There's always been ebbs and flows in the tide of religious sentiment. In the enlightment, there was a period of time when atheism became popular amoung great thinkers. The same thing happened in the 20th century, with greats like Bertrand Russel.

In the past 20 years, however, especially since the publication of The God Delusion (Richard Dawkins) and God is Not Great (Christopher Hitchens), atheism (or at least general irreligion) has become not just intellectual vogue, but a common position.

Why is this happening? Is religion on it's way out? Or are we going to see some sort of bounceback in the coming decade?

Post your thoughts.

I have a strong feeling the internet has a lot to do with it, it's become very easy for younger people to meet other atheists and learn about it and I have a feeling that's going to cause a steady decline throughout the next few generations. I seriously doubt religion will ever become a thing of the past though, not in our lifetimes at least.

I guess people have become more open to differing beliefs (by a considerable margin at least) much like how homosexuality is becoming (somewhat) accepted, because by the end of the day it no longer matters which sky god you believe in (or if you believe in any at all) as long as you have good character.

Quote from Exile

I have a strong feeling the internet has a lot to do with it, it's become very easy for younger people to meet other atheists and learn about it and I have a feeling that's going to cause a steady decline throughout the next few generations. I seriously doubt religion will ever become a thing of the past though, not in our lifetimes at least.

I know the internet was instrumental in my own abandonment of religion. Whether it will become a thing of the past or not remains to be seen, but I tend to agree, some form of religion is likely to persist as religions evolve.

Religion, in the traditional sense, is dying. Dogmatic, unchanging belief in a certain set of ultimatums is dying. It's unfit for our faster than ever changing lives and this age of constant new discoveries overtaking old ones. Developments in communications has made this happen faster, because people can now communicate with all kinds of other people, understand new perspectives, and become more empathetic towards people of different backgrounds instead of the tribal hive mind mentality that traditionally religion imposed. It's not that we are no longer belonging to groups, because the need to belong is coded into our genes, but rather our groups are becoming larger and more inclusive as we communicate better. I personally find that any group mentality, no matter how advanced and inclusive, could still lead to problems (political correctness being a prime example), but lets not jump to other subjects.
Spirituality and super natural belief aren't fading as much as traditional religion is, since there are many things that we are yet to be able to explain properly (in fact the more we learn the more we realize how much we don't know) and people find comfort and motivation in believing that there might a deeper meaning to it all. You never know really.
I read this article that it is almost a biological need for people to have some sort of belief in something, whether it's traditional religion, spirituality, or simply filling that void with philosophy and art. I find it highly unlikely that all of these will ever collectively fade away, maybe just traditional religion due to the hindrances it imposes.

Being exposed to the free thought nature of the Internet has opened a lot of people to atheism of lack of religion. Looking at the older generations who remain alienated to it mostly have strong held beliefs. Religion has taken a massive blow, but its still going strong, as there are still a lot of people who choose to accept whatever religion they were raised with (or however else they found it), and a lot of people enjoy religion for their own reasons. I think a lot of people before the Internet likely were atheistic but kept it to themselves, but now they feel more open to express it.

I'm curious what made a Theist become Atheist.
Was it any specific article that you came across?

I'm imagining religion will fade away one day, but probably not in our lifetime as Exile said. Why?
People will start understanding that as long as they love/understand others, they don't need any God's or an 'immortal-being's' words to justify it.

I love this comic. You're great welcome back.

Quote from Ash

You're gonna hate me, but here's a rage comic to explain it. Don't worry, I put effort into it back when rage comics were still marginally cool.

Yo this is exactly me, except I was raised Muslim and ended up being Agnostic. Stickpage debates were what first sparked my curiosity about different points of view and the possibility of mine being wrong. It just went downhill (or rather, uphill) from there really. Also Streetlight Manifesto songs had some effect on me LOL.

Quote from Ash

You're gonna hate me, but here's a rage comic to explain it. Don't worry, I put effort into it back when rage comics were still marginally cool.

Fuck I love you even more, that meme shit takes effort to make :0 (wtf that smiley came out wrong when i put 'o' in there)
This meme could appeal to all the young kids out there, giving them a chance to think on their own. You could make reall good use of that meme in your website.
And you're pretty savage to go against religion like that (in your website), which I believe you're doing for a greater cause. But I'd also say that you don't need to put your life on the line to make people realize this. There are subtle ways to do it without inviting potential danger.
Just sayin'

Quote from S.A.

Fuck I love you even more, that meme shit takes effort to make :0 (wtf that smiley came out wrong when i put 'o' in there)
This meme could appeal to all the young kids out there, giving them a chance to think on their own. You could make reall good use of that meme in your website.
And you're pretty savage to go against religion like that (in your website), which I believe you're doing for a greater cause. But I'd also say that you don't need to put your life on the line to make people realize this. There are subtle ways to do it without inviting potential danger.
Just sayin'

He doesn't live in a country where he's putting his life on the line by publicly challenging religion, unlike me, or maybe you.

Quote from Salt

He doesn't live in a country where he's putting his life on the line by publicly challenging religion, unlike me, or maybe you.

You never know who's watching you until it's too late.

Quote from S.A.

You never know who's watching you until it's too late.

Dude people don't get legally executed or beat by mobs to death over opinions regarding religion in the US or Europe (unless you live in Bradford UK huehue). Ash is perfectly safe. There's way more outspoken people than him when it comes to atheism and they're perfectly fine.
Lets not derail the thread anymore.

Quote from Salt

Dude people don't get legally executed or beat by mobs to death over opinions regarding religion in the US or Europe (unless you live in Bradford UK huehue). Ash is perfectly safe. There's way more outspoken people than him when it comes to atheism and they're perfectly fine.
Lets not derail the thread anymore.

Yeah, I have my Facebook public, it says I'm an agnostic atheist, and I wear this shirt in public sometimes. I'm in the US (In Oklahoma, which is actually one of the most religious parts of the US):