Young Russians Falling Away From Orthodox Christianity for Atheism and Islam - Is it a Sign?

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Poll reveals big drop in number of Russians who claim to be Orthodox Christians as Islam becomes more popular with country's youth

23 Mar, 2021 14:29

Russian Orthodox Patriarch Kirill conducts a service marking the 12th anniversary of his enthronement,

at the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour, in Moscow, Russia. © Sputnik

The number of atheists in Russia has doubled from 7% to 14% in just four years, with less than half of those under the age of 25 declaring themselves to be Orthodox Christian, compared to 66% for the population as a whole.

That’s according to a new poll from WCIOM, which revealed that faith in a Christian God is dropping with each generation.

On the contrary, Islam has held steady, remaining at around 6% of the entire population. Unlike Christianity, the popularity of the Muslim faith is far more prevalent in the young than the old, with under 25s having double (12%) the proportion of believers compared the country as a whole.

During the Soviet era, religion was officially banned, and church property was seized by the state. In the following decades, Orthodox Christianity rose in popularity, with the Russian Academy of Sciences estimating in 2013 that 79% of Russians were believers. However, in recent years, polling has shown a decline in the number of religious citizens.

According to the study, in 2017, 7% of Russians called themselves atheists. This has now risen to 14%. This has come at the expense of Orthodox Christianity, with the 2017 figure of 75% dropping to 66%. Islam has held steady at 6%.

Other recorded religions included Buddhism (1%) and Protestantism (1%), with Catholicism receiving 0%.

Interestingly, the age ranges most likely to consider themselves atheists are 18-24, 25-35, and 60+. The figure for the oldest group may reflect a generation growing up before the fall of the Soviet Union, where state atheism was an official policy.

Last summer, Russian citizens voted in favor of a packet of amendments to the country’s constitution. One of the most controversial additions was to explicitly mention faith in God as a core belief of the country.

"Now, brethren, concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our gathering together to Him, we ask you, not to be soon shaken in mind or troubled, either by spirit or by word or by letter, as if from us, as though the day of Christ had come. Let no one deceive you by any means; for that Day will not come unless the falling away comes first, and the man of sin is revealed, the son of perdition" - 2 Thess 2:1-3

‘What if There is No God?’ Duterte Promotes Death Penalty as Certain Means of Serving Justice

President Duterte, don't give up your day job;

you are no theologian!

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte. © Ted Aljibe / AFP

The Philippines’ president said that growing influence of atheism and agnosticism leads to people disrespecting laws and committing heinous crimes. And “if there is no God,” capital punishment is the only way to make sure justice is served.

The first sentence is most definitely true; the second, I'm not too sure about. At any rate, there is a God so the statement is redundant. There is a difference between people who believe God exists, or may exist, and Christians who have accepted Jesus as Lord and Saviour. The difference is the first group have never, or probably never really experienced God; the second has. 

To accept Jesus as Lord and Saviour results in the immediate invasion of the Holy Spirit into the believer. It is only by this Spirit that one can experience God and therefore truly know that He is. 

President Rodrigo Duterte has condoned the restoration of the death penalty in the Philippines “because the fear is not there” anymore. According to him, the previous presidents had given in to the pressure of the “bleeding hearts” and the Catholic Church who had been against the death penalty “because only God can kill”.

“The problem with that is, I ask you, ‘what if there is no God?’” Duterte said to reporters at the presidential palace in Manila.

“When a one-year-old, an 18-month-old baby is taken from the mother’s arms, brought under a Jeep and raped, and killed, where is God? And in Syria women and children, who don’t want to have sex with ISIS, they are burned. So where’s God? My God, where are you?” he addressed the creator directly.

God has restricted Himself to intervening in man's affairs only when He is asked or wanted. Otherwise, there would be no such thing as free will, and without free will, we could never come to love God, for which we were created. The horrors that man commits on the children of this world will not go unpunished and the suffering will not go without blessings in Eternity.

Previously, Duterte promised to personally deal with Islamic State jihadists by eating them alive in public.

Duterte professed that he personally believes in God, though existence of God have been a “perpetual question” for him, seeing “heartaches, sorrows and agony.” According to the Philippines’ president, the state needs a means to punish wrongdoers, without a need to wait for “the end of the world, when he [God] will judge the living and the dead”, since growing atheism and agnosticism mean people lack fear and do not respect the law.

“That is why, I said give me back the death penalty,” concluded the president, saying he has “always been a hardliner when it comes to the penal laws.”

On Friday Duterte made a similar comment, while giving a speech to police officers about illegal drugs and a set of rules to deal with drug criminals.

“Maybe God doesn’t want all these killings. But never mind, God is not my enemy. I’ll talk to him when I get there,” said Duterte to the officers. “I'll ask him, 'If you are really God, you didn't do anything, and the Filipinos are going crazy.'”

I would strongly advise you sort that out before you get there!

During the election campaign, Duterte promised to re-establish capital punishment as part of an ongoing ‘war on drugs’. Since he took office in the end of June, some 3,500 people have been killed during ‘the war’, while more than 600,000 people reportedly turned themselves in.

600,000 drug dealers in one country? Astonishing!

President Duterte is well-known for his harsh comments littered with profanities against world leaders. He has been facing criticism for his bloody war on drugs recently and responded to it in a rather questionable manner.

The Philippines president called his US counterpart Barack Obama “son of a b**ch,” earlier this month after hearing that the latter was to address the country’s ‘war on drugs’. The outburst led to the cancellation of scheduled talks between the two leaders. Later, Duterte stated that his comment had not been directed towards Obama, while doing that he somewhat managed to redirect the insult to the UN secretary-general Ban Ki-moon, calling him “a fool”.

Last week Duterte invited Ban Ki-moon and EU officials to investigate the methods of the nationwide drug crackdown. He managed, however, to insult the UN Secretary-General once more in process.

“I am inviting the United Nations’ Ban Ki ... what's the name of that devil? ... Ban Ki-moon,” Reuters quoted Duterte as saying.

OMGosh!

Mind you, it is odd that Moon and Obama are so concerned about the summary executions of reprobates in the Philippines and not at all concerned about the many beheadings and other executions in Iran and Saudi Arabia. But then, the Philippines don't have any oil and aren't buying much in terms of weapons. If they were, Moon and Obama would be a lot quieter.