Is there a greater chance for the whole world to believe in God or being atheist?

Answer 1

The likelihood that people would have a universal belief in God is far greater than the entire world turning to atheism. Almost every society that has ever existed, has entertained some notion of God, in some form or another.

In some sense it seems that we are hardwired for belief in God. Many evolutionary biologists, anthropologists, and sociologists have noted our hunger and yearning for something transcendent, and this urge seems pretty much universal to the human condition.

Of course one does not have to be a historian, or an expert in how societies rise and fall to notice the centrality of a belief in a deity to all of humanity. Just observe how pervasive belief in God is today. Despite the force of philosophical arguments that have been propounded against the God concept ever since ancient Greece, and with increasing cogency during the Enlightenment, and with ever increasing knowledge of science rendering many religious precepts antiquated or just plain absurd, religious belief, and belief in God specifically, is still popular in most of the world. Granted God, as an idea, has been stripped of much of its prowess, because of our continuing understanding of the universe and humanity. He is nowhere near the foreboding creature that he was in prior centuries, but he still exists in the hearts and minds of people today.

One reason why I think that it is far more likely that God will be entertained as a universal belief, and atheism not being embraced by all, is because the idea of God has an inherent advantage in that it is emotionally satisfying. It gives people a great sense of comfort, a sense of self-importance, and purpose. These fulfilling notions can be obtained through reason, but they are harder to acquire and require a lot of work. Belief in God, in some sense is a shortcut – a cheat method if you will – to satisfy these essential human longings. It is this visceral advantage that God has that makes God a nearly impossible belief to eliminate from the collective consciousness of humanity.

A book that I am reading by the philosopher Daniel Dennett entitled “Breaking The Spell” tries to come up with a evolutionary explanation for why the predilection to believe in God is so universal. I am only a third of the way through the book, but it seems to proffer quite an interesting theory which states that human beings have the tendency to impute intelligence and agency to everything, both living and inanimate objects, because this approach to the unknown was the easiest way to avoid danger. In other words, if one doesn’t know how an animal is going to act, or what an unknown object is, it is best, at least from the vantage point of our early ancestors, to assume that that animal or object has an intention against us, and this attitude would allow us to avoid danger whenever possible, and increase the probability of our survival. This attitude naturally expanded to assume that the world, stars, and planets had an intention towards us, and thus animism, which is the most primitive and earliest form of religion took root, and thus God was born.

So in short, God, as a meme, has many things going for it that outright atheism does not have. It has both emotional advantages and evolutionary biases, and is far easier to subscribe to than having to find meaning, purpose, and explanation through the rigors of rationality. As with most things in nature, we tend to go through the path of least resistance.

Answer 2

If you mean "believe in God" in a broad sense (i.e. believe in ANY god, or go to religious ceremonies, or the existence of religious orders, etc), I would say that there is a greater possibility of more people believing in god or a religion than those choosing atheists (and by atheists, not including professed religious people who do not behave religiously).

Professed atheists are relatively rare because, in a situation similar to other "in-the-closet" minority groups like homosexuals, there is tremendous social and peer pressure to share ideas and beliefs that are prevalent in society. And religion has been a big part of the prevalent mores for most, if not all, of known human history in every region studied.

But, the first part of you question, "Is there a chance for the whole world to believe" in anything at all is not likely, imo. That's a fool's errand.

Answer 3

Seeing as how 99% of the world believes in some type of god, and that there has never been a civilized population that didn't believe in a diety of some type, I think it is a safe bet to say that there is a greater chance for the majority of the world to believe in God.

Answer 4

Believe in god, because most logic of humans is "We suddenly exist, let's use a religion that fits my personality or my heritage to fill up that empty gap of human morality or our existence."

Atheism is pretty hard, as there are already tunds of cultures and religions.

However, when looking at science and certain professions, usually atheism.

For Me, well, it's hard to believe in God because ourselves are destructive, yet, we seek power, consume all the resources, hate and love eachother..kind of a part of being human and not being judged by books or bibles..good or bad is kind of like a scale of majority that thinks it helps/doesn't helps others depending on perspectives,it's just my one opinon.

We are a resilient species, see the need to change from time to time, however our errors and mistakes will be repeated or still remain..some see the world as corrupt, others see it differently, that's why humanity has so many different ways to see religions, sprituality is nearly everywhere..that'd also another reason why I think the world believes in some "form" of God according to their culture, and their personal philisophy/beliefs..religion is never the same for every person on all terms and conditions.

Answer 5

There is a greater chance in them believing in God because there is NO chance that the whole world would become atheist. The very ROCKS would cry out praise to God if we stopped.

Answer 6

It is obvious that more and more atheists are breaking free from the stigma of revealing their beliefs. Religion is losing it's hold on civilization and it's only a matter of time before everyone comes out of the dark ages and learns to think for themselves. It may not be soon, but eventually atheism will be the majority.

Answer 7

id say greater chance of believe in god. i was gonna say equal, with both at 0% chance. but then i thought there will never be any kind of event that would make everyone not beleive in god. but what if god showed up on earth to everyone face to face. then everyone would believe. as unlikely as this is, i still find it more likely then everyone on the earth not believing

Answer 8

In the past, "God" would have been the answer.

Now, there is a greater chance for Atheism to be the common choice, and that chance gets bigger as time wears on.

Answer 9

Theists will outnumber atheists overall for a long time to come, I expect, although atheism is on the rise. The more technology, the more information and communication. The more information and communication, the more atheism.

Also, if you look in certain spheres, certain professions (mostly the ones requiring a lot of intelligence) atheists have outnumbered theists for quite some time now.

Answer 10

which god? hee hee

i think it's impossible for the whole world to believe in one god. even the christians who believe in one god have soooooo many versions of him.

the chance for either one god or no god to be accepted by the whole world is not probable.