(Black & Kaldor 1999) Black & Kaldor also found that just under half of the sample felt that spiritual life was an important value as a guiding principle for life table 10.4 also shows that one-third of the sample engage in weekly prayers or meditation , which is in contrast to the low figures of weekly church attendance in table 10.5 . these data therefore support Robert bellah's argument that religiosity has not disappeared but has become privatised 1965. - The relationship between religion and culture especially as expressed through ethnicity , remains strong . Numerous conflicts and political movement around the world have a strong religious element . examples include the conflicts israel , Chechnya , Sudan , Iran , iraq , indonesia and thailand . today it seems that religion has increased its role as an ethnic marker , and continues to be used as an ideological force both uniting and dividing cultural groups . this occurs both between and within nations , with fundamentalism being an especially potent force in both muslim and christian countries. - While christianity had declined in most western nations , it had increased significantly in africa , Latin america and asia . The world christian encyclopaedia complied by david barrett (discussed in brierley 2001) has taken statistics from around the world to estimate global changes in religious affiliation . barrett estimates that 34.5 per cent of the world were christian in 1900 and this had declined only marginally to 33 percent in 2000. Table 10.6 provides an estimate of changes in world religious affiliation between 1970 and 2000 . while it shows a small decrease in the proportion of the world's population who were christian , it indicates a big increase in the proportion who were muslim and , overall , a decline in the proportion who were not religious . These figures provide a picture which contrasts with the apparent religious decline in the West .
Many commentators observe that , far from disappearing , it is the strength and diversity of religion today that is most striking . as anthony giddens comments , today 'religion not only refuses to disappear but undergoes a resurgence ' (1991b , p.195).
Secularisatin or desecularisation ?
It seems , then , that there is evidence on both sides for the argument on secularisation the enduring strength of religion as a social force suggests that there are problems with the assumption about the inevitable decline of religion in contemporary life . at the same time it is equally clear that , in the west at least