Friday, April 11, 2008

Only 38% of Britons believe in God

"To start with, we discover that only 38% of British respondents to a Eurobarometer Survey said they believed in God.
Other figures then give an indication of just how confused the nation is about religion. In reply to the question "Do you regard yourself as belonging to any particular religion?" 45.8% said they didn't. The most astonishing figure of all is that those belonging to the CofE/Anglicans have dropped from 29.3% to 22.2% in just a decade. That this has not been national news can only be because it is no surprise and/or people want to keep it quiet. Obviously some of the drop can be attributed to deaths, but not when the drop is so massive. So where have the rest of them migrated to? The figures suggest that it is to "Christian – no denomination" and no religion, both of which showed 3% – 5% increases. It seems plausible that "Christian – no denomination" is a half way house for the cultural Christians who bolstered the 72% figure in the 2001 Census before they join those of "no religion".
With the exception of the Roman Catholics, presumably because of Eastern European immigration, all other Christian denominations are much reduced, as are Buddhists. There are large proportional increases for Hindus and (surprisingly) Jews and above all Muslims (from 1.8% to 3.3%), and in some communities they may well be in the majority.
Incredibly, 13% of men and 15% of women claimed that they attended a religious service once a week or more. Even the churches own figures don't support that."

Terry Sanderson, National Secular Society, 11 April 2008

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

The confusion is because hardly anyone in england has believed in god or given it any thought for at least 40 years if not longer. There is a long tradition in england of putting on census forms and when registering with doctors that you are "Church of England". It means nothing over here.

God, as Nietzsche once said in a differnt context, has been long dead.

Anonymous said...

Im about to do my 3rd year exam in Nietzsche and am thinking is god really dead? with the release of the athiest bus campaign and the controversy involved with it, plus the huge evangelical society seen in america, can god really be called 'dead' yet??? apparently we have another one hundred years to see the overcoming of the will to truth. i wonder what will come of it?