ONLY 44% NOW BELIEVE IN GOD [in Britain]

[TheWebHead]

According to a poll by YouGov, just 44 per cent believe in God compared to 77 per cent in 1968.

A majority - 81 per cent - also believe the country is becoming more secular, with fewer people going to places of worship.

But among this percentage, 68 per cent of believers and 14 per cent of non-believers, regretted that society was becoming less religious.

Only a third of the 1,981 people who took part in the online survey believe in heaven and even fewer believe in the devil. Just a quarter think hell exists. Fewer than half, 43 per cent, believed their souls would outlast their bodily life.

more...
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/allnews/tm_objectid=15018615%26method=full%26siteid=50143%26headline=only%2d44%2d%2dnow%2dbelieve%2din%2dgod-name_page.html

UPDATE: much more in the Telegraph:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2004/12/27/nfaith27.xml&sSheet=/portal/2004/12/27/ixportal.html


Ohhhhh, the fundies are gonna go apeshit over this one!

[illflem]

1. In the US 45% believe in Adam & Eve

While 76.7 percent of Brits accept the fact that humanity evolved from other species through a process of natural selection, only 35 percent of Americans do. And almost half the adult US population, 45 percent, think that the world was created by God within the last 10,000 years.
http://www.drudge.com/discuss/viewTopic.php/22456

[sonicx]

2. This poll is probably wrong...

either that or this one is...

http://icliverpool.icnetwork.co.uk/0100news/0300nationalnews/tm_objectid=14962967&method=full&siteid=50061&headline=seven-out-of-10--believe-in-god--name_page.html

Seven out of 10 'believe in God'

Dec 10 2004

Nearly three-quarters of people in the UK believe in a God, yet less than a quarter attend religious services as regularly as once a week or more, according to a survey.

snip/more

44% is not realistic.

[JI7]

4. i think the poll mentioned in the original post was non scientific

[sonicx]

7. oh ok, thanks.

of course, then i gotta ask...why do the poll? It's like when Bill Oreilly does an Internet Poll: "Is Michael Moore Evil?" and gets 90% "YES" answers.

:shrug:

[TheWebHead]

9. doesn't say that

telegraph story on this:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2004/12/27/nfaith27.xml&sSheet=/portal/2004/12/27/ixportal.html

"YouGov elicited the views of 1,981 adults across Britain online between Dec 16 and 18. The data have been weighted to conform to the demographic profile of British adults as a whole. YouGov abides by the rules of the British Polling Council."

and on YouGov's website:
"YouGov has a track record as the UK's most accurate pollster. In all five of the YouGov polls where data could be compared to actual outcomes (including the UK general election, the Australian election, the Pop Idol contest), we were within 1% of the actual result."
http://www.yougov.com/yougov_website/asp_besAboutUs/bes_aboIntro.asp?sID=1&wID=0&uID=

[Zynx]

21. Most YouGov polls are telephone polls.

This was an online poll.

[nine23]

6. One poll says...

"Nearly three-quarters of people in the UK believe in a God"..."a" being rather important.

I think the other poll (44%) is the christian one.

[LostInAnomie]

3. Sounds like Heaven

Hmmm... That's kind of an ironic statement.

[cleofus1]

5. too many of these threads...

this is the 3rd of 4th thread like this and it does not seem to qualify as breaking news...

[sonicx]

8. Plus the poll is unscientic, so it's worthless...

In reality, Most people in Europe (and around the world) believe in "God." What's different between the US and them is that our church attendance is about double theirs.

[reorg]

13. most people in Germany

are not "religious" - according to my personal experience and also according to a poll cited in "Die Welt" last year. Even most members of either the Catholic or the Protestant Church (like myself) are unbelievers, atheists, or don't really care about belief systems.

I do not personally know a single person, among colleagues or in my wider family, who is a "true believer". Even among those who have studied religion extensively, regularly attend church services, sing in the choir or work for the church. Some would describe themselves as religious persons, but they do not believe in life after death and do not subscribe to any other of these typically "Christian" superstitions (virgin birth, hell, Jesus as supernatural being, etc).

It may be true that between a third and a half of the populace have some vague respect for the unknown source of everything, which -- for lack of a better expression -- they may label "god", but that doesn't mean anything in terms of a specifically Christian tradition.

---
"Only 39 percent Germans ... describe themselves as religious"

"Nur noch 39 Prozent der Deutschen, so wollen Meinungsforscher einer Online-Umfrage "Perspektive Deutschland" herausgefunden haben, bezeichnen sich als religiös."

http://www.welt.de/data/2003/04/28/80605.html

[reorg]

17. only about double?

I only know about Germany, but I dare say that we are overwhelmingly areligious - and that includes those IN the church.

Church membership in 2001 (steadily decreasing, by about 10 percent in the last ten years):

Protestants 32,1 percent of populace
Catholics: 32,3 percent of populace

(in all about 52 million).


Church attendance (on sundays):

Protestants on average 3,9 percent of church members
Catholics on average 16 percent of church members

Souce: "Berliner Morgenpost", interviews with church officials and using official church statistics.

http://morgenpost.berlin1.de/content/2003/07/20/politik/617716.html?redirID

[Spinzonner]

10. So, is Druidism making a comeback ?

[Carl Brennan]

11. It looks like DU has finally done its job in the UK!!

Hooooooray. Give yourself a big clap on the back DU. People, in England at least, are finally starting to see that religion is bullshit.

[AliciaKeyedUp]

24. Religion is important to the vast majority of the world

Call the beliefs of your fellow man bullshit all you want, it reflects on the positions of the anti-religionists, not us.

[SweetLeftFoot]

12. Of those who do

I bet a large proportion are concentrated in Northern Ireland where belief in God and expressing such feelings in the traditional manner can hardly be seen as beneficial.

[Zynx]

14. This was an online study, meaning the numbers could be significantly off.

The only country I know of with numbers like this is the Czech Republic.

[TheWebHead]

15. I would guess that an online survey

where all the other traditional demographics match a phone or in-person survey, would show higher agnostic beliefs because of the anonymity... in any country.

[Zynx]

20. In most European countries there isn't a social stigma to calling yourself

an atheist or agnostic. If anything, calling yourself a practicing Christian might draw more ire.

[reorg]

16. well, how about East Germany?

"According to the international values study in 1990 32 percent of the people in the new states thought of themselves as religious and 37 percent as areligious, 17 percent labelled themselves atheists. 1999, in the last study of this kind, only 29 percent said they were religious, the proportion of areligious people increased by 12 points to 49 percent and the atheists to 22 percent."


"Nach der internationalen Wertestudie aus dem Jahr 1990 hatten sich 32 Prozent der Menschen in den neuen Bundesländern als religiös eingeschätzt und 37 Prozent als areligiös, 17 Prozent nannten sich atheistisch. 1999, bei der letzten derartigen Studie, bezeichneten sich nur noch 29 Prozent als religiös, der Anteil der Areligiösen stieg um zwölf Punkte auf 49 Prozent und der der Atheisten auf 22 Prozent"

(in "Erosion christlichen Glaubens" / "Erosion of christian belief" in Die Welt, April 2003)

http://www.welt.de/data/2003/04/28/80605.html?s=2

[Zynx]

18. A huge number of the former Communist countries are like that.

Some of them have seen rebounds from immediately after the fall of the Soviet Union, but others like the Czech Republic and I believe Hungary are split roughly 50/50 between believers and atheists/agnostics.

[reorg]

23. but, interestingly, the trend continues under the capitalist system n/t

[JoFerret]

19. 44% - that's frightening

....fortunately of those 44% very few attend any kind of church and 29% of the 44% worship association football.

[JawJaw]

22. Bargain basement religion

Whilst Christianity may be waning in the UK, it has been replaced by the God of consumerism. Witness the hordes flocking to out of town shopping centres for the annual pilgrimage known as the "New Year Sales"

[Moderator]

25. duplicate

locking - discuss here

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=1100593