World map showing the percentages of people who regard religion as "non-important"

data not currently available

World map based on the results of a 2002 Pew Research Center study on the percentage of people who regard religion as "important"

Irreligion is a lack of religion, indifference to religion, or hostility to religion. The Pew Research Center is a Think tank based in Washington D ^[1] Depending on the context, it may be understood as referring to atheism, agnosticism, deism, skepticism, freethought, secular humanism or general secularism. Atheism Agnosticism ( Greek: α- a-, without + γνώσις gnōsis, knowledge after Gnosticism) is the philosophical view that the Deism is the belief that a supreme God exists and created the physical universe and that religious truths can be arrived at by the application of reason alone without dependence on revelation Religious skepticism is a type of Skepticism relating to Religion, but should not be confused with Atheism. Freethought is a philosophical viewpoint that holds that Beliefs should be formed on the basis of Science and Logic and should not be influenced Secular humanism is a humanist philosophy that upholds Reason, Ethics and Justice, and specifically rejects the Supernatural Secularism is generally the assertion that governmental practices or institutions should exist separately from Religion or religious beliefs

Conviction

Irreligious people may have convictions equal in depth to those of religious adherents. For instance, followers of the life stance of Humanism regard themselves as just as deeply believing in their life stance as corresponding to any religious belief. Life stance or lifestance refers to a person's relation with what he or she accepts as of Ultimate importance, the presuppositions and theory of this and the commitments See also philosophical Humanism For the Renaissance liberal arts movement see Renaissance humanism Humanism is

Irreligious theist

Although people classified as irreligious might not follow any religion, not all are necessarily without belief in the supernatural or in deities; such a person may be a non-religious or non-practicing theist. The term supernatural or supranatural ( Latin: super, supra "above" + natura "nature" pertains to entities events See also List of deities A deity is a Postulated Preternatural or Supernatural Being, who is always Theism, in its most inclusive usage is the belief in at least one Deity. In particular, those who associate organized religion with negative qualities, but still hold spiritual beliefs, might describe themselves as irreligious. It also must be noted that in countries such as China, the government discourages religion, and in countries such as Saudi Arabia, the government essentially requires religion, so the numbers might not be entirely accurate. China ( Wade-Giles ( Mandarin) Chung¹kuo² is a cultural region, an ancient Civilization, and depending on perspective a National The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, KSA ( المملكة العربية السعودية, al-Mamlaka al-ʻArabiyya as-Suʻūdiyya) or Suudi

Statistics by country

Map of mostly European Union countries by percentage which claim "I believe there is a God" based on the results of a Eurobarometer poll ([3], pg. The European Union ( EU) is a political and economic union of twenty-seven member states, located primarily in 9) conducted in 2005. Other possible responses in the poll were "I believe there is some sort of spirit or life force", "I don't believe there is any sort of spirit, God or life force" and "don't know". Grey signifies that the country was not included in the poll. Results not included below.

Notes and references

See also

• Agnosticism
• Antitheism
• Antireligion
• Atheism
• Ignosticism
• Nontheism
• Post-theism
• Postchristianity
• Secular humanism
• Secularity
• Skepticism