Futurist Ray Kurzweil has made a host of predictions – some inspirational, others downright alarming. One of them is the sci-fi-sounding notion that suggests artificial intelligence will one day become more powerful than human intelligence and improve itself at an exponential rate, otherwise known as ‘the singularity’.
It’s far from the majority view, but few would deny that AI is only going to get more powerful. So, like in the case of gene editing, the tech and AI community will need to consider the ethical and societal implications of their work as AI comes to shape more realms of our life, from healthcare to financial markets.
As for end-of-the-world extinction scenarios, it’s frankly not likely – but that shouldn’t obscure the fact that AI is poised to change how we live and work in profound ways. It is also not impossible that specific AIs could malfunction or run out of their creators’ control, leading to very human disasters, where lives are lost or millions of dollars are wiped out.
The Center for the Study of Global Christianity at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary regularly publishes the Status of Global Christianity. Evaluating their research and predictions provides an encouraging and potential surprising picture for the current and future state of Christianity.
1. Christianity is growing faster than the population.
Globally, Christianity is growing at a 1.27% rate. Currently, there are 2.5 billion Christians in the world. The world’s population, 7.7 billion, is growing at a 1.20% rate.
Islam (1.95%), Sikhs (1.66%) and Hindus (1.30%) are the only religious groups growing faster than Christianity, though followers of Jesus outnumber every other faith and are predicted to continue to do so at least through 2050.
2. Pentecostals and Evangelicals are growing the fastest and are still picking up speed.
Among Christian groups, Pentecostals (2.26%) and evangelicals (2.19%) are growing faster than others.
They are both also growing faster than they did just two years ago. In 2017, Pentecostals’ growth rate was 2.22% and evangelicals was 2.12%.
3. Atheism has peaked.
There are fewer atheists in the world today (138 million) than there were in 1970 (165 million).
Since 2000, atheism has rebounded slightly—only by 0.04%—but it is expected to decline again and fall below 130 million by 2050.
Agnosticism has maintained a small growth rate of 0.42%. After reaching 716 million this year, however, it is expected to drop below 700 million by 2050.
4. Christianity is growing in cities, but not fast enough.
Today, 1.64 billion Christians live in urban areas, growing at a 1.58% rate since 2000.
But more than 55% of the world’s population lives in cities and that is only continuing to grow.
The global urban population is growing at a 2.15% rate.
5. The center of Christianity has moved to the global south.
In 1900, twice as many Christians lived in Europe than in the rest of the world combined. Today, both Latin America and Africa have more. By 2050, the number of Christians in Asia will also pass the number in Europe.
Currently, Christianity is barely growing in Europe (0.04% rate) and only slightly better in North America (0.56%).
Oceania (0.89) and Latin America (1.18%) have marginally better rates, but the faith is exploding in Asia (1.89%) and Africa (2.89%).
6. There are more evangelism opportunities for Christians than ever.
The vast majority of non-Christians live their lives and never interact with a Christian, but that number is shrinking.
In 1900, only 5.5% of non-Christians knew a Christian. Today, that has grown to 18.3%.
Obviously, that number is still too small, but the growing percentage grants more non-Christians the opportunity to hear the gospel from someone they know.
7. The percentage of the un-evangelized is shrinking.
More than half of the world’s population in 1900 (54.3%) were un-evangelized. That percentage continues to shrink, dropping to 28.4% in 2019.
That still means, however, that almost 2.2 billion people living today are still considered un-evangelized.
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