Two-thirds of Spain's native-born population now identify as atheist or agnostic

Farewell to God: two-thirds of Spain's native-born population identify as agnostic or atheist

The debate over religious decline in Spain has peine with a divisive figure: two-thirds of the native-born population identify as agnostic or atheist. The number allows for opposing readings. Some see it as the consequence of abandoning God; others, as the result of scepticism towards an institution that has lost its prestige. The clash is not only theological: it is sociological.

Abandoning God as cause or as effect

The theological argument rests on the Bible. The episode of King David, who after an unauthorised census of Israel is offered three punishments to choose from – seven years of famine, three months of persecution or three days of plague – is used as a mirror: David trusted in weapons before God. The rebuttal is not long in coming: if God exists and is a superior being, he should not depend on human recognition to maintain his self-esteem. Or, in more mundane terms, science has already established that the sky is empty and the underground is magma, not hell.

A Church under scrutiny: from theology to politics

The other side of the question points to the Church itself. It is not just the council of the sixties: some recall that in Latin America the Catholic hierarchy lost ground by defending Marxist terrorists in Chile and El Salvador, a burden that weighs more than any theology. The conclusion of part of the analysis is simple: people are not abandoning God, they are abandoning an institution they consider sold out to earthly power. Society has stopped needing intermediaries between the citizen and the transcendent.

The two-thirds figure has peine a rift that no consensus closes. Some see a collective punishment for the abandonment of faith; others, the logical consequence of a secularisation that asks no permission. The data is on the table; the interpretation, up in the air.