Why Atheism Is the Fastest Growing Religion in the Western World

Atheism, often called by the more friendly term “The Nones”, includes both atheists and agnostics. The number of “Nones” has risen dramatically in the past decade and shows no signs of slowing down (Pew, 2024). They are now the largest religious cohort in the United States (28%). The Nones are now more prevalent among American adults than evangelical Protestants (24%) or Catholics (23%). White Evangelicals, once the fastest-growing religious group in America, is now shrinking.

The same trend is occurring in other Western nations. For example, “Australia has witnessed a significant rise in people claiming ‘No-Religion’ in recent censuses with the percentage having more than doubled in the last two decades.” (Possamai, et al., 2024)

One major reason why Evangelicals are shrinking, and the Nones are growing, is our educational system. A New York Times best-selling textbook used in schools and commonly found in libraries, with the innocuous-sounding title National Geographic Kids Almanac is one contributing factor to this trend. The well-illustrated book explains that the origin of everything in the universe began with the Big Bang: “All the things you see in the universe today—all the stars, galaxies, and planets—everything that now exists” came from a “single, incredibly hot, dense state that scientists call a singularity. Then, suddenly, the basic elements that make up the universe flashed into existence. …in the moment we call the Big Bang.”

The book added, “Everything we can see or detect around us in the universe began with the Big Bang. We know the Big Bang created not only matter but also space itself.” (2013, p. 138). The author also explains that the universe and everything in it will end “when the stars run out of fuel and burn out.” Then, for all eternity, the author opines, nothing except dust will fill the universe. No life, no stars, and no planets anywhere. In contrast, the Bible teaches that Jesus “is the resurrection and the life: he that believes in him shall never die, but will have everlasting life.” (John 3:15; 11:25-27; Titus 3:7).

No mention in the text was made of the fact that the Big Bang violates two fundamental laws of the universe. The first one, the first law of thermodynamics, states that “matter can neither be created nor destroyed by natural processes, only changed from one form to another.” The Big Bang also violates the law of cause and effect, which says that “everything that happens requires a sufficient cause.” In other words, everything happens for a reason, and is not an accident without a cause because we live in an orderly universe governed by law.

Nor were any of the enormous well-documented problems with the big bang mentioned. The impression is that the Big Bang is an undisputed fact equal to gravity. Even mentioning a few books by well-known scientists who dispute the Big Bang would have helped to balance the presentation. My library contains six books that discuss the many major problems with the theory. These include Columbia University graduate Eric Lerner’s book The Big Bang Never Happened published by Random House. Another book is by University of Adelaide (South Australia) Associate Professor John Hartnett, Ph.D. Hartnett has published more than 120 papers in peer-reviewed science journals. His book Dismantling the Big Bang notes that the only thing the Big Bang could produce, assuming it occurred, would be an expanding gas cloud, not the universe that we see today. Furthermore, he adds, the Big Bang theory lacks a credible origin, cause, and mechanism.

I found one other “Kid’s Book” that did include the other side. The book, by Kathy Wollard, correctly stated that “In the past several years, scientists studying the structure of the universe have made some unexpected discoveries. Some of these have shown there may be problems with parts of the Big Bang theory.” She mentioned that one problem “is how matter spread out as the universe expanded. When an object explodes, it tends to throw its contents in all directions equally. So, if all matter started out squeezed together as the Big Bang predicts, and then exploded outward, it should be fairly evenly [distributed] throughout space.” (Wollard 1993, p. 92-93).

Wollard concluded that reality is very different from what the Big Bang theory has predicted. For example, galaxies are very organized into groups of clusters, and the clusters are grouped into superclusters. In addition, long chains of galaxies are yet “another challenge to the idea of a nice, even distribution of matter.” She admitted that, “So far, scientists don’t agree on how and why such structures formed.” (Wollard, 1993, pp. 93-94). This section in her book closes with the following words “Some scientists have given up on the Big Bang theory entirely” and are working on updating earlier theories of creation, such as the Steady State theories.” (Wollard, 1993, p. 94)

After discussing the Big Bang, the Kids Almanac textbook then outlines the standard evolution-of-life claims, beginning with the spontaneous generation of life that somehow evolved into bacteria. Then, as a result of damage to the genes called “mutations”, more advanced life formed until, after billions of years, mankind evolved. The many problems with this story were ignored and it was stated as a scientific fact. How billions of mutations could produce well designed complex life was never explained. Mutations produce disease, such as cancer, and death.

A companion book added more detail, such as a theory of the origin of the more than 10,000 living bird species living today. Students are taught that birds evolved from the largest known terrestrial animal, the dinosaur, into some of the smallest birds today, including the tiniest living bird, the hummingbird. Specifically, evolutionists claim that birds evolved from maniraptoran dinosaurs that included the Velociraptor and the Oviraptor (Andrus, 2022, p. 112). The companion book fails to provide evidence that a 50-pound dinosaur could evolve into a 0.07 oz. bird. This dinosaur was 11,429 times greater in weight than the hummingbird.

Since dinosaur bones are massive, they preserve comparatively well in the fossil record. So far, over 11,000 fossil dinosaurs have been found, but not one has been uncovered that provided evidence of dinosaurs evolving into birds. Evolutionists hypothesize that birds evolved from dinosaurs only because they have no better theory. They know that other possibilities, such the proposal that birds have evolved from flying insects, such as dragon flies proposed by some evolutionists, are even less likely. None of these serious problems with evolution are mentioned in the text except the debatable evidence that some dinosaurs might have had “feather-like structures” on their scales. In fact, scientists have shown that these supposed ‘proto-feathers’ are actually frayed keratin fibers.

Convincing young people that life evolved solely by natural, materialistic means is an attack on the main reason people believe in God, i. e., clear DESIGN in nature. Before Darwin, virtually every Westerner believed in creation by God. God was accepted as the Designer of the heavens, Earth, and all life. After Darwin, the vast majority of scientists and many non-scientists in the West, no longer believed in God. Darwin’s stated goal was, in his words, “to murder God.” If Darwin were on the Earth today, he would be amazed at how successful he was in converting theists into atheists. This fact is a major reason that explains the recent rapid growth of the “Nones.”

However, the fact is that empirical science clearly supports the theists’ worldview. It needs to be taught, ideally in the schools, but at least in the churches. In over 200 court cases I have documented, the judges have ruled that only evidence in favor of evolution and against creation can be taught. Furthermore, evidence against evolution and for creation cannot be taught in public schools.

Evolution and creation are both worldviews that tell us where we came from, why we are here, and what happens when we die. The Christian, Muslim, and Jewish worldviews teach that we were created by God, we are here to serve God and our fellow humans, and when we die we can look forward to an afterlife with God. The evolutionary worldview teaches that we evolved by the accumulation of mutations, we are here to survive (“survival of the fittest”) and pass on our genetics. When we die we are no more. The courts have labeled this latter worldview ‘science’ (evolution) and the former worldview ‘religion’ (creation). This is the main reason why only the evolutionary side is taught in the textbooks and the creation side is censored. What is being taught in the schools is not education, but rather it is indoctrination. A strong negative correlation exists between acceptance of evolution as the origin of humans, and belief in God. As acceptance in evolution grows, belief in God decreases, thus increasing the population of “Nones.”

References

Andrus, Aubre (ed) 2022. Dinosaur Atlas. When they Roamed, How they Lived, and Where We Find Their Fossils, Washington, DC: National Geographic.

Pew Research Center. 2024. Religious ‘Nones’ in America: Who They Are and What They Believe. https://www.pewresearch.org/religion/2024/01/24/religious-nones-in-america-who-they-are-and-what-they-believe/

Possamai, A, Kamp, A and Gower, R. 2024. Overseas Born ‘Religious Nones’ in Australia. Secularism and Nonreligion, 13: 5, pp. 1–12. DOI: https:// doi.org/10.5334/snr.198

Terry, Robin. Ed. 2013. Kids Almanac 2013 Washington, DC: National Geographic.

Wollard, Kathy. 1993. How Come? Every Kids Science Questions Explained. New York: Workman Publishing.