Secularization Theory Debunked

Secularization Theory Debunked April 26, 2015

Sarah Pulliam Bailey:

By 2050, the number of Muslims around the world will nearly equal the number of Christians. Pew projections suggest that Muslims will make up nearly one-third of the world’s population of about 9 billion people.

“The culture of the West is going to become increasingly nonreligious at the same time the culture in the Global South persists in being religious,” said David Voas of the Institute for Social and Economic Research at the University of Essex. “Repercussions will be global.”

The world could see a growing divide between the religious and nonreligious, which could have implications for global economic development, said Jack Goldstone, a professor of public policy at George Mason University.

Sociologists jumped the gun when they said the growth of modernization would bring a growth of secularization and unbelief, Goldstone said. “That is not what we’re seeing,” he said. “People want and need religion.”


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