Why the World Is Turning from Theism to Atheism: Exploring Social, Scientific, and Philosophical Forces Behind a Global Shift in Belief

For nearly all of human history, disbelief in a god or gods was not simply rare. It was almost unthinkable, a possibility that had not yet been built into the human imagination. Today, hundreds of millions of people describe their religious affiliation as none, a category that barely existed a century ago and is now among the fastest growing on Earth.This book traces how that change happened. It follows the scientific discoveries, from Copernicus to modern neuroscience, that gradually replaced supernatural explanation with a method that kept working. It follows the philosophers, from David Hume through the New Atheists, who built a public case against traditional belief across three centuries. It examines the social forces, urbanization, institutional scandal, education, and the secular state, that loosened religion's hold on daily life, and the psychological needs belief once served so reliably. It shows how digital technology and globalization dissolved the walls that once separated any single believer from a religiously plural world.The book also looks honestly at where theism continues to grow, and at whether this shift could reverse. It does not argue that God exists or that God does not. It documents, carefully and from multiple disciplines, why a specific and growing share of humanity has moved away from institutional religious belief, and what has taken its place.