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Secularization is accelerating. From 1981 to 2007, the publics of most countries moved toward placing more importance on God; but from 2007 to 2020, the overwhelming majority moved toward placing less importance on God. The United States has long been cited as the key evidence that modernization need not bring secularization, but in the latest survey it showed the largest shift of any country away from religion and now ranks as the world's 12th least religious
country.? One generally-overlooked reason is that, for centuries, a set of norms evolved that encourage women to produce as many children as possible and discourages divorce, abortion, homosexuality, contraception, and any other sexual behavior not linked with reproduction. These norms were needed for
societies to survive, facing high infant mortality and low life expectancy, but they require people to suppress strong natural urges that no longer are needed for survival, and are rapidly eroding, undermining religiosity.
About the author
Ronald F. Inglehart is the Lowenstein Professor of Political Science emeritus at the University of Michigan. He helped found the Euro-Barometer surveys and is Founding President of the World Values Survey Association, which since 1981 has repeatedly surveyed representative national samples of the publics of 108 countries containing over 90 percent of the world's population. He is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and of the American Academy of Political and Social Science and has three honorary doctorates.
Summary
Mass attachment to religion is rapidly declining in most of the world; Why, and What comes next?
The world is becoming less religious. Since 2007, there has been a pervasive decline in religious belief and most of the world's people now say that God is less important in their lives than they said He was in the quarter century before 2007. The American public showed the most dramatic shift of all. The United States, which for many years stood as a highly religious outlier among the world's high-income countries, now ranks as the 12th least religious country for which data are available. Many factors contributed to this dramatic worldwide shift, but as Inglehart shows, certain ones stand out. For centuries, virtually all major religions encouraged women to stay home and produce as many children as possible; and they sternly discouraged divorce, abortion, homosexuality, contraception, and any other form of sexual behavior not linked with reproduction. These norms were necessary for societies to survive when facing high infant mortality and low life expectancy: societies that didn't instill them tended to die out. Recent technological advances have greatly increased life expectancy and cut infant mortality to a tiny fraction of its historic levels, making these norms no longer necessary for societal survival. These norms require repressing strong natural urges, but, since they present traditional norms as absolute values, most religions strongly resist change. The resulting tension, together with the fact that rising existential security has made people less dependent on religion, opened the way for an exodus from religion. Utilizing a massive global data base, Inglehart analyzes the conditions under which religiosity collapses, and explores its implications for the future.
Additional text
In Religion's Sudden Decline,... Ronald F. Inglehart points specifically to the rise of what he calls "existential security" as the key driver, presenting global survey data that show that countries with high political stability and low socioeconomic inequality are more secular than those with the opposite characteristics.
