Are the majority of the world's atheists religious or non-religious in actual practice? Statistics anyone?

Question

I am particularly interested in the breakdowns in some of the larger Asian categories such as Buddhist, Hindu, and Jain atheists. Subtotals by continent could also be very interesting.

[I have little interest in rants on the subject from the cluelessly uneducated who assume that atheists can't be religious. I'm asking about statistics which can quantify religious versus non-religious atheists.]

Answer 1

It's tricky, since numbers breakdowns rarely separate out different schools of Buddhism, and while Tibetan Buddhism is very polytheistic, Zen Buddhism is explicitly atheistic, and all the other branches breakdown somewhere between the two poles. Also, for people who identify as Unitarian Universalists or reconstructionist Jews, they are unlikely to bother identifying themselves as atheist members of those religions, but both of them have many atheists in their congregations. Most Taoists and Confucianists are atheists, but then quite a few also subscribe to native chinese folk religion, heavy on ancestor worship and imagining a heavenly imperial bureaucracy that mirrors the political situations on Earth.



I think Hindus and Jains would be unlikely to identify with those religion if they have become atheists, rather like western atheists who cease to identify with any organized religion. Pantheists have organizations and groups, like http://pantheism.net, but I don't know if many would choose to identify their communities as religions.



So, all that to say....I have no clue.

Answer 2

I can believe that it even seems apparent on answers in the time I have been here. I think the christian mega right overplayed their hand in fixing bushs election. It didnt just show the world the madness that is american christianity it showed thinking Americans as well. I have no beef with belief in a higher power even though I do not have such but in a modern world the dogma and fatalism of christainity is insane and as such should be abandoned to the rubbish of history. That is the lesson of the neocons

Answer 3

I don't have hard data to back this up, but I think that in America, at least, quite a large number of de facto atheists practice some form of religion, most often nominal Christianity, as a response to spousal, familial, or societal pressures.



Of course, I could be completely of base in this supposition.

Answer 4

Well by definition Atheism and Religion are polar opposites, so I can't understand your question.

Please give me an example of a religious atheist so I could help.

Answer 5

So, you seem to have a problem with reality, and the means of concepts.



Atheists do not believe in a diety, and therefore cannot BE religious.



Buddhism is not a religion, it is a philosophy.



EPIC FAIL

Answer 6

Consult a dictionary, you have no idea what the word "atheist" means.

Answer 7

http://www.zpub.com/un/pope/relig.html

Answer 8

They'll claim they're not religious. They never tell you the truth. They constantly change their mind like they change their theories.