History of Islam

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Religious Beliefs

What is Religion?

Defining religion is not that easy.  There have been as many attempts to define religion as to explain its origin.1  Broadly saying, religion is a set of beliefs and behaviours based on a shared worldview that separates the sacred, or supernatural, from the profane.2 Basic paradigm of religion is existence of a sprit which cannot be cognized by human senses.

When did religion start?

Earliest evidence of religious practices comes from a cave located in Tsodilo Hills of present day Botswana.  It is a 70,000 years old rock, shaped like a snake, to which offerings were given.3  Evidence of ritualistic behaviour in humans is even older.  As we continue to dig deeper in the past, evidence of presence of religion in human thought continues to surface.  Religion is so ancient that scholars have started hypothysing that it is selected evolutionally4 and that religion is bio-cultural adaptation.5 During the past decade scholars have started suggesting that a cognitive bias in human thought process leads to acceptance of religious believes.6 This hypothesis gets strength when we find religion is ‘human universal.’7 Belief in supernatural agents and the entailed religious practices occur in virtually all human cultures.8 Interestingly, Andrew Newberg has measured intense brain activity during religious experience.9

Maturation of religious thoughts

Religious believes have definitely perfected gradually.  Animism, which is a general belief in the ‘animation of all nature’, is fundamental to religion.  Animism includes a belief in ‘personal soul’ as well as a sense of spiritual beings inhabiting trees, and rocks and waterfalls and all nature.10  This is the oldest religious concept that can be traced in human society using a technique called Phylogeny.11  Then came belief in afterlife, it was followed by shamanism and ancestor worship.  Believe in ancestor spirits or high gods active in human affairs was the last of all.12

What we find being believed and practiced today is ‘organized religion’.13  Gobekli Tepe is one of the oldest towns ever built on the face of earth.  Its ruins are located in modern day Turkey in an area that belongs topographically to Mesopotamia.  It was here that hunters and gatherers built a temple twelve thousand years ago – the first temple ever erected by humans.14  Archaeologists have established that the temple was already in place and functioning when city started developing around it. This discovery has revolutionized our understanding of organized religion.  Now, we can discard the old hypothesis that development of agriculture lead to permanent settlements and can replace it with a new hypothesis that organized religion brought many hunter gatherers together to one location and provided them with incentive to stay there.  Gobekli Tepe proves beyond doubt that development of private property or state did not inaugurate organized religion.  Organized religion was well established long before birth of state or institution of private property.

Earlier religions were polytheistic but gradually religious thought reached doctrine of monotheism.   Earliest hint of appearance of monotheism comes from the policies of Akhenaten, the Egyptian Pharaoh who ruled from c. 1356 BCE to c. 1336 BCE.15  He discouraged worship of all gods except Aten in his kingdom.    Monotheistic concept of Akhenaten was rudimentary and soon disappeared after his death.  Note a hymn created for Aten and inscribed on his temple:

How Manifold it is, what thou hast made!
They are hidden from the face (of man).

O sole god, like whom there is no other!
Thou didst create the world according to thy desire.16

Jar from Kuntilat Ajrud: Yahwah and his Ashera

Jar from Kuntilat Ajrud: Yahwah and his Ashera.

Monotheism developed step by step afresh, and probably independent of Akhenaten’s influence, in Judaea and Israel, two ancient states of the Middle East.17  In two separate inscriptions painted on jars found in Kuntilat Ajrud in Sinai Peninsula, and dated to 8th century BCE it is written ‘Yahwah of Samaria and his Ashera’ and ‘Yahwah of Teiman and his Ashera’.18   This archaeological evidence gives an impression to Ruether that Yahwah was married to (or coupled with) the goddess Asherah.19  By that time pure monotheism of Yahwah had not developed.  It was only after sack of Jerusalem in 587 BCE and exile of Jews to Babylon that Yahwah is mentioned as the only god of Jews of Babylon.20

Since then monotheism has never retreated.

Benefits of religion

Even if religion is evolutionary adaptation to environment, the question is what sustains religion?  Belief in religion gives ample advantages to individual and social group.  Sociologists have discovered that religious rituals lead to high level of cooperation among humans.21 Belief in morally punishing high gods enhances prosociality, enhances growth and stability of society.22 Religion provides a strong coping mechanism to an individual to face stressors of life.  Medical research is establishing that believers lead a happier life than non-believers.23  It gives a purposeful pattern to life, for example marriage and children.  A recent study performed by Pew Research Center, and published on April 12, 2016 confirms it. This study established that highly religious Americans are more engaged with their extended families, more likely to volunteer and more involved in their communities and generally happier with the ways things are going in their lives.  Here high religiosity was defined as daily prayer and weekly attendance of religious service.  40 % highly religious people describe themselves “very happy” as compared to only 29% of those who are less religious.24  Wish of emotional happiness sustains religion.

Science

Let’s now convert out attention towards science.  Just like religion, it is difficult to define science exactly.  According to the Science Council of United Kingdom, which spent one year developing its definition,25 science is the pursuit and application of knowledge and understanding of the natural and social world following a systematic methodology based on evidence.26 Basic paradigm of science is quite opposite from that of religion.  Scientific paradigm is that material world is devoid of any spirit that is incomprehensive to human senses.  Nature can be understood and explained without involving any sprit.  Science believes that material world is real and not a creation of our mind.  It has its own laws which are independent of our wishes.  Science can discover laws governing physical world bit by bit by bit.  Only then we are able to harness and modify material world around us. Science understands that natural and social worlds are not completely understood yet but doesn’t believe that there are some things or phenomena which humans can never understand.

Thales (C. 624 BCE – 546 BCE) who lived in Miletus (present day Turkey) and wrote in Greek, is credited to be the first scientist.27  He survives only though writings of later Greek philosophers.  He hypothized that earth floats on a sea of water and waves in the water produce earthquakes.28  Here we see Thales is explaining phenomenon of earthquakes without involving High Spirit or gods.

Though Thales is the first human being recorded in the history who thought on these lines, it is still possible that there were humans living on this earth before him who used to think on these lines but could not survive in history.  It is further possible that this kind of thought process is as ancient as humans themselves and is another bio-cultural adaptation.

Benefits of science. 

Even if scientific process is fundamental logic of human mind, the question is what sustains it.  We know advancement in technology is root cause of material progress in human life.  And technology is dependent on scientific knowledge.  Further, scientific knowledge is dependent upon level of available technology.  Both science and technology advance with help of each other.  The way left foot helps the right and the right foot helps the left in walking.  Let’s take an example.  Discovery of DNA by biologists as genetic material was a fundamental breakthrough in scientific knowledge.  It led to a wide variety of technologies. DNA fingerprinting, genetically engineered crops, tests for genetic diseases and confirmation of paternity are a few.  Then technology of DNA copying, DNA sequencing has led to further scientific discoveries, like reconstruction of evolutionary relationship among organisms.  Wish of comfortable life sustains science.  Science is here to stay, just like religion.

Conflict between religion and science

As we have seen above, basic paradigm of religion and science contrast each other.  Most of the times science and religion maintain peaceful co-existence but sometimes they clash violently.  Clash of Galileo and Church is classic example.29  Science came out successful in this clash and ultimately church apologized for its actions.30  Galileo was followed by a number of scientists working in the field of astronomy, from Newton31 to Lemaitre32, who put forward theories and ideas that were in conflict with religious teachings.  Not only in the field of astronomy, it happened in many other branches of science, for example biology.  Darwin33 proposed his theory of evolution which was in contrast with religious teachings.

Religion did not try to silence scientists violently after Galileo.  It discovered its own coping mechanism.  Evidence comes from recent studies.  In a study of general American population conducted in 2013, it was found that 33% of Americans reject Darwin’s idea of evolution categorically saying “humans and other living things have existed in their present form since the beginning of time.”  The other 24% believe that “a supreme being guided the evolution of living things for the purpose of creating humans and other life in the form it exists today.” Only 32% Americans accept Darwin’s theory of evolution as valid on its face value and believe that “humans and other living things have evolved over time due to natural processes such as natural selection.”34  Detailed data is not available about Muslim’s believes on evolution.  It might not be very different from that of the American data.  We know that only 54 % Muslims living in Southern-Eastern Europe, 54 % in Central Asia, 39 % in Southeast Asia, 30 % in South Asia and 58 % in Middle East and North Africa believe that living things have evolved over time.35

Here we see two important coping mechanisms of religion to counter theoretical assault of science.  One, outright rejection of scientific evidence; second, science still has to prove that High Spirit is not behind all phenomena.

As a matter of fact, religious community has got used to science’s antagonism to religion to the extent that they don’t see any clash here.  68% Americans, in a study of 2016, do not see any conflict between science and their own religious believes. And those who see clash, religion often takes precedence.36  Similar is the case of Muslims.  50 % of Muslims living in Southern-Eastern Europe, 61 % in Central Asia, 54 % in Southeast Asia, 45 % in South Asia and 75 % in the Middle East and North Africa see no conflict between religion and science.37

Some accepted the Darwinian Theory in toto and are now distant from religion.  A lot rejected it totally as false and are now religious.  Significant managed to accommodate both religion and science. People who have ability to accommodate religion and science simultaneously, the way we have capability to accommodate two languages with entirely opposite grammar, are generally in large number in any community.  They fail to see any clash between religion and science. In an interesting study done in 2015, 73% of Americans who seldom or never attend religious services on weekly basis see a conflict between science and religion, while only 50 % of those who attend religious service weekly see such conflict.38

Chart of height of North American men

Chart of IQ of North American men

Fig. 1:  Above height pattern.  Below Intelligence pattern

If we measure any human trait in a given population of humans and plot its distribution on a graph we develop a bell shaped curve.  Let’s take example of one trait that is easy to measure accurately.  Fig. 1 upper part represents distribution of male’s height among a given population.  There are very few who are absolutely short.  There are similarly few who are absolutely tall.  A great deal of people find their place in the middle, swelling the curve upwards in the center.  Let’s take example of another trait, which is slightly more difficult to measure objectively.  Fig. 1 lower part represents a distribution curve of human intelligence measured in I.Q.  Again we see that a few peoples are on the margins, both highly unintelligent and highly intelligent.  Great majority of humans find their place in the middle.  Religiosity cannot be measured precisely as it is a deeply subjective feeling.     But if we would successfully measure it one day and plot it on a graph it would presumably look like the curve shown in fig. 1 for any given culture, similar to the curves of other human traits.  Small number of people would find their place on extremes, extremely religious on one end and extremely anti-religious (atheists) on the other end.  Great majority of people would fit in the middle.  Who are these people?  They can be conveniently called secular.  Secular are the people who believe in both religion and in science but know how to keep both separate.  They also know on which occasion either science or religion should be utilized.

Is religion “very important”?

By asking how important is religion in your life? and positioning the answer on a scale from not at all, not too much, somewhat important to very important, we can measure religiosity of a group/nation/culture/country roughly.  This question was asked by Pew Research Center to 45000 people living in 47 countries located on all the continents and in all regions of the world, with all kind of economic back grounds and all kind of religious backgrounds.  It was found that importance of religion varies widely from 3% in China to 98% in Ethiopia.  Then the researchers plotted the data along with per capita income of these countries based upon Purchasing Power Parity (PPP).  It was found that there is a relationship between income and religiosity.39  Since ‘do you believe in a religion?’ was not the question, rather the question was ‘how much important is religion for you?’, it appears that richer a person, lesser he needs using religion.  It is an indirect proof that religion is used as a coping mechanism against odds of life.  Further, it is an indirect proof that the bell shaped curve of religiosity is not symmetrical in all societies.  It gets skewed towards one end or other, depending upon economic condition of a country.  The same study, mentioned above, points out that economic prosperity does not reduce religiosity in Muslim-majority countries as much as it does in other countries.   Muslims are more religious than their peers with same income level belonging to other religions.

Current Muslim believes

Today, Muslim’s belief in Oneness of Allah (tauḥīd) and prophet hood of Prophet Muhammad (risālat), is universal according to Pew Research Center.40  So is their belief in core Muslim religious rituals, such as fasting during Ramaḍān.41  Pew surveyed 38000 Muslims living in 39 countries.  According to results 97% Muslims all over the world express that believing in Shahādah and vocalizing it to reiterate belief in Allah and Prophet Muhammad is essential to Islam.  93 % Muslims all over the world fast in Ramaḍān, 63% pray salāt and 9% have performed Hajj.42  These are median readings.  There are some regional variations.  For example, fasting is nearly universal in South Asia and South East Asia.  While in Europe and Central Asia fewer than half of Muslims fast.

Muslim worships have a hierarchy according to the canon.  Shahādah is obligatory even at deathbed.  Salāt is obligatory in all conditions except when unconscious.  Fasting has many exemptions like sickness, travel etc. Here point to note is that fasting in Ramaḍān has become more popular among Muslims as compared to daily salāt all year round.

Paying zakāt is religiously followed by Muslims.  The percentage of Muslims who perform this religious duty is 93% in Southeast Asia, 89% in South Asia, 79% in the Middle East and North Africa, 77 % in Sub Saharan Africa, 69% in Central Asia and 56% in Southern-Eastern Europe.43

Pilgrimage to Mecca (hajj), which is the least obligatory of Muslim worships, is getting more and more popular.  More than 3 million people performed Hajj in 2012.  Out of them 64% were men and 55% had come from outside of Saudi Arabia according to the government of Saudi Arabia.  According to the Pew Research Center a study conducted in 39 countries and mentioned above, 9% Muslims have made a pilgrimage to Mecca. The closer they are to Mecca more of them have performed it. For example 20% of Egyptians have performed it while only 3% of Indonesians had a chance to perform it.  3% of Southern-Eastern European Muslims have done it.  This number is also 3% for central Asians.  6% of South Asian Muslims have done it.  8% of Southeast Asians have done it and 17% of Middle East-North Africans have done it.44

Muslims believe that Qurʾān is world of Allah and should be taken literally, world by world. Extensive data is not available for this hypothesis though, in a study performed on Sub Saharan African Muslims about 90% confirmed this belief.45 Similar results, reiterating this belief, were obtained by a study on US Muslims where 86 % believe that the Qurʾān is world of Allah and it should be taken literally, word by word.46  We do not have any reasons to doubt if similar studies are conducted on Muslims living in other parts of the world, results would be drastically different.

Muslims believe in day of judgement (Youm al Qyāmah), Heaven (Jannah) and Hell (Jahannum).   Belief in Heaven is more popular and stands at 98% in South Asia, 97% in the Middle East and North Africa, 96% in South East Asia, 95% in Sub Saharan Africa, 90% in Central Asia and 74 % in Southern-Eastern Europe.  Belief in Hell is slightly less popular and stands at 93% in South Asia, 90% in the Middle East and North Africa, 95% in Southeast Asia, 85% in Sub Saharan Africa, 85% in Central Asia and 67% in Southern-Eastern Europe.47

Muslims believe that future is pre-determined (fate) and Allah is omnipotent over it.  This belief is expressed in their expression insha Allah.  Actually 93% of Muslims living in the Middle East and North Africa, 91% in South Asia, 89% in Southeast Asia, 88% in Central Asia and 57% in Souther-Eastern Europe believe in fate.48

The unity among Muslims on core believes and worships of Islam starts to disintegrate when other fields of beliefs are explored.  For example, opinions vary widely among Muslims about Sharia law.  While 99% people of Afghanistan, 91% of Iraq and 85% of Pakistan believe that Sharia law should be the official law of the country, this rate drops to 12% in Turkey, 10% in Kazakhstan and 8% in Azerbaijan.49

Let’s look at another belief – “trying to convert others to Islam is a religious duty”.  Majorities in all Muslim-majority countries located in Sub Saharan Africa, Middle East and North Africa and South Asia believe in it.   Among Southeast Asian countries there is only one exception where majority doesn’t believe in it and that is Indonesia.  In Central Asia opposite is true, majority in most of the countries do not think trying to convert others to Islam is a religious duty.  The only exception in Central Asia is Turkmenistan where majority believes it is religious duty.  Majorities of countries in southern and Eastern Europe also do not think so, with Russia 40 % agreeing to this.50

Religious difference between Sunnis and Shias

Sunni Islam has four basic schools of thought.  1) Hanafi: founded by Abu Ḥanīfa (d. 767 CE) in Iraq.  It is prevalent in Turkey, Central Asia, the Balkans, Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, Afghanistan, Pakistan, India and Bangladesh.  2) Maliki: founded by Mālik bin Anas (d. 795) in Arabia.  It is prevalent in North Africa, Mauritania, Kuwait and Bahrain.  3) Shaf’i: founded by Muhammad ibn Idris al-Shāfi’i (d. 819 CE).  It is prevalent in Egypt, Sudan, Ethiopia, Somalia and parts of Yemen, Indonesia and Malaysia.  4) Hanbali: founded by Ahmad Hanbal (d. 855).  It is prevalent in Saudi Arabia, Qatar parts of Oman and United Arab Emirates.

Shi’a Islam has many sects.  All agree that Ali was the first rightful imam.  They disagree on his descendants.  The largest is ‘Twelver Shi’a’ who believe in twelve imams.  They live in Iran, Iraq, Lebanon and Bahrain.  Ismaili was the first branch to separate from main Shia body in eighth century and are the second largest shi’a group.  They believe in only seven imams, ending at imam Isma’il.  Historically ismaili were more prone to pursuing military and territorial power as compared to Twelvers.  Today they are prominent in Afghanistan, India and Pakistan, East Africa and South Africa.  Imam Ghaib sect started in late 9th century.

As far as core Islamic values are concerned no research has found any significant difference in religious beliefs of Muslims belonging to different sects including Shias and Sunnis.  Data from Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, Iran, Iraq and Lebanon shows that Shias and Sunnis are united in their belief in key tenets of Islam, with near universal belief in Allah, and Prophet Muhammad.  Levels of religious practice vary more by country than by sect, with Sunnis and Shias who live side-by-side largely mirroring each other in their rates of fasting and daily prayers.51

Petty differences, however, on minor issues are present.  When a survey was conducted in Iraq about vising shrines of Muslim saints, Shias nearly unanimously (98%) approved the idea while only two thirds of Sunnis (65%) said it is acceptable.  In Iran visiting shrines of Muslim saints is accepted by 89% Shias and only 28% Sunnis.  In countries where Shias are particularly less, Sunnis are further reluctant to accept it. For example in Egypt only 4% and in Jordan only 3% Sunnis accept it.  Here one should note that 99% of Lebanon Shia and 98% of Sunnis accept going to shrines.52

Religious differences between Muslims of East and West

Now a days sizable Muslim population is living in ‘the West.’  Are they similar to the peers living elsewhere or are they different? Let’s have a closer look.  In a study performed by Geneive Abdo for Pew Research Center and published on September 1, 2017, 97% American Muslims feel proud of their Islamic faith.  Belief in God (85%), loving Prophet Muhammad (72%) and following Qurʾān and Sunnah (59 %) top the list of ‘essential’ to be Muslim.53  Here, one can see, their core believes are similar to the Muslims living elsewhere but intensity is a bit less.  Moreover, there is a big gap between believing in God and following Qurʾān and Sunnah, roughly 26%.

In a study carried out by Elizabeth Podrebarac Sciupac for Pew Research Center and published on August 28, 2017, 43% American Muslims attend mosque once a week.  18% out of them attend more than once a week.  Additional 32% attend once or twice a month or a few times a year.  This attendance rate, according to researcher is similar to that of American Christians.  42% of Muslims pray all the five salāh daily, while 17% pray at least some of the salāh daily.54

American Muslims reject suicidal bombing more vigorously (81%) than Muslims all over (72%).  They believe that other religions can also lead to eternal salvation (56%) as compared to Muslims all over (18%).  They tend to believe less in evolution (45%) than Muslims all over (53%).  They are more adapt to modern life and say there is no tension between religiously devout and living in modern society (63%) as compared to Muslims all over (54%).  They are similar to other Muslims in believing that there is no conflict between science and religion (59%) compared to 54% elsewhere.55

52% of American Muslims feel a need to reinterpret traditional understanding of Islam.  And 64% accept there could be more than one way to interpret Islam.56

How Muslims look at themselves

A study was conducted in 23 countries with significant Muslim population.  They were asked to rate if their personal lives reflect hadith and sunnah of the Prophet.  Majority of Muslims in 20 out of 23 countries see that their personal lives reflect hadith and sunnah to some extent or to great extent.  These countries are Russia, Bosnia-Herz. Turkery, Azerbaijan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Iraq, Morocco, Lebanon, Palestine, Egypt and Tunisia.  The only three countries where majority doesn’t think that their lives reflect hadith and sunnah are Kosovo, Albania and Kazakhstan.57  They were also asked to rate if lives of Muslims living in other countries reflect hadith and sunnah.  Interestingly, majority of Muslims living in a given country think their lives are according to sunnah but they perceive that Muslims living in other countries don’t have this blessing.  This perception is throughout the board but is most conspicuous in the Middle East and North Africa.58 This kind of data suggests that all Muslims are trying to lead a life according to a version of Islam which is their own ideal.  When they see other Muslims deviating from their ideal Islam, they perceive them not following true Islam.

Here, it is noteworthy that sometimes Muslims strike a sect completely out of Islam, perceiving that their beliefs even don’t match with core values of Islam.  Currently Ahmadiyya are such a sect.   Ahmadiyya sect started in present day India in 1889 but main body of its adherents moved to Pakistani Punjab after partition of India.59  Currently they are guessed to be ten million by Encyclopaedia of Islam60 and are distributed all over Pakistan, India and Western countries.  In a survey conducted in Pakistan in 2013, 66% Pakistani Muslims do not consider Ahmadiyya sect to be Muslim. 7% Pakistani Muslims still believe that they are Muslim while 26% avoid answering by saying they don’t know.61  Worth noting is that a sizable minority avoids to answer this question.

Sometimes a sect arises out of Muslims and attains status of a separate religion.  Example is Bahai religion which was started by Siyyid ‘Ali Muhammad Bāb in Shiraz in 1844 and continued by Husayn Ali Bahā Ullah and declared a separate religion in 1863.62

Decrease in ritual practice

Despite religion being stable in many countries of the world ritual practice is losing popularity.  For example, 91% of Orthodox Christians living in Russia and Esatern European countries believe in God but only 10% attend weekly church.63  This phenomenon is still not observed among Muslims.  Their participation in ritual practice is still much higher than other religions.

Non practicing Muslims

A study performed by Geneive Abdo for Pew Research Center and published on September 1, 2017 found that almost 10% of American Muslims feel that believing in God is not essential to be a Muslim.64  Probably they are the ones who associate themselves with Islam, though they are ‘non practicing’ themselves.  Further evidence comes from another study.  This was carried out by Elizabeth Podrebarac Sciupac for Pew Research Center and published on August 28, 2017.  According to this study overwhelming majority of American Muslims pray salāh.   Some of them pray all five daily, some pray once a week, some even lesser.65  But 15% of them never pray.  This 15% mark is very near to 10% who say that believing in God is not necessary to be Muslim.  If a similar study is conducted in other countries on Muslims, similar results are expected.  In most likelihood they are non-believers but still associate themselves with Islam.  non-believer Muslims, sometimes called atheist Muslims, have been known from the very inception of the religion.66

Atheism

Here it would not be out of place to discuss ‘Atheism’.  Islam, as a spiritual ideology, has always competed with other spiritual ideologies, like Christianity or Hinduism.  People are well familiar with such ideologies.  To most people Atheism, as a spiritual ideology, is a new phenomenon.

Religiously non-affiliated people are on a rise in the USA, Canada and much of Europe.67  If we look at statistics of the USA alone, in 1980’s less than one out of ten Americans had no religious affiliations.68  Now (2017) their proportion has increased to 27% in the USA.69  Trend of increase in non-affiliated can be seen in many other societies as well.  For example in Brazil their number has increased from 1% of total population in 1970 to 8% in 2010.70

Actually religiously non-affiliated now make the third biggest religious group in world after Christians and Muslims.  And in this capacity they have posed a serious challenge to continued existence of religion. They are currently 1.17 billion the world over (16% roughly) in 2015.71  Religiously non-affiliated have even gained majority in at least one country – Czech Republic – where they make 72% of total population.72

Though religiously non-affiliated are present in all societies and every country, they are concentrated in a few countries, like any other religion.  One of them is China where 60% of world’s non-affiliated (700 million) live.73  China banned all religions from 1966 to 1976 during Cultural Revolution.  During these years all religious venues were closed and religious leaders persecuted.  Religion disappeared from public life but survived in private homes.  In 1979 ban on religions was lifted.  Currently Chinese government recognizes only Muslims, Protestants, Catholics, Tao and Buddhists as religious groups and allows them to organize themselves in associations.74  Chinese government did not recognize traditional Chinese religions, like Confucius religion, as legitimate even after ban was lifted in 1979.  This policy did not give an opportunity to almost half of Chinese to associate with any religion.  So much is the number of non-affiliated in China.

Contrary to China, Conversion is main responsible of their rise in the USA, Canada and much of Europe.75

A detailed analysis of those who showed low religious commitment in USA in 2007 and their comparison with those who showed low religious commitment in 2014 gives informative results.  In 2007 out those who showed low religious commitment 28% percent were Christians, 7% were from non-Christian faiths, 63% were un-affiliated and 2% did not describe any religion.  In 2014 their percentage changed in such a way that out of them 19% were Christians, 8% were non-Christian faiths, 72% were unaffiliated and 1% did not describe their religion.  Christians lost 9% points and non-affiliated gained 9% point.76  The analysis shows that religious non-affiliated are gaining mainly at the cost of Christians in the USA.  Data from other countries confirms it.  In Canada Protestants were 41% in 1971 they decreased to 27% in 2011; Catholics were 47% in 1971, they decreased to 39% in 2011.  Minority religions (Islam, Hinduism, Sikhism, Buddhism, Judaism and Eastern Orthodox Christianity) were 4% in 1971 they increased to 11 % in 2011.  Unaffiliated were 4% in 1971, they increased to 24 % in 2011.77  Canada has very similar pattern of growth of religiously non-affiliated to that of the USA over 1970 to 2010.

Why are so many people living in ‘the West’ converting to religiously non-affiliated?  Answer could be manifold.  Up to now two factors have come to light.  One, floated by Smith and Cooperman, is that there is growing religious tolerance in the USA.  Religiously non-affiliated, who previously shunned from expressing their beliefs, have got bold.78  It has become socially acceptable to declare non-religious affiliations.  Part of it is due to real growth of non-affiliated people.  Second, discovered by Lipka, is that non-affiliated fail to believe in religion logically.79

Non-affiliated, like any other religion, are of different varieties.  One of them are Atheists.  They are the one who clearly identify that they do not believe in any supernatural spirit.  Their number has doubled from 1.6% of total population in 2007 to 3.1% of total population in 2014 in the USA.  68% of them are male and their median age is 34.  69% of them lean towards political left, only 10% support political right.80

Two distinct patterns of behaviours can be observed among non-affiliated.  Vocal non-affiliated and non-vocal non-affiliated.  65% of American Atheists seldom or never discuss their views on religion with religious people while 9% of them discuss their views with religious people at least once a week.81  It means non-affiliated are divided in two sects.  One sect consists of those who consider religion a personal affair and wish to live their lives the way they wish and let others live their lives the way they wish.  The other sect tries to convince others of superiority of their belief system and tries to win adherents.  It is the later sect which is taking the shape of an organized religion.  Thousands of atheists and unbelievers, including Alberto Valdez from Del Rio, Texas, gathered in 2012 on the National Mall for the Reason Rally.82

Atheist at Reason Rally

Reason Rally in 2012.83

End notes:

  1.  Hervey C. Peoples, Pavel Duda and Frank W. Marlowe ‘Hunter Gatherers and the Origins of Religion’ human  nauret. 27 (3) (2016): 261 – 282).   
  2.  Durkheim E. the elementary forms of the religious life. Trans. Karen E. fields. New York: free press,1995.
  3.  Sheila Coulson, Sigrid Staurset, and Nick Walker ‘Ritualized Behaviour in the Middle Stone Age: Evidence from Rhino Cave, Tsodilo Hills, Botswana’ PaleoAnthropology  (2011): 18 – 61.
  4.  Alcorta CS, Sosis R ‘Ritual, emotion, and sacred symbols: the evolution of religion as an adaptive complex’. Human Nature 16(4) (2005):  323 – 59.  See also: Scott Atran and Ara Norenzayan.  ‘Religion’s evolutionary landscape: counterintuition, commitment, compassion, communion.  Behavioral and Brain Sciences 27(6) (2004): 713 –70.  See also: Justin L. Barrett and Jonathan A. Lanman. The science of religious beliefs. Religion. 38(2) (2008): 109 – 124 AND see also:  Pascal Boyer and Brian Bergstrom.  Evolutionary perspective on religion.  Annual Review of Anthropology. 37 (2008): 111 – 130.  AND see also: Matt Rossano. The religious mind and the evolution of religion.  Review of General Psychology.  10(4) (2006): 346 – 364.
  5.  Candace S. Alcorta and Richard Sosis. “Emotion, and sacred symbols: the evolution of religion as an adaptive complex”. Human Nature 16(4) (2005): 323 – 59.
  6.  Scott Atran and Joseph Henrich. “The evolution of religion: how cognitive by products, adaptive learning heuristics, ritual displays, and group competition generate deep commitments to prosocial religions”. Biological Theory. 5(1) (2010): 18 – 30.
  7.  Any phenomenon that is present in almost all human beings or almost all cultures is called human universal.
  8.  Donald E Brown.  Human universals.  New York City: McGraw-Hill; 1991.  See also: Dominic D. P. Johnson.  God’s punishment and public goods:  A test of the supernatural punishment hypothesis in 186 world cultures. Human Nature 16(4) (2005): 410 – 46. AND see also: George Murdock. Culture and Society: twenty-four essays. Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh press; 1965.   
  9.  Andrew Newberg, Abbas Alavi, Michael J Baime,  Eugene G. d’Aquili. “The Measurement of Regional Cerebral blood flow during the Complex Cognitive task of Meditation:  A preliminary SPECT study.” Psychiatry Research: Neuroimaging. 106 (2) (2001): 113 – 122.
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  83. Photo credit: Tyrone Turner.
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