Religion

Nature needs no god

• One ancestor

  A formal statistical test strongly favours all known life descending from a single common ancestor. Science News reported the single ancestor as at least 10^2,860 times more probable than several.

  Theobald 2010, Nature
• 22 amino acids

  Sparks through a mix of simple gases made the building blocks of proteins. In 1953 Stanley Miller reported a handful; reanalysis of his stored vials in 2008 found 22 in one setup.

  Miller 1953, Science; Johnson et al. 2008, Science
• RNA from scratch

  Building blocks of RNA formed from simple molecules thought to exist on the early Earth, under conditions consistent with its geochemistry.

  Powner, Gerland & Sutherland 2009, Nature
• From nothing

  Physicists have proposed models in which a universe arises by quantum tunnelling “from literally nothing”, with no big-bang singularity and no initial conditions required.

  Vilenkin 1982, Physics Letters B; Hartle & Hawking 1983, Physical Review D

Tests that came back empty

• 52% vs 51%

  1,802 heart-bypass patients. Those prayed for had complications at the same rate as those who were not. Patients told they were being prayed for did worse: 59%.

  Benson et al. 2006, American Heart Journal (the STEP trial)
• 14 studies

  A meta-analysis of controlled trials of distant prayer: “There is no scientifically discernable effect.”

  Masters, Spielmans & Goodson 2006, Annals of Behavioral Medicine
• 7,646 patients

  Ten trials of intercessory prayer, no demonstrated benefit. The reviewers: “We are not convinced that further trials of this intervention should be undertaken.”

  Roberts et al. 2009, Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews

Belief and the brain

• 67%

  of volunteers given psilocybin in a double-blind trial rated it the most meaningful experience of their lives or among the top five. 61% met the criteria for a complete mystical experience.

  Griffiths et al. 2006, Psychopharmacology
• One circuit

  Brain lesions that change spirituality and religiosity, in two separate patient groups, map to a single brain circuit centred on the periaqueductal grey.

  Ferguson et al. 2022, Biological Psychiatry
• 0 effect

  The “God helmet” tested double-blind with a sham control: the magnetic fields did nothing. Suggestibility predicted who had experiences.

  Granqvist et al. 2005, Neuroscience Letters
• Ordinary minds

  Religion can be understood as “the product of aggregated ordinary cognition”: the same mental machinery everyone uses every day.

  Barrett 2000, Trends in Cognitive Sciences

Who’s leaving religion

• 1.9 billion

  people had no religion in 2020, 24.2% of the world and up 270 million in a decade. They are now the third-largest group, growing mainly as people, mostly Christians, switch out.

  Pew Research Center 2025

Religions, mapped

Practised today

1. HinduismIndian subcontinent · 14.9% of the world
   Rigveda, late 2nd millennium BCE; possible Indus Valley roots; no single founder
2. JudaismCanaan, ancient Israel · 0.2% of the world
   Moses, 14th–13th century BCE; Abraham traditionally earlier
3. ZoroastrianismEastern Iran
   Zoroaster, c. 1000 BCE by scholarly consensus; proposals run from c. 1750 BCE to the 6th century BCE
4. JainismGanges basin, India
   7th–5th century BCE; Mahavira, 6th century BCE
5. DaoismHenan, China
   6th century BCE; Laozi
6. BuddhismNortheastern India · 4.1% of the world
   6th–4th century BCE; Siddhartha Gautama
7. ShintoJapan
   From the Yayoi culture, 3rd–2nd century BCE; no founder
8. ChristianityRoman-ruled Palestine · 28.8% of the world
   1st century CE; Jesus of Nazareth
9. IslamArabia · 25.6% of the world
   7th century CE; Muhammad, first revelation 610
10. SikhismPunjab
    Late 15th century; Guru Nanak

No longer practised

1. EgyptianNile Valley
   Predynastic, 4th millennium BCE, to the closing of the temple of Isis at Philae under Justinian, 6th century CE
2. MesopotamianSumer, Akkad, Babylonia, Assyria (Iraq)
   Sumerian in origin, merged with Akkadian belief by the end of the 4th millennium BCE; ended under Parthian rule, absorbed from the 3rd century CE
3. GreekGreece and the Aegean
   Minoan and Mycenaean Bronze Age roots; pagan rites banned under Theodosius I, 393 CE
4. CanaaniteCanaan (Syria, Palestine), Ugarit
   2nd and 1st millennia BCE; gods El, Baal and Anath; absorbed into Israelite and Phoenician religion
5. MayaYucatán, Guatemala, Belize
   Preclassic from 2000 or 1000 BCE (sources differ); the last independent Maya, the Itza of Tayasal, fell in 1697
6. ShangYellow River plain, China
   Shang dynasty, c. 1600–1046 BCE; oracle bones, ancestor veneration, Shangdi
7. AtenismAmarna, Egypt
   Akhenaten’s worship of the Aten as sole god, 1353–1336 BCE; abandoned after his death
8. Germanic and NorseNorthern Europe, Scandinavia, Iceland
   Bronze Age rock carvings, c. 1200–500 BCE, among the earliest evidence; described by Tacitus, 98 CE; Christianity dominant in Scandinavia by the 11th century
9. RomanItaly
   Rome traditionally founded 753 BCE; Christianity made the state religion and temples closed under Theodosius I, 380s CE
10. CelticGaul, Britain, Ireland
    Druids first written about in the 3rd century BCE, described by Caesar in the 50s BCE; suppressed by Rome, gone by the High Middle Ages
11. MithraismRoman Empire
    Late 1st century CE; flourished in the 2nd and 3rd centuries, the chief rival of Christianity; declined after Constantine
12. ManichaeismPersia, then Central Asia and China
    Mani, 3rd century CE; banned in China in 843 but lasted there to at least the 14th century, a temple in Fujian to the 16th
13. AztecCentral Mexico
    Tenochtitlan founded 1325; ended with the Spanish conquest, 1521
14. IncaAndes, Cuzco
    Imperial expansion from 1438 under Pachacuti; ended with the Spanish conquest, 1532–33

Bars run from first evidence to today or to the end; faded ends are disputed or undated. Dates: Encyclopaedia Britannica and Encyclopaedia Iranica. Shares of the world, 2020: Pew Research Center 2025; religions shown without a share are not counted separately by Pew and fall within its “other religions” (2.2% together).