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Iran's Mass Deconversion: An Atheist Theocracy?
In this episode, we explore the surprising decline of religiosity in Iran, a country known for its religious theocratic state. Only 30.3% of Iranians now believe in life after death, with even fewer adhering to organized religion. We delve into the reasons behind this rapid deconversion, including the impact of state-enforced religion, the role of the internet, and shifts in cultural and family dynamics. We also examine Iran's plummeting fertility rates and the government's failed attempts to reverse this trend with various pronatalist policies. Join us as we discuss the broader implications of these changes for Iran and how they serve as a cautionary tale for other nations.
Malcolm Collins: [00:00:00] Life after death, only 30. 3 percent of people in Iran believe in life after death.. Heaven and hell, 30. 1%. When they asked religion, so to give you an idea of how much disgust they have for organized religion in the country, even if they identify as a Muslim, only 27.
8 percent believe in religion. More broadly. So, like, less than the percent that are Shia, even the state religion, enforcing There are
Simone Collins: people who answered on this survey, I am a Shia Muslim. I don't believe in religion. That happen?
Malcolm Collins: Yes. Maybe because they consider themselves ethnically Shia Muslim, or maybe Yeah, that makes sense.
Simone Collins: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah,
Malcolm Collins: yeah,
Simone Collins: yeah. They
Malcolm Collins: just have so much Which I guess goes to
Simone Collins: show, like, the extent to which making the religion the rule Kills the religion.
Malcolm Collins: an overwhelming majority, 90 percent describe themselves as hailing from religious families.
So this happened within a generation. They lost like when you're like, how quickly can we really lose kids that quickly isn't like a, oh, you do this and they control the [00:01:00] country for a few generations. You went from 90 percent coming from a religious family to 27. 8 percent saying that they identify as religious
Would you like to know more?
Malcolm Collins: Hello, Simone. I'm excited to be here with you today. Today's episode. We're going to be talking about two things. One is how Iran has rapidly been losing its rate of religiosity, mass deconversions We're talking like 40, only 40 percent of Iran's population identifies as Muslim now. Oh my gosh. Okay.
So, and this is in a religious theocratic state, then we're going to be talking about their crashing fertility rates. Quite all of the efforts that they've been trying to do to reverse this. Okay. And I want to couch all of this in this idea that people have that if only their religious group controlled the government of the country that they were in, That they would be able to do more to keep their religion alive and this in the United States.
This is an instinct. [00:02:00] I hear so frequently from Catholics and I point out that Catholic majority countries have some of the lowest fertility rates in the world. They have some of the quickest deconversion rates in the world. And they're like, well, they're not enforcing their rules strictly enough. If they enforce them even more strictly, it would fix these problems.
And I'm like, well, great counter example is Iran. So Iran is enforcing them more strictly than any of the Catholic countries. And it appears to have an increased level and an increased rate of deconversion because of this. In fact, I will point out That it's not just, they're leaving Islam. Fewer people in Iran believe in God than in the United States.
Simone Collins: Oh my gosh. Okay, so they're not just converting out of the hard culture. They are just Nothing matters anymore. Nihilism.
Published on 11 months, 3 weeks ago