How many atheists are there in Russia: statistics of believers, percentage

Who are atheists?

Atheists are people who are convinced that there are no supernatural world principles. At the same time, they consider it their duty to convince others of their views. The personal position of a particular person does not turn him into an atheist, since the latter must actively demonstrate it. He does not passively reject religion; he actively opposes it.

Atheists must be distinguished from agnostics and anticlericals.

An agnostic is a person who does not have any judgment regarding the supernatural. Their representatives are completely indifferent to the presence or absence of God. There are two types of agnostics. The first are not at all interested in religious issues. The second are those who thought, sought for themselves an explanation for one or another process in relation to supernatural manifestations, but did not receive an answer.

Anti-clericals are individuals who have a negative attitude towards organized religious structures. Any association of believers is unacceptable to them. Atiklerikal is confident that people's participation in religious structures leads to a deterioration in their lives and the lives of those around them. As a result, organized religious forms of faith must be fought and their influence and authority reduced.

Taking into account the above, it should be noted that when asked about how many atheists there are in Russia, statistics answer: not many. There are few people in society who are actively detail-oriented and have a clear atheistic worldview. Typically, atheists include anti-clericals, who in everyday life call themselves atheists. However, this is completely false.

How atheistic beliefs are formed

The appearance of certain beliefs is imprinted from the past. Children raised in a religious home will believe in the existence of God. They have been accustomed to going to church since childhood. A person whose upbringing had no place for religious beliefs does not believe in God and will grow up an atheist. If you tell an atheist about the existence of God, he will smile.

Scientists are trying to determine the conditions influencing the increase in the number of non-believers. Religion is attractive because it gives a certain sense of security in a world full of uncertainties. The need for security does not arise in countries with a high level of economic development.

In addition to the above aspects, the reasons for being an atheist lie in the economic situation. As atheist statistics show, in countries with a low standard of living, people are more likely to turn to faith. The following principle is observed: the lower the standard of living, the more religious the population. In developed countries, people turn to God less for help and attend churches less often.

If we take this factor as the basis for our beliefs, then in the richest countries of the world there should be no believers at all. However, in Denmark, where the standard of living and social security of citizens are very high, in 2010 there were almost 83% Christians. Consequently, the previous conclusions of the American psychologist look a little strange.

According to the CIA, in 2007 America was 51.3% Protestant and 23.9% Catholic. However, it is difficult to argue with the fact that in poor countries the number of believers is greater:

Brief historical background

Religion and atheism have their roots in the distant past. They are inextricably linked with each other. And they arose almost simultaneously. Their relationship is rich in events, including some full of tragedy.

Thus, researchers of the Christian religion note that the word “atheist” is mentioned only once in the New Testament. Denotes people who have lost the true God. The unbelievers, the pagans, were considered to be among those who suffered a great misfortune. It has long been believed that a normal person should know God and repay him. Atheism was perceived as an abnormal phenomenon, associated, among other things, with human mental illnesses.

Orthodox, but don't go to church

Another way to count parishioners of the Russian Orthodox Church is to count those who actually manifest themselves as Orthodox believers. That is, first of all, those who are at least able to come to church and listen to the Sunday sermon. And here the data from the same FOM raises some intrigue. In terms of the number of all respondents, only up to 8% claimed that they visit the temple once a month or more often. And to the more specific question about communion (in which the majority of those present at a full-fledged church service - liturgy usually participates) there were even fewer affirmative answers. Only 1.4% received communion once a month and about 4% several times a year.

The current state of atheism

Modern Western civilization is distinguished by the fact that interest in religion among the population is falling. This applies to all segments of the population. A decrease in church attendance and an increase in the number of people who consider themselves atheists and agnostics have been recorded. Among believers, religion is losing its top position and is not among the main internal factors.

The main adherents of the religious worldview remain the small population of rural areas. Representatives of atheism, of which there are more and more in number, actively propagate that the religiosity of the population is a result of deficiencies in education and knowledge, and a tendency to refuse to accept the achievements of science and technology.

The opposite situation can be observed in developing countries, including the republics of the former USSR. In African states and the countries of the Middle East, a significant increase in religiosity is recorded, often manifested in the forms of fundamentalism and fanaticism. An atheistic worldview in these regions is recognized as a crime, for which punishment may follow. Thus, apostates in Pakistan may face the death penalty.

The growing role of religion in Russia

The atheist movement in Russia and the CIS countries can be characterized as undeveloped, forced to exist in difficult conditions. After the dominant communist ideology, officially preaching atheism, suffered a fiasco, the ideological pendulum swung in the opposite direction. Rejection of atheism began to prevail in the public consciousness. One can only guess how many atheists in Russia have experienced these changes.

Thus, the country is witnessing an increase in the influence of the Russian Orthodox Church (ROC), its persistent and successful merging with government and administrative bodies. Moreover, in the public consciousness there is a surge of interest in astrology, pseudoscience, and mystical beliefs.

Orthodox without church and communion

Source: FOM, Churching of the Orthodox, 2014 Illustration by Rita Cherepanova for TD

Source: FOM, Churching of the Orthodox, 2014 Illustration by Rita Cherepanova for TD

Source: FOM, Churching of the Orthodox, 2014 Illustration by Rita Cherepanova for TD

Source: FOM, Churching of the Orthodox, 2014 Illustration by Rita Cherepanova for TD

How many believers and atheists are there in Russia?

According to information provided to the media by the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation, which monitors those attending public religious events, believers in Russia account for about 1% of the population.

In total, several dozen religious structures have been officially registered in the country. It is difficult to establish how many atheists there are in Russia today, united in structures. Most of them try not to advertise their activities too much, limiting themselves to active work in the media and the Internet.

The number of people who are members of them is unknown. Modern state laws allow them not to provide information about their members. It is also impossible to find out the exact number of atheists in Russia.

However, independent sociological sources show the following picture of Russian society.

Just over 70% of the country’s adult population consider themselves Orthodox believers. 1.2% of the population consider themselves believers of other branches of the Christian religion. Muslims, Buddhists, and Jews make up 6.65% of Russia's residents. 12.6% are representatives of other religions.

What percentage of atheists are in Russia? Statistics assure: 7.3%.

All-Russian independent surveys also record that the largest number of people who consider themselves atheists live in the following regions: Primorsky Krai - 35%; Altai Territory - 27%; Republic of Sakha (Yakutia) - 26%; Novosibirsk region - 25%; Amur region - 24%.

The data presented may not be accurate, but to a greater extent reflect the real picture.

At the same time, it is impossible even approximately to calculate how many atheists there are in Russia throughout the history of the state.

Percentage of atheists in countries

California researcher Phil Zuckerman states that almost 85% of Sweden's citizens are non-believers. Statistics of atheists in the world demonstrate high numbers of non-believers, characteristic of Japan, France, and Denmark. The number of believers in the United States decreased by 7%. The percentage of non-religious citizens is demonstrated by statistics of atheists in different countries:

The researcher believes that the number of unbelievers on earth is increasing. Data taken from Gallup research. The statistics of believers and atheists in the world for the period from 2005 to 2011 were analyzed. More than 50 thousand people from 57 countries participated in the study. According to the results, the number of non-believers in the world increased by 13%. Statistics of atheists and believers are presented in the diagram:

Russian Constitution on religion and atheism

It should also be noted that the Constitution of the country prohibits obtaining accurate information about how many atheists there are in Russia. This main law established the secular nature of the state. Any religion cannot become compulsory or state.

Article 19 of the Constitution establishes the equality of all religious structures before the law, and also that they are separated from the state. Article 28 guarantees that free religion is established in the country. Everyone has the right to profess any faith, to spread it freely, and to act in accordance with its norms.

Discrimination on religious grounds is prohibited in Russia. The constitutional law emphasizes that no one can be forced to participate in the activities of religious structures. It is unacceptable to involve minors in religious associations. They cannot be taught religious dogmas against their wishes and without the consent of their parents.

Directions of activity of atheistic structures

In modern Russia, the atheist movement is represented by a number of public organizations and informal associations. They see their main goals in protecting the secular structure of the Russian state, preventing the clericalization of society, carrying out public criticism of religions and their representatives, as well as protecting the atheistic worldview that has the right to exist. They actively use the capabilities of the media and the Internet. How many atheists in Russia are involved in this work? Probably everything.

General educational activities of atheists

General educational activities represent a number of areas through which the largest possible part of the population is reached. At the same time, atheists strive to encourage the audience to think logically, adequately perceive scientific achievements, and the ability to critically comprehend so-called supernatural phenomena.

General educational tasks are implemented by atheists from the standpoint of the scientific method, which explains the structure of the world. At the same time, work is being carried out aimed at popularizing knowledge on the history of religions. The origin of religious beliefs, which are based exclusively on human activity, is revealed.

Socio-political direction

Socio-political objectives are a series of activities aimed at ensuring the protection of the secular character of society. Due to the fact that the main religious structure in Russia is the Russian Orthodox Church, the emphasis of the activities of atheists is aimed at preventing the strengthening of its influence in the spheres of government activity and public life.

In this case, special attention is paid to:

• preventing the penetration of religion into public education;
• to counter attempts to remove elements of evolutionary theories from school curricula or to teach them together with religious disciplines;
• the formation of a negative attitude of society towards attempts to make theology a discipline of the Higher Attestation Commission (Higher Attestation Commission), which implies its recognition as an official science;
• taking measures to counter the introduction into the consciousness of society of the idea that Orthodoxy is the only correct worldview;
• preventing the positioning of Orthodoxy as a state-forming religion, as a result of which the assertion that Russia is an Orthodox state is formed;
• preventing the introduction of religious dogmas into the laws of the country, such as bans on abortion, etc.;
• carrying out work aimed at prohibiting the transfer of state buildings and structures to religious structures, as a result of which museums, theaters, and organizations are being evicted from them;

• preventing the use of public funds in advertising of religious organizations. Exclusion of cases of participation of clergy representatives in state events;
• countering the facts of consolidating religious (mainly Orthodox) holidays as state holidays;
• initiating the adoption by the state of norms prohibiting the use of religious terms in state symbols. Including the mention of God in the national anthem.

Scientists' forecast: in the future people will completely lose faith in God

Forward to the victory of atheism!

The number of believers in the world - at least in developed, so-called civilized countries - is declining. And the number of people who openly declare themselves atheists is growing every year. These results were obtained by a group of American scientists led by Daniel Abrams from Northwestern University and Richard Wiener from the University of Arizona, after analyzing statistical data over the last hundred years. The researchers reported this at the recent American Physical Society meeting in Dallas, US.

While the atheistic “faith” ranks third in the world in terms of the number of supporters

Statistical data was collected in the USA, Canada, New Zealand, Australia and several European countries. It turned out that in all of them, only atheists were steadily multiplying. Most of them are now in the USA and Holland - about 40 percent. But the Czech Republic is the leader in this sense, with more than 60 percent of atheists. To explain the phenomenon of growing anti-religiosity, scientists turned to dispassionate mathematics. And they tried to simulate the situation, armed with a simple hypothesis. It assumes: people strive to join the social group in which membership seems most beneficial to them. For example, someone becomes a believer by observing numerous representatives of this group and realizing that praying and worshiping God is very useful for one reason or another - spiritual or even material. Weiner explained: In a similar way, people decide which language to speak if there are several options. Like, say, in Peru: in Spanish or in native languages ​​- Quechua or Aymara. The latter are gradually dying out, since knowledge of them does not promise any serious benefits. It's the same with religion. According to Abrams and Weiner, people believe that the benefits of religion are less and less. And in the foreseeable future, this will inevitably lead to the fact that there will be no believers left. It is not just statistics that indicate the coming era of atheism. The forecast is also supported by a mathematical model (based on nonlinear dynamics), which shows almost complete agreement with it - with statistics -. That is, the theoretically calculated number of people who abandoned faith almost coincided with the real one. However, scientists do not insist that the truth has been revealed to them. And they admit that the world around us may be more complex than the formulas that seem to fit it.

The opinion of some scientists: belief in God has ceased to be beneficial

No... God is still needed

In 2008, the John Templeton Religious Foundation, which regularly supports scientists searching for God and the scientific basis of faith, allocated 2 million pounds sterling (more than $3 million) to search for the reasons why people become religious. Money is being mastered by the famous psychologist from Oxford University Justin Barrett and numerous colleagues from different countries. The project with the simple name “Why do people believe in God?” was designed for three years. That is, in this year 2011 we can expect final conclusions. But preliminary ones already appear from time to time. And they contradict the atheistic mathematics of Abrams and Weiner. There is plenty of data that proves that religiosity is beneficial.

United by one faith are more resilient Canadian psychologists Ara Norenzayan and Azim Sharif from the University of British Columbia, working on the project with Barrett, believe that religious people are better adapted to life. Especially to her hardships. After all, faith unites them. And those who are united are strong through mutual assistance. This means they have a better chance of surviving difficult times. And, therefore, pass on your “religious genes” by inheritance. As a result, evolution has led to the fact that almost every person has a belief in God. This is the opinion of scientists. They found it by conducting a comparative analysis of various closed communes and communities, of which many arose in the USA in the 19th century. Among them were both religious and secular, for example, based on the ideas of communism. And it turned out that religious communities, on average, lasted much longer.

But there was a time when religiosity helped to survive

“Religion,” says Ara Norenzayan, “unites people according to principles such as loyalty to the community and willingness to sacrifice personal interests for the sake of society. Moreover, the survival of religious (but not secular) communities depends directly on the strictness of the rules. The more restrictions the community imposed on its members and the more complex rituals they had to perform, the longer it existed. This is beneficial for evolution.

Worship of an Invisible Leader Preserves Order French anthropologist Pascal Boyer of Washington University in St. Louis notes another peculiar feature of human thinking that makes us extremely receptive to religious ideas. This is the ability to obey persons who are currently absent. Without this, large organized groups would not be able to exist. —What order can there be in a hierarchically organized tribe if people perform their duties only in the presence of a leader or parent? - asks Dr. Boyer. — The ability to maintain a relationship with the “ideal image” of an absent person is a most useful adaptation that allows you to maintain order and follow the rules of the community. In most cultures, otherworldly beings - deities - “monitor” people’s behavior. That is, they perform the function of an absent leader or parent.

TOTAL

Scientists have shown that religion is beneficial using examples from past societies. But we live in a different time, in which different trends have clearly emerged. People - especially in the Western world - are no longer seeing the point in being religious. And they leave the faith. Do they thereby lose their cohesion? The ability to withstand difficulties? Are they losing to those whose faith is only growing stronger? Scientists have not yet given answers to these questions.

BY THE WAY

“Genes of faith in God” discovered in humans

Dean Hammer, director of the National Institute of Genetic and Cancer Control, questioned the religious premise that faith in God is fueled by spiritual enlightenment arising from the influence of divine power. And he announced that it was all about special electrical impulses in the brain. But especially in the genes that are responsible for them. The scientist’s research has shown that deeply religious people have a gene in their bodies that he named VMAT2. But atheists do not have such a gene. It turns out that atheists are mutants. This shocking conclusion was made based on a study of more than 2,000 DNA subjects.

According to Hammer, it is possible that Christians could have inherited the “belief in God gene” from Jesus Christ himself, and Muslims from Muhammad. The doctor, however, also remembers Buddha, whose gene could have been inherited by Buddhists, although he was not a god.

People inherited the “belief in God gene” from himself - there is such an opinion

Following this logic, we must admit that Satanists inherited the genes of the devil, and those who believe in aliens inherited them from aliens. It seems like nonsense. Although, it may turn out that this very VMAT2 has a universal property and awakens the desire for the spiritual and mystical in general.

“My research,” Hammer justifies himself, “does not undermine faith in the Almighty.” On the contrary, the existence of the “belief in God gene” once again proves the genius of the Creator, who “gave” this gene to man. Then what is happening now? Where does this gene disappear if the number of believers decreases? What is the cause of mutations? Is this not the machinations of hellish forces?