More than half in UK are non-religious

[Sparhafoc]

http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-41150792

Last year 53% of people described themselves as having "no religion", in a survey of 2,942 adults by the National Centre for Social Research.

Among those aged between 18 and 25, the proportion was higher at 71%.

 

[Prolescum]

Sounds somewhat low based upon my anecdotal evidence. There are only two and a half Christians in my office*, no one in my social circle or family is religious**, and I can only think of a Mormon separated by four degrees***.

On the other hand, we all love old churches.




*of 20-odd

**or even agnostic on the matter, really. Self-selecting, I know...

***my girlfriend>her best friend>best friend's boyfriend>boyfriend's mother.

 

[Sparhafoc]

A branch of my family is evangelical Christian very influenced by propaganda outlets in the US, and they are desperate to drag their beliefs into every conversation. Consequently, my mother goes out of her way to ensure that they never meet me!

Aside from that, I've got quite a few British Christian friends, but they're all the kind of Christians you'd never know were Christian unless you specifically asked them - i.e. they know how to do religion right.

 

[thenexttodie]

A branch of my family is evangelical Christian very influenced by propaganda outlets in the US, and they are desperate to drag their beliefs into every conversation. Consequently, my mother goes out of her way to ensure that they never meet me!

So you are an embarrassment to your mother. Gee, you must be proud.

 

[Sparhafoc]

A branch of my family is evangelical Christian very influenced by propaganda outlets in the US, and they are desperate to drag their beliefs into every conversation. Consequently, my mother goes out of her way to ensure that they never meet me!

So you are an embarrassment to your mother. Gee, you must be proud.

Fuck off, TNTD.

 

[Gnug215]

A branch of my family is evangelical Christian very influenced by propaganda outlets in the US, and they are desperate to drag their beliefs into every conversation. Consequently, my mother goes out of her way to ensure that they never meet me!

So you are an embarrassment to your mother. Gee, you must be proud.

Since you seem to have problems with reading comprehension, let me just spell it out for you:

It's not Spar that's the embarrassment to his mother, the crazy religious branch of the family are they problem. You know, the ideologically driven nutters, who let unfounded beliefs get in the way of family, akin to insane cultist behavior. You know? You know what I mean, right? Religion? That unrealistic, idiotic thing that no one has ever found any proof of? Which means it's really stupid for that to come in the way of real life interactions?

That's the embarrassment.

 

[Sparhafoc]

Exactly, Gnug215.

My mother would describe herself as a Christian, but she'd also admit - albeit under duress - to want to tell that branch of the family all the things she'd know I'd say if they tried shoving their religious infatuation down my throat as they do to her.

Far from being embarrassed of me, she's just too English, wanting to politely ignore their rudeness rather than confronting it.

But TNTD's response wasn't anything to do with reality - he was just trying to yank my chain for some reason. His last few posts have rapidly diminished my respect for him and explained why others here have little respect at all for him.

 

[Gnug215]

Exactly, Gnug215.

My mother would describe herself as a Christian, but she'd also admit - albeit under duress - to want to tell that branch of the family all the things she'd know I'd say if they tried shoving their religious infatuation down my throat as they do to her.

Far from being embarrassed of me, she's just too English, wanting to politely ignore their rudeness rather than confronting it.

But TNTD's response wasn't anything to do with reality - he was just trying to yank my chain for some reason. His last few posts have rapidly diminished my respect for him and explained why others here have little respect at all for him.

TNTD is pretty much just left to chain-yanking and pointless provocation. There is no substance there. And that's just what you find when you peel off the thin veneer of religion.

Incidentally, this is probably why more than half of the UK is now non-religious: religion simply does not deal well with the harsh light of exposure. The more information we have available to us, the more we see what inconsistent crap it is.
I'm sure that plenty of people still crave religion, and are still feeling "spiritual" or whatever, but more and more, this seems to be revealed to be just a by-product of our biology, and so while religion will still linger on for ages, I think we'll see less and less of the big, organized religion we have today - at least in the current shape and form - because people see that you cannot really organize a "series of spiritual emotions" into some kind of divine truth. People are seeing through the bullshit of a codified set of rules and "truths" espoused from religious leaders.

And a final more theological note... Seeing as it is a clear and obvious truth that people are so very different, one would imagine that an all-knowing God would know this and realize that one all-encompassing religion/denomination would be impossible and unrealistic, so pushing for that is stupid. So I foresee continued fracturing, but not really a disappearance of individual faith.

 

[Sparhafoc]

People are seeing through the bullshit of a codified set of rules and "truths" espoused from religious leaders.

I think, more than anything, it's the hypocrisy of religious leaders and of the most ardent believers that really pushes decent people away from it. I wonder if there's a vicious circle where less people in a religion shifts the balance towards that percentage of ardently religious, small-minded bigots hiding behind their religion to forward their disdain of their fellows, and consequently more decent people leave the religion, making it looks less and less appealing; a refuge only with crackpots and vicious hypocrites.

 

[thenexttodie]

Exactly, Gnug215.

My mother would describe herself as a Christian, but she'd also admit - albeit under duress - to want to tell that branch of the family all the things she'd know I'd say if they tried shoving their religious infatuation down my throat as they do to her.

Far from being embarrassed of me, she's just too English, wanting to politely ignore their rudeness rather than confronting it.

But TNTD's response wasn't anything to do with reality - he was just trying to yank my chain for some reason. His last few posts have rapidly diminished my respect for him and explained why others here have little respect at all for him.

I am an emrassement to my mother also.

 

[Sparhafoc]

I am an emrassement to my mother also.

FIFY

 

[Laurens]

Shame it didn't stop more than half the population being fuckwits

[/brexitjoke]

 

[*SD*]

Only just checking out this thread. I, too would estimate that the real figure is in excess of half. I know you said more than half, but I'd say way more than half.

Of the people I know, or have known (granted, that's a small sample size in the grand scheme of things) only one person is 'genuinely' religious/theistic. She happens to be a Vicar. Or pastor. Or reverend. Whatever they're called. I only 'know' her because she used to live down the road from me, we also have a mutual friend. I'm under strict instructions from that mutual friend (who I have a lot of respect for) not to even attempt to debate the Vicar Under no circumstances am I to challenge her. Because the mutual friend was actually fostered by her so she's a bit like a second mum. I respect this. As much as I'd like to obliterate her views.

Only once has she (the vicar) annoyed me. She was appointed to conduct the service for my fathers funeral and I told her not to over-do it with the fire and brimstone crap (she knows I'm an atheist and my father, massive wanker that he was, was not religious at all) and she still lobbed bucket loads of the 'holy spirit' around at the service.

I guess they just can't leave it alone.

 

[Dragan Glas]

Greetings,

SD, could you not have had a humanist or other non-religious service, or are the rest of his family religious?

Kindest regards,

James

 

[*SD*]

Greetings,

SD, could you not have had a humanist or other non-religious service, or are the rest of his family religious?

Kindest regards,

James

To be honest with you James, a 'humanist' service is a very rare thing. It's almost unheard of in my experience. The only time I've seen one is on the news for high profile figures (a-la Hitchens etc)

I've had the misfortune to have to attend, and be a bearer at an inordinate amount of funerals during my relatively short time on Earth. All of them have been highly religiously charged, despite the departed having no religious affiliation or inclination whatsoever. I'm not saying a humanist service cannot be done, but it is uncommon and in my own experience a foreign policy to those closest to the deceased, even when those closest hold no belief themselves.

In the case of my father, we used aforementioned vicar because she was local, and in some ways a friend (of sorts, she's far from obnoxious) so I just rolled with it. It was my mothers decision for the most part, and I didn't see fit to use the death of my own father as a platform for sparking debate so I just let it be. The way she conducted the service did annoy me, as I said. Despite my clear instructions to not over-do it with the Jeeeeeezuz (I knew there'd be some irrespective of my desires) she still went turbo on the afterlife crap.

I didn't even cry. And despite the fact that my father was an absolute bastard to me and my mother for the most part, it wasn't because I didn't care. I think I was too annoyed to express any emotion. I don't consider it a big deal now, because whatever bollocks she spouted is inconsequential, but it did irk me at the time.

 

[Sparhafoc]

For the record, I state here that in the event of my death, my last wish is that I want every utterance of the word 'God' in the service to be followed by the audience solemnly intoning 'what a load of baloney'.