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Comment by simonh | Hacker News Reader

Religious behaviour and attitudes are declining rapidly world wide. It turns out having religious parents doesn’t guarantee you will be religious. The same goes for political views.

I don’t know where politics is going in the short term, but I suspect it goes in cycles. Conservatism might be winning at the moment, but it will reach its limits, mistakes will be made and there will be a resurgence of liberalism.

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There are religious groups where what you're saying isn't happening. Only a very small minority leave the in-group.

Oh sure of course there are local or specific exceptions, I'm just talking about global trends, but then I was responding to a comment about the world as a whole.

No they aren't. More new religions and sects are being created than ever before.

Also, just because you believe your set of looney beliefs is not a religion does not mean that it's any different from any other religion.

Religion generally is fragmenting rapidly yes, but I hardly see that as a sign of health. Rather it's a sign that more people are questioning traditional religious beliefs, some of those are latching on to new belief systems, but many are simply disengaging from religion.

I completely agree that magical thinking and conspiracy theory delusions seem to be growing and that's a real problem. I won't quibble about you equating it to religion, it's a valid point.

And that's the entire point. Opposing systems fighting each other for a perpetual oscillating dance around the balance..

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