Religion’s Sudden Decline: What’s Causing it and What Comes Next, with Ronald Inglehart

Broadcast 1/29/2021 at 4:08 PM EST (16 Listens, 12 Downloads, 2456 Itunes)
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Religion, throughout much of the world, is fading.

That's what author Ronald Inglehart's book, Religion's Sudden Decline: What's Causing it and What Comes Next, tells us.

Professor Inglehart has based his conclusions on a massive studyThe World Values Survey, which tracks responses to people in 100 societies representing 90% of the world's population. It's a study that they've been doing the past forty years.

The World Values Survey has found that People's interest in Religion is massively declining. There are clear reasons for the decline. The decreasing interest in religion is affecting cultures and we discuss how the factors causing the decline in religion including increased economic security, sexual freedom, abortion, birth control, economic success, higher minimum wage, medicare, are seen as an attack on religion.

Let me repeat, many of the freedoms, the benefits of a successful democracyeconomic security, sexual freedom, economic success, higher minimum wage, medicare, safe streets, decent educationthese are literally threats to religion and the cause of its decline. It's no wonder that the 25-30% of the US population who are the most religiously conservativemostly southern evangelical Christians are opposed to rights related to sexual freedom and help from the government, through funding or regulations, that help people live better lives.

The World Values survey has found that Economic and cultural changes linked with modernization tend to bring declining emphasis on religion. The statistics on religious decline in the US and Europe, and even in traditionally more religious South America are phenomenal. They're huge. We go into details later in this show.

But as a teaser here's one set of statistics:

.Of people born between 1894 and 1903 42% said God was important in their lives.

One hundred years later among People born between 1994 and 2003 only 11% said God was important in their lives.

This interview really set off some lightbulbs for me. It made me realize that some of the benefits and issues progressives and Democrats fight for the most are literally a threat to religion. Understanding that made it clear that right wingers not only don't want those "goodies." They see them as mortal threats to their religion and to their culture.

In the more extreme cases, we see people literally killed for being threats to the religious cultures. That applies to education and media too. Let me repeat. People are killed because they threaten the local religious culture. That explains the people who continue to cultishly continue to support Donald Trump and the QAnon myth.

One more piece. The key factor that ties these ideas together is making babies. Religious societies have rules that enforce women living and behaving in ways that maximize production of babies. We'll talk about how things are changing and what's coming next and how religion supports s authoritarian, top down culture.

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