A third of Amercans could be secular by 2030

[Vaktus]

https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/obs...-religion/

I feel it would decline, but I feel there would some resurgence of these declining religions sometime in the far off future.

[ai_vin]

It seems to me that there is a flipside to this. Sure the number of people who are not religious is going up but of those who remain religious there is a growing number who are extreme in their belief. 45% of Americans believe the world is only 10,000 years old, or less. 60% believe Noah's flood actually happened. And to borrow a line from The Newsroom, America really does lead the world in the 'percent of adults who believe angels are real.'

[stevebowers]

Another interesting factor in that graph is the slow but sure rise in 'other'; alternative and non-Christian religions are on the rise. Perhaps Cosmism and Universalism will become significant, or even Pastafarianism.

[stevebowers]

Christian religions in OA
http://www.orionsarm.com/eg-article/4625929c7a512
http://www.orionsarm.com/eg-article/461319ec3d445
http://www.orionsarm.com/eg-article/4ad470a85b05e
http://www.orionsarm.com/eg-article/47646a0f14612
And Universalism, which incorporates elements of the Abrahamic religions
http://www.orionsarm.com/eg-article/471feef0b5832
and Islam, which is another Abrahamic faith
http://www.orionsarm.com/eg-article/46662317b75a2
We don't have an article about Judaism, but we do have a world or two where there are significant numbers of believers;
also Gnosticism, Alan's particular favourite, which has Judeo-Christian roots
http://www.orionsarm.com/eg-article/46f96589c1b82

[Avengium]

I was searching the forum for the term "cosmism" to see if there was a thread simply titled "cosmism."
18 matches appeared on the forum search.
20 matches of cosmism on https://www.orionsarm.com/xcms.php?r=oaeg-search
1 match of "Neocosmism" on r=oaeg-search

Should I ask about "Cosmism" and whether we want to expand on the article in an existing thread or create a new one?
Cosmism: https://www.orionsarm.com/eg-article/4642840424e08

---

Regarding the question of whether secularism is increasing, we have more up-to-date data than in the first post.

Pew Research Center
September 13, 2022
1. How U.S. religious composition has changed in recent decades
https://www.pewresearch.org/religion/202...t-decades/

Are Never Attenders More Secular Today?
Or are there lots of folks who never show up to church, but still feel religious?
Ryan Burge
Jan 08, 2026
https://www.graphsaboutreligion.com/p/ar...re-secular

[stevebowers]

I don't know why Alan Kazlev described Cosmism without much reference to the existing religion or faith known as Cosmism;
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_cosmism
An early and influential figure in this faith was Konstantin Tsiolkovsky, who was an early rocket scientist. Russian Cosmism seems to have been a form of panpsychism, which certainly has promise in explaining some of the mysteries of the universe.

[ProxCenBound]

Perhaps the OA Cosmism should be renamed? It seems to be quite distinct from Russian cosmism, and even more confusingly, the term was used by the transhumanist Ben Goertzel in 2010, again distinct from this 2000 article by M. Alan Kazlev (I checked, he doesn't cite us).

Should I ask about "Cosmism" and whether we want to expand on the article in an existing thread or create a new one?
Cosmism: https://www.orionsarm.com/eg-article/4642840424e08

I believe that should be a new thread.

[stevebowers]

Ben Goertzel has corresponded with the OA project on occasion, and he is a very nice chap. I'd be happy to incorporate some of his ideas into the cosmism concept. To me the big question is whether there is any mind, intelligence or spirit behind the cosmos, and whether that question is actually relevant or not.