Atheism and Agnosticism
There are people who do not profess any faith (such as atheists and agnostics) in Pakistan but their numbers is not known. They are particularly in the affluent areas of the larger cities. Some were born in secular families while others in religious ones. According to the 1998 census, people who did not state their religion accounted for 0.5% of the population, but social pressures against claiming no religion was strong. A 2012 study by Gallup Pakistan found that people not adhering to any religion account for 1% of the population.
In September 2010 a Facebook group surfaced for Pakistani Atheists and Agnostics (PAA). On August 2011, they launched their website www.e-paa.org which received more than 17,000 hits in just 48 hours after its launch from 95 countries. The PAA wants a non-theist box to be added on the passport and to be easier for Pakistanis to change their religion legally if they want.
Read more about this topic: Religion In Pakistan
Famous quotes containing the words atheism and and/or atheism:
“He talks about the Scylla of Atheism and the Charybdis of Christianity—a state of mind which, by the way, is not conducive to bold navigation.”
—Norman Douglas (1868–1952)
“Nothing shall warp me from the belief that every man is a lover of truth. There is no pure lie, no pure malignity in nature. The entertainment of the proposition of depravity is the last profligacy and profanation. There is no scepticism, no atheism but that. Could it be received into common belief, suicide would unpeople the planet.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)