2004/04/01 by Bob Altemeyer · 1 citation
Social Sciences · #Apostasy #Civilization #Faith #History #Hypocrisy #Islam #Law #Philosophy #Political science #Religion and Society Interactions #Religion, Society, and Development #Religion, Spirituality, and Psychology #Religious belief #Religious studies #Sociology #Theology #Western culture #Western europe
paper · doi:10.1207/s15327582ijpr1402_1
openalex publication_date 2004/04/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/29
Polls of representative samples show that organized religion has declined greatly in many Western nations. The fall has been less severe in North America than in most Western European countries but proceeds nonetheless. Surveys of middle-aged Manitoba parents indicate apostasy grew more over time than any other religious category-many times more than fundamentalist religions increased, for example. Such parents endorsed many different explanations of their loss of faith but most commonly said it happened because they observed hypocrisy in members of their religion. Various examples were cited. Most of those who abandoned their religion have lived nearly all of their adult lives outside their faith and doubt they will ever return. As their children have largely been raised without religious training, the decline of organized religion seems likely to continue.