Fifty years after it held the world’s first international conference examining the rise of atheism and secularism, the Vatican is joining forces with a British research initiative to host a conference on “Cultures of Unbelief.”
In late May, scholars from a range of disciplines will gather at Rome’s Gregorian University to discuss the results of the effort, called “Understanding Unbelief,” which for the past two years has been mapping the rise and nature of nonreligion across the world.
According to the Pew Research Center, the number of “nones” — those who describe themselves as atheist, agnostic or of no particular religion — will reach 1.