Christianity is the largest religion in the world, with more than two billion adherents. Christian faith includes numerous branches, the most popular of which are the Catholic Church, the Eastern Orthodox Church, and Protestantism. Even though all the branches are diverse in terms of canons and rituals, all of them are based on Jesus Christs teachings of redemption, morality, and the love of God for all people. However, since the second half of the 17th century, the number of people who confess Christian faith has been declining. Some of the reasons for this tendency include technological progress and scientific development, mass atrocities of the 20th century, and the rise of secular values. The present paper discusses the aforementioned reasons for the decline.
The first reason for the decline of Christianity in Europe is technological progress and scientific development. The influence of science is particularly evident in the 20th century that is marked by the rise of naturalism. The critical idea of naturalism is that everything that happens in the world can be explained through science and the origin of all events is natural rather than supernatural. It is curious to notice that since began affecting the Christian faith long before the 20th century. More precisely, already in the 17th century, “philosophers turned to science for inspiration, direction, and criteria of truth” and treated science as a weapon against Christianity (Westfall 2020, 218). In other words, the development of science leads to the decline of Christianity because it provides a measurable and provable explanation of natural phenomena and events in the history of humanity. Science provides clarity and evidence instead of arguing that things happen due to supernatural reasons that people cannot comprehend.
The second reason for the decline of Christianity is related to the mass atrocities experienced by humanity in the 20th and 21st centuries. Two World Wars, numerous terrorist attacks, civil wars, and several nuclear attacks raise a question on whether God actually exists. Undoubtedly, every person might face a crisis of faith while going through tough times in life. Nevertheless, it is still hard to explain why if God exists, billions of people die because of political and ideological reasons. Besides, people who survived World War II prison camps commonly say that these places turned them into atheists, no matter whether these people were Christians, Jews, or Muslims.
The third reason for the decline of Christianity in Europe is the rise of secular values that began in the second half of the past century. The essence of secularism lies in the absence of discrimination on religious grounds and the institutional separation of the church. As Roy (2020) puts it, in comparison to secularism, the only way how religion could prove its values is through examples. Therefore, the Christian faith, as well as any other faith, lacks logic and verifiable evidence. What is more, secularization shows that it is possible to have a good life without the presence of God in it. This way, people simply see no reason in thinking about God and learning more about the teachings of the Christian faith.
To conclude, there are numerous reasons for the decline of Christianity in Europe that started in the late 17th century. Enlightenment, technological and scientific progress, wars, and secularization of society to a large extent contribute to the dramatic decrease in the number of people who profess Christianity. At the same time, it could be noticed that Christianity remains the major monotheistic religion in the world despite this decline.
References
Roy, Olivier. 2020. Is Europe Christian? Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Westfall, Richard S. 2020. “8. The Rise of Science and the Decline of Orthodox Christianity: A Study of Kepler, Descartes, and Newton.” In God and Nature (Eds. David C. Lindberg and Ronald L. Numbers), 218–37. California, CA.: University of California Press. Web.