Irreligion

Irreligion, irreligiousness, or nonreligion is an umbrella term which, depending on context, may be understood as referring to atheism, agnosticism, deism, skepticism, freethought, secular humanism or general secularism. Irreligous people of that type frequently view their attitude to religion as scientific.

Irreligion has at least five related yet distinct meanings:

• absence of religion (either due to not having enough information about religion or to not believing in it);^[1]
  • hostility to religion;^[1]
    • neutrality to religion and religious beliefs^{[citation needed]}
    • behaving in such a way that fails to live up to one's religious tenets;
    • an inability to come into agreement with all doctrines and teachings of recognized religious sects.

    Although people classified as irreligious might not follow any religion, not all are necessarily without belief in the supernatural or in deities; such a person may be a non-religious or non-practicing theist. In particular, those who associate organized religion with negative qualities, but still hold spiritual beliefs, might describe themselves as irreligious.

    Contents 1 Morality 2 Statistics by country 3 Notes and references 4 See also

    Morality

    Main articles: Criticism of atheism and Secular ethics

    A common criticism directed toward those who subscribe to no religion is that they have no firm basis for morality.^{[citation needed]} Secular humanists and other non-religious persons maintain that there are grounds for behaving ethically, without belief in the existence of God, the transcendence of morals, or a system of reward and punishment in the afterlife. Normative ethical theories, which are not based on the presupposition of the truthfulness of theism or of a particular religion's axioms, have been developed, advanced, and critiqued by philosophers of various persuasions.

    Statistics by country

    Irreligion around the world
    Country	Percentage stating they have no religion	Source
    China	59-71%	Various publications[2]
    Sweden	46%-85%	Zuckerman, Phil. "Atheism: Contemporary Rates and Patterns", chapter in The Cambridge Companion to Atheism, ed. by Michael Martin, Cambridge University Press: Cambridge, UK (2005)
    Estonia	75.7%	Dentsu Communication Institute Inc, Japan Research Center (2006)[3]
    Albania	60%	US Department of State - International Religious Freedom Report 2006[4] L'Albanie en 2005[5] Various publications[6]
    Czech Republic	59% (plus additional 8% did not fill in anything)	Czech Statistical Office (2001 census)[7]
    Japan	51.8%	Dentsu Communication Institute Inc, Japan Research Center (2006)[3]
    Russia	48.1%	Dentsu Communication Institute Inc, Japan Research Center (2006)[3]
    Belarus	47.8%	Dentsu Communication Institute Inc, Japan Research Center (2006)[3]
    Vietnam	46.1%	Dentsu Communication Institute Inc, Japan Research Center (2006)[3]
    The Netherlands	44.0%	Social and Cultural Planning Office[8]
    Finland	28%-60%	Zuckerman, Phil. "Atheism: Contemporary Rates and Patterns", chapter in The Cambridge Companion to Atheism, ed. by Michael Martin, Cambridge University Press: Cambridge, UK (2005)
    Hungary	42.6%	Dentsu Communication Institute Inc, Japan Research Center (2006)[3]
    Ukraine	42.4%	Dentsu Communication Institute Inc, Japan Research Center (2006)[3]
    Latvia	40.6%	Dentsu Communication Institute Inc, Japan Research Center (2006)[3]
    South Korea	36.4%	Dentsu Communication Institute Inc, Japan Research Center (2006)[3]
    Belgium	35.4%	Dentsu Communication Institute Inc, Japan Research Center (2006)[3]
    New Zealand	34.7% (of the 87.3% who answered an optional question)	Statistics New Zealand (2006 census)[9]
    Chile	33.8%	Dentsu Communication Institute Inc, Japan Research Center (2006)[3]
    Germany	32.7%	German Worldview Research Group (2004)[10]
    Luxembourg	29.9%	Dentsu Communication Institute Inc, Japan Research Center (2006)[3]
    Slovenia	29.9%	Dentsu Communication Institute Inc, Japan Research Center (2006)[3]
    France	27.2% (23.9% of women, 30.6% of men)	INSEE (2004 survey)[11]
    Venezuela	27.0%	Dentsu Communication Institute Inc, Japan Research Center (2006)[3]
    Slovakia	23.1%	Dentsu Communication Institute Inc, Japan Research Center (2006)[3]
    Mexico	20.5%	Dentsu Communication Institute Inc, Japan Research Center (2006)[3]
    Lithuania	19.4%	Dentsu Communication Institute Inc, Japan Research Center (2006)[3]
    Denmark	19%	Eurobarometer(2005)[12]
    Australia	18.7% (of the 88.8% who answered an optional question)	Australian Bureau of Statistics (2006 census)[13]
    Italy	17.8%	Dentsu Communication Institute Inc, Japan Research Center (2006)[3]
    Spain	17%	Centre of Sociological Investigations (2005)[14]
    United Kingdom	16.8% (of the 92.7% who answered an optional question)	UK National Statistics (2001 census)[15]
    Canada	16.2%	Canada 2001 Census[16]
    Argentina	16.0%	Gallup-Argentina poll, April 2001[17]
    South Africa	15.1%	Statistics South Africa Census 2001[18]
    United States	15.0% (of the 94.6% who answered an optional question, out of a sample of 50,281 households in the 48 contiguous states)	American Religious Identification Survey (2001), as reported by US Census Bureau [19]
    Croatia	13.2%	Dentsu Communication Institute Inc, Japan Research Center (2006)[3]
    Austria	12.2%	Dentsu Communication Institute Inc, Japan Research Center (2006)[3]
    Portugal	11.4%	Dentsu Communication Institute Inc, Japan Research Center (2006)[3]
    Puerto Rico	11.1%	Dentsu Communication Institute Inc, Japan Research Center (2006)[3]
    Bulgaria	11.1%	Dentsu Communication Institute Inc, Japan Research Center (2006)[3]
    Philippines	10.9%	Dentsu Communication Institute Inc, Japan Research Center (2006)[3]
    Brazil	7.4%	National Demografic Census in 2000, conducted by the IBGE. [20]
    India	6.6%	Dentsu Communication Institute Inc, Japan Research Center (2006)[3]
    Poland	6%	Public Opinion Research Centre (2007)[21]
    Serbia and Montenegro	5.8%	Dentsu Communication Institute Inc, Japan Research Center (2006)[3]
    Ireland	4.5%	Central Statistics Office Ireland Census 2006[22]
    Peru	4.7%	Dentsu Communication Institute Inc, Japan Research Center (2006)[3]
    Iceland	4.3%	Dentsu Communication Institute Inc, Japan Research Center (2006)[3]
    Greece	4.0%	Dentsu Communication Institute Inc, Japan Research Center (2006)[3]
    Turkey	2.5%	Dentsu Communication Institute Inc, Japan Research Center (2006)[3]
    Romania	2.4%	Dentsu Communication Institute Inc, Japan Research Center (2006)[3]
    Tanzania	1.7%	Dentsu Communication Institute Inc, Japan Research Center (2006)[3]
    Malta	1.3%	Dentsu Communication Institute Inc, Japan Research Center (2006)[3]
    Iran	1.1% (Atheism and Agnosticism are illegal)	Dentsu Communication Institute Inc, Japan Research Center (2006)[3]
    Uganda	1.1%	Dentsu Communication Institute Inc, Japan Research Center (2006)[3]
    Nigeria	0.7%	Dentsu Communication Institute Inc, Japan Research Center (2006)[3]
    Bangladesh	0.1%	Dentsu Communication Institute Inc, Japan Research Center (2006)[3]

    Notes and references

    1. ^ ^{a b} Modern Language Association (MLA) "irreligion" from Dictionary.com Unabridged (v1.1), Random House, Inc. Webpage accessed 5 March 2008.
    2. ^ http://www.adherents.com/Na/Na_473.html
    3. ^ ^{a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z aa ab ac ad ae af ag ah ai aj ak} (Japanese) http://www2.ttcn.ne.jp/~honkawa/9460.html English source requested
    4. ^ http://www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/irf/2006/71364.htm
    5. ^ http://www.membres.lycos.fr/instantanesdalbanie/image/dossierdepresse.pdf
    6. ^ http://www.adherents.com/Na/Na_472.html
    7. ^ http://www.czso.cz/csu/edicniplan.nsf/o/4110-03--obyvatelstvo_hlasici_se_k_jednotlivym_cirkvim_a_nabozenskym_spolecnostem
    8. ^ http://www.scp.nl/publicaties/boeken/9037702597.shtml
    9. ^ http://www.stats.govt.nz/census/2006-census-data/quickstats-about-culture-identity/quickstats-about-culture-and-identity.htm?page=para012Master
    10. ^ http://www.fowid.de/
    11. ^ http://www.insee.fr/fr/ffc/chifcle_fiche.asp?ref_id=NATCCF05501&tab_id=451
    12. ^ Eurobarometer on Social Values, Science and technology 2005 - page 11. Retrieved on 2007-05-05.
    13. ^ http://www.abs.gov.au/AUSSTATS/abs@.nsf/7d12b0f6763c78caca257061001cc588/6ef598989db79931ca257306000d52b4!OpenDocument
    14. ^ (Spanish) http://www.cis.es/cis/opencms/-Archivos/Marginales/2600_2619/e260200.html
    15. ^ http://www.statistics.gov.uk/cci/nugget.asp?id=293
    16. ^ http://www12.statcan.ca/english/census01/products/analytic/companion/rel/contents.cfm
    17. ^ http://www.prolades.com/amertbl06.htm
    18. ^ http://www.statssa.gov.za/census01/Census/Database/Census%202001/Census%202001.asp
    19. ^ http://www.census.gov/compendia/statab/population/religion/
    20. ^ (Portuguese) Brazilian 2000 Demografic Census
    21. ^ http://www.cbos.pl/SPISKOM.POL/2007/K_078_07.PDF
    22. ^ http://www.cso.ie/census/documents/Final%20Principal%20Demographic%20Results%202006.pdf Final Principal Demographic Results 2006

    
    

    See also

    • Agnosticism
    • Atheism
    • Nontheism
    • Ignosticism
    • Antireligion
    • Antitheism
    • Skepticism

    v • d • e Irreligion
    Atheism	List of atheists · Demographics · Religion · History · State atheism · Criticism · Discrimination · Persecution · Weak and strong · Agnostic atheism · Implicit and explicit · Antitheism · Antireligion · Atheist Alliance International	Ludwig Feuerbach
    Agnosticism	List of agnostics · Agnostic theism · Agnostic atheism · Weak agnosticism · Strong agnosticism · Ignosticism · Apatheism
    Nontheism	Secular Humanism · Freethought · Secularism · Criticism of religion · Freedom From Religion Foundation · Flying Spaghetti Monster · Invisible Pink Unicorn · Russell's teapot · Googlism (religion)

    es:Irreligión

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