Religion Adherents - Taken from Adherents.com

Christianity 2.1 billion
Islam 1.5 billion
Nonreligious/agnostic/atheism 1.1 billion
Hinduism 900 million
Chinese traditional religion 394 million
Buddhism 376 million
Animist religions 300 million
African traditional/diasporic religions 100 million
Sikhism 23 million
Juche 19 million
Spiritism 15 million
Judaism 14 million
Baha'i 7 million
Jainism 4.2 million
Shinto 4 million
Cao Dai 4 million
Zoroastrianism 2.6 million
Tenrikyo 2 million
Neo-Paganism 1 million
Unitarian Universalism 800,000
Rastafari Movement 600,000

I have highlighted the top 3. As we can see the nonreligious category is quite strong, and definitely a strong contender for the number 1 spot.

I predict within 50 years, the nonreligious category will be number 1, and the trend seems to be pointing that way with the advent of quick information-sharing/networking technology..... so all you militant atheists out there - no need to be so pessimistic. The purpose for the thread is to ponder on questions regarding the future and religion's role in it.

Will religions gradually die or stay strong by incorporating more scientific beliefs or developing more logical arguments? Do you think we will see more wars and destruction when there is more non-religious people, or more scientific inquiry/technological development? For the religious...do you think that God's judgement will arrive here on earth before we get to see this happen?

The problem with Adherents' methodology is they often count large portions of Communist regimes that are "officially" atheist/non-religious in their pool, when in many cases they should be listed as Buddhist or Chinese Traditional, just to take the most prominent example. There are plenty of "non-religious" types in China, but it's far from a nation of free-thinkers.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muslim_population_growth

Just when I acquired some faith in humanity, you give me this...

Nonetheless, I looked at the sources and these projections are mainly based on fertility and mortality levels. I think that information exchange and scientific knowledge is becoming much more common, especially on the internet. There is almost an anti-religious culture on the internet, as a result of this information exchange, so I don't see the future generations being as 'indoctrinated' from just a single source (parents), as they were in previous generations. I think the flow of information will greatly increase awareness in the next generation, to an extent that parental indoctrination will comprise close to nothing in one's understanding of the universe.

I am already seeing this in our very own generation - as noted above (on the internet).

Swing and a miss

It is our job to expose superstition and delusion in this culture.

It is not clear what will happen in the Muslim world. Which scenario there concerns us the most?

That's a good job to have. Maybe you'll get around to it sometime.

Take a sip after this guy.