Religion's Sudden Decline: What's Causing it, and What Comes Next?

The world is becoming less religious. Since 2007, there has been a pervasive decline in religious belief and most of the world's people now say that God is less important in their lives than they said He was in the quarter century before 2007.



Many factors contributed to this dramatic shift, but as Inglehart shows, certain ones stand out. For centuries, virtually all major religions sternly discouraged divorce, abortion, homosexuality, contraception, and any other form of sexual behavior not...