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Old 01-05-2003, 10:01 AM   #1
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Default Atheist population statistics

I got these from David B. Barrett's World Christian Encyclopedia:
Code:

Group (numbers in millions)     1900    1970   mid-2000  mid-2002   2025

Christians (total all kinds)    558.1  1236.3   1999.6    2050.6    2616.7
Nonreligious                      3.0   532.1    768.2     780.6     875.1
Atheists                          0.2   165.4    150.1     150.8     159.5
Does anyone know of other numbers from reliable sources?
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Old 01-05-2003, 03:56 PM   #2
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And what's the difference between atheist and nonreligious?

And why on earth is the trend for nonreligious going down in 2025 when the past trends have it rising sharply?

Hmmm....
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Old 01-05-2003, 04:01 PM   #3
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Quote:
Originally posted by Grizzly
And what's the difference between atheist and nonreligious?

There are a lot of people who say "I don't believe in any one religion but I do believe in God". We are deluding ourselves if we think everyone who is nonreligious is an atheist (or even an agnostic.)
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Old 01-05-2003, 04:07 PM   #4
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And why on earth is the trend for nonreligious going down in 2025 when the past trends have it rising sharply?
Because my eyes can't see straight... I've edited the numbers from the right row. The trend should be right now.
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Old 01-05-2003, 04:49 PM   #5
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Quote:
Originally posted by beejay
There are a lot of people who say "I don't believe in any one religion but I do believe in God". We are deluding ourselves if we think everyone who is nonreligious is an atheist (or even an agnostic.)
I see. The nonreligious are just atheists who haven't thought it through yet....
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Old 01-05-2003, 05:15 PM   #6
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American Religious Identification Survey 2001
Notably in this survey, they had 5 groups in "No Religion": Atheist, Agnostic, Humanist, Secular, and No Religion. I could answer affirmatively for 4 of the 5.

Also of interest: Americans Struggle with Religion's Role at Home and Abroad
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Old 01-06-2003, 02:33 AM   #7
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Question Atheist dip???

Can anyone think of an explanation for why the numbers of atheists worldwide dipped between 1970 (165.4m) and mid-2000 (150.1m)?
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Old 01-06-2003, 03:20 AM   #8
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Can anyone think of an explanation for why the numbers of atheists worldwide dipped between 1970 (165.4m) and mid-2000 (150.1m)?
I'll take a bash at it:

Neopaganism.New Age Movements.Etc.
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Old 01-06-2003, 03:34 AM   #9
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Default Re: Atheist dip???

Quote:
Originally posted by Thomas Ash
Can anyone think of an explanation for why the numbers of atheists worldwide dipped between 1970 (165.4m) and mid-2000 (150.1m)?

What also comes to mind is the breakup of the Soviet Union. I think there was alot of pressure for people to declare themselves atheists under that regime.
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Old 01-06-2003, 12:55 PM   #10
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I ran up percentages of non-religious + atheists against the total numbers and came up with the following:
[list=a][*]1900: 0.57%[*]1970: 36.07%[*]Mid-2000: 31.47%[*]Mid-2002: 31.23%[*]2025: 28.34%[/list=a]
Depressing if true. We can hope that education and increasing scientific knowledge will help reverse that trend. We also need to try to reverse the Catholic Church's stand on birth control.

Of course, the chart you show says nothing about the populations of the world's other religious groups. Islam is supposedly a fast growing religion, while the Jews are losing numbers.
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