The internet appears to have hastened the rise of secularism a new research paper claims. A similar phenomenon, especially the rise of smart phones, is also linked to a decline in marriage and birth rates.

Citing the findings of a just published paper on the topic, he says “when Internet penetration rose, religiosity declined in a dataset of 81 countries”.

The authors of the study “Internet Diffusion and Religious Decline: Evidence from 81 Countries, 1990–2022”, say this was true across the board even as they controlled for various factors.

In addition, they found digital connectivity most strongly associated with religious decline concerning “institutional belonging and self-identification as a religious person”.

“By contrast, associations with ritual attendance and confidence in churches are smaller and often statistically insignificant, while the reported importance of religion and God shows modest, sample-sensitive decreases”.