Why Do Religions Decline?

The spiritual marketplace is crowded – is there something Darwinian about it?

A farmer gives milk from the holy cow to Hindus, Parsees and the British, by Ravi Varma, c. 1848-1908. Wellcome Collection. Public Domain.

‘Subjects followed their rulers, leaving no trace of spiritual agonies over the religious revolution’

Diarmaid MacCulloch is author of Lower than the Angels: A History of Sex and Christianity (Allen Lane, 2024)

The apparently simple word religion describes myriad beliefs, assertions and practices, and it is not sensible to seek simple mechanisms to account for their rise and fall. Cases need examining in their own context.

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