# Religion

Atheist. Published work, each with its source.

## 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. Source: [Theobald 2010, Nature](https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/20463738/)
- **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. Source: [Miller 1953, Science; Johnson et al. 2008, Science](https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/18927386/)
- **RNA from scratch**: Building blocks of RNA formed from simple molecules thought to exist on the early Earth, under conditions consistent with its geochemistry. Source: [Powner, Gerland & Sutherland 2009, Nature](https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/19444213/)
- **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. Source: [Vilenkin 1982, Physics Letters B; Hartle & Hawking 1983, Physical Review D](https://doi.org/10.1016/0370-2693(82)90866-8)

## 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%. Source: [Benson et al. 2006, American Heart Journal (the STEP trial)](https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/16569567/)
- **14 studies**: A meta-analysis of controlled trials of distant prayer: “There is no scientifically discernable effect.” Source: [Masters, Spielmans & Goodson 2006, Annals of Behavioral Medicine](https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/16827626/)
- **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.” Source: [Roberts et al. 2009, Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews](https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/19370557/)

## 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. Source: [Griffiths et al. 2006, Psychopharmacology](https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/16826400/)
- **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. Source: [Ferguson et al. 2022, Biological Psychiatry](https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34454698/)
- **0 effect**: The “God helmet” tested double-blind with a sham control: the magnetic fields did nothing. Suggestibility predicted who had experiences. Source: [Granqvist et al. 2005, Neuroscience Letters](https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/15849873/)
- **Ordinary minds**: Religion can be understood as “the product of aggregated ordinary cognition”: the same mental machinery everyone uses every day. Source: [Barrett 2000, Trends in Cognitive Sciences](https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/10637620/)

## 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. Source: [Pew Research Center 2025](https://www.pewresearch.org/religion/2025/06/09/how-the-global-religious-landscape-changed-from-2010-to-2020/)

World population by religion, 2020 (Pew Research Center 2025): Christians 28.8%, Muslims 25.6%, No religion 24.2%, Hindus 14.9%, Buddhists 4.1%, Other religions 2.2%, Jews 0.2%.

## Religions, mapped

Dates: Encyclopaedia Britannica and Encyclopaedia Iranica; 2020 shares from Pew Research Center 2025.
### Practised today
- Hinduism: Rigveda, late 2nd millennium BCE; possible Indus Valley roots; no single founder. Indian subcontinent. 14.9% of the world.
- Judaism: Moses, 14th–13th century BCE; Abraham traditionally earlier. Canaan, ancient Israel. 0.2% of the world.
- Zoroastrianism: Zoroaster, c. 1000 BCE by scholarly consensus; proposals run from c. 1750 BCE to the 6th century BCE. Eastern Iran.
- Jainism: 7th–5th century BCE; Mahavira, 6th century BCE. Ganges basin, India.
- Daoism: 6th century BCE; Laozi. Henan, China.
- Buddhism: 6th–4th century BCE; Siddhartha Gautama. Northeastern India. 4.1% of the world.
- Shinto: From the Yayoi culture, 3rd–2nd century BCE; no founder. Japan.
- Christianity: 1st century CE; Jesus of Nazareth. Roman-ruled Palestine. 28.8% of the world.
- Islam: 7th century CE; Muhammad, first revelation 610. Arabia. 25.6% of the world.
- Sikhism: Late 15th century; Guru Nanak. Punjab.

### No longer practised
- Egyptian: Predynastic, 4th millennium BCE, to the closing of the temple of Isis at Philae under Justinian, 6th century CE. Nile Valley.
- Mesopotamian: 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. Sumer, Akkad, Babylonia, Assyria (Iraq).
- Greek: Minoan and Mycenaean Bronze Age roots; pagan rites banned under Theodosius I, 393 CE. Greece and the Aegean.
- Canaanite: 2nd and 1st millennia BCE; gods El, Baal and Anath; absorbed into Israelite and Phoenician religion. Canaan (Syria, Palestine), Ugarit.
- Maya: Preclassic from 2000 or 1000 BCE (sources differ); the last independent Maya, the Itza of Tayasal, fell in 1697. Yucatán, Guatemala, Belize.
- Shang: Shang dynasty, c. 1600–1046 BCE; oracle bones, ancestor veneration, Shangdi. Yellow River plain, China.
- Atenism: Akhenaten’s worship of the Aten as sole god, 1353–1336 BCE; abandoned after his death. Amarna, Egypt.
- Germanic and Norse: 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. Northern Europe, Scandinavia, Iceland.
- Roman: Rome traditionally founded 753 BCE; Christianity made the state religion and temples closed under Theodosius I, 380s CE. Italy.
- Celtic: 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. Gaul, Britain, Ireland.
- Mithraism: Late 1st century CE; flourished in the 2nd and 3rd centuries, the chief rival of Christianity; declined after Constantine. Roman Empire.
- Manichaeism: 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. Persia, then Central Asia and China.
- Aztec: Tenochtitlan founded 1325; ended with the Spanish conquest, 1521. Central Mexico.
- Inca: Imperial expansion from 1438 under Pachacuti; ended with the Spanish conquest, 1532–33. Andes, Cuzco.