of those beliefs has been shoehorned into a Western notion of religion. Being a Buddhist (and perhaps a Shinto adherent and Confucian philosophy follower) at the same time does not fill the same cultural slot as being a Muslim or a Christian. While its true that a small percentage of people are pure metaphysical naturalists in their thinking (an idea that has really only been around for a couple hundred years of human history and already gains mainly supporters), it is also true that the number of people who view the world as subject to an all powerful sky god is a much smaller percentage of the population.

Also, there is a question of depth. Many people who are classified as Christians, for instance, are only believers in the most shallow kind of way; not as a reasoned decision. They believe mostly because they have never had an occassion to give the issue any serious thought. They go to religious weddings and funerals, the odd religious holiday service, think that they believe in God, and don't have a problem with "under God" in the Pledge. Why? Tradition, and little more. Religion doesn't mean a lot to these people, they aren't actively involved in churches, and they believe in God for the same reason that they think that men shouldn't wear dresses, buildings shouldn't have thirteen floors, the fork should be placed on the left side of the plate, and R should come before S in the phone book. This is especially common in liberal Christian infant baptism churches.

And, the number is falling in some places. Liberal protestantism in Northern Europe, Australasia, Canada (and even the U.S.) is losing ground rapidly to secularism.

Catholics in most of the developed world (with the possible exception of Ireland), are also becoming secularized, although in Latin America, Africa and Asia, this is not necessarily the case.

In the Islamic world, secularism is often the only real alternative to Islamic fundamentalism, because there is less of an institutional base for "liberal Islam".

I hesitate to say that secularism is a worldwide pheneomena though. Christianity, especially indigenous brands, is thriving in Africa. Evangelical Protestantism is a powerful force in the face of a dying (although vibrant compared to the U.S.) Catholic church in Latin America. India is seeing a new surge of Hindu extremism. The U.S. is seeing a simulatenous growth of fundamentalist Christianity, and secularization, burning the mainline Christian churches away from both ends. Much of Asia is well "seeking and confused" . . . Asia is a cauldron of new religious movements so new that most Westerners don't even know their names. Christianity is making some inroads there. The retreat of communism is leading to the restoration of traditional beliefs. All this blends easily in a place where polyreligousity is the norm (i.e. you can belong to more than one religion at once).

People who don't control their own destinies want to be able to have someone on their side.