Secularism will decline worldwide while religion grows, according to a new study in the journal Evolutionary Psychological Science.
The findings, reported in the Times, observed more than 4,000 students in Malaysia and the United States, and found that the more religious they were, the more children they would end up having.
According to the researchers, the proportion of secularists in the world population will “slowly diminish”, while the number of religious believers will rise.
The chief reason, the study concluded, was that since the 19th century the non-religious have been much more likely to use contraception.
The authors wrote: “It is ironical that effective birth control methods were developed primarily by secularists, and that these methods are serving to slowly diminish the proportional representation of secularists in forthcoming generations.”
The new study observes that the “secularisation thesis’’, which holds that atheistic attitudes will gradually replace religion over time, has been dominant “for over a century”, but that there is increasing scepticism among researchers about the thesis.
The authors defend what they call a “contra-secularisation hypothesis”, meaning that secularism will decline “throughout the remainder of the 21st century, including in Europe and other industrial societies”.
The Pew Research Centre has projected that the proportion of “religiously unaffiliated” people in the world population will decline from 16 per cent today to 13 per cent by 2050. The foundation also predicts that Muslims will be the fastest-growing religious group, and will be nearly as large as the number of Christians by 2050.
US bishops criticise Trump’s new travel ban
American bishops have expressed concern following the introduction of a revised travel ban.
After President Donald Trump’s latest executive order banning arrivals from six majority-Muslim nations, Bishop Joe Vasquez of Austin, Texas, chairman of the US bishops’ committee on migration, said Mr Trump’s new order still puts vulnerable populations at risk.
“We remain deeply troubled by the human consequences” of the order, he said in a statement. “While we note the administration’s efforts to modify the executive order in light of various legal concerns, the revised order still leaves many innocent lives at risk.”
The revised version replaces Mr Trump’s earlier order, which has been blocked in the courts. The new order imposes a 90-day ban on issuing visas to people from six predominantly Muslim nations: Iran, Libya, Somalia, Syria, Sudan and Yemen. Iraq is no longer on the list.
It also suspends the US refugee programme for all countries for 120 days; Syrian refugees are no longer banned indefinitely. The order limits the total number of refugees to be admitted this fiscal year to 50,000, down from 110,000.
The order also excludes lawful permanent residents – green card holders – from any travel ban. The new order will take effect on March 16.
Bishop Vasquez said the Catholic bishops were disappointed that the order still temporarily shuts down the refugee admissions programme, reduces by more than 60 per cent the number of refugees who can enter the country, and bars nationals from six countries.
He said the bishops recognised the importance of ensuring public safety. “However, based on the knowledge that refugees are already subjected to the most vigorous vetting process of anyone who enters the United States, there is no merit to pausing the refugee resettlement programme while considering further improvement to that vetting process.”
Bill O’Keefe, vice president for advocacy and government relations at Catholic Relief Services, said: “As the world’s most blessed nation, we should be doing more to provide assistance overseas and resettle the most vulnerable, not less.”
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