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Sunday, December 24, 2006

In the UK, 63% Are Not Religious

According to a Guardian/ICM poll 63% of the people in Briton are non-religious compared to 33% who describe themselves as religious. The non-religious group includes many who call themselves Christian but presumably don't practice the religion. Most people think that Religion does more harm than good - poll.

It's important for North Americans to understand the differences between us and Europeans. While religion still seems to be a powerful force in America, it is on the wane in most other western industrialized nations. That's a reason for optimism. It's possible that North America will soon abandon religion as well.

1 comment :

John S. Wilkins said...

You may wish this to be true, but I think it will not. The nest we can hope for is that religion, in the sense of organised and politically influential religion, will drop to some small level or equilibrium. Other things will arise socially to replace it to an extent. We should not expect perturbations on social rationality to disappear, but seek instead to limit their undue influence on secular society.

Incidentally, the figure often quoted about Australian religiosity, I think about 55% from memory, is an artifact of the way the question is asked by our census takers. I think the active religious here are no more than in the UK or Europe, perhaps less.