Religious belief 'falling faster than church attendance'
By Matt Barnwell and Amy Iggulden
(Filed: 17/08/2005)
Organised religion is in near-terminal decline in Britain because parents
have only a 50-50 chance of passing on belief to their offspring, a study
claimed yesterday.
By contrast, parents without faith are successful in producing a new
generation of non-believers, it said.
The report identified institutional religion as having a "half-life" of
one generation, as children are only half as likely as their parents to
say that it is important in their lives.
The generational decline is too advanced to reverse, the report suggested,
as the proportion of people who believe in God is declining faster than
church attendance.
Dr David Voas, who oversaw the study at the University of Manchester, said
religion would reach "fairly low levels" before very long.
"The dip in religious belief is not temporary or accidental, it is a
generational phenomenon - the decline has continued year on year," he
said. "The fact that children are only half as likely to believe as their
parents indicates that, as a society, we are at an advanced stage of
secularisation."
The findings appear to contradict the commonly accepted theory that people
"believe without belonging" - the idea that religious belief is robust
even though churchgoing is in longer-term decline.
According to the survey, which was based on 14 years of data from 10,500
households, the importance of belief in God fell by 5.3 per cent to 32.5
per cent between 1991 and 1999.
This compared with a fall of 3.5 per cent in the proportion of people who
attended church services over the same period and a 2.9 per cent decrease
in the proportion who said they were affiliated to a particular religion.
The Church of England reacted with disbelief at the suggestion that faith
was declining, and said that parental influence was not the only factor in
preserving inter-generational belief.
"There is an assumption that people 'catch' religion from their parents,
but many people come to faith through the grandparents, schools, and their
friends," said Steve Jenkins, a spokesman.
He said that the study had not released "proper evidence".
"There is nothing to back up the claims, and our recent statistics show
that congregations are actually increasing, as is the number of
ordinations." Last year 564 people were selected to become new clergy, the
highest figure in six years. And congregations in 2003 had increased in
size by 1 per cent.
But the National Secular Society, which has 3,000 paid-up members,
welcomed the survey results.
"We find [belief] embarrassing as a country and it is time we accepted
that," said Terry Sanderson, the vice president. "People may say they
believe in Christianity but if you question them even slightly it becomes
clear that they cannot accept the central tenets of its faith - they don't
believe in its supernatural explanations."
The study, which used figures from the British Household Panel and British
Social Attitudes surveys, found that parents had the greatest influence on
children's beliefs, and that although a child with only one religious
parent was half as likely to inherit their faith as a child with two
religious parents, the decline could be slowed by the fact that religious
parents tended to have more children.
The study also found generational decline evident throughout the Islamic
and Jewish faiths, but from a much higher starting point.
http://news.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2005/08/17/nrelig17.xml
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| User: "tw" |
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| Title: Re: Religious Belief 'Falling Faster Than Church Attendance' |
18 Aug 2005 06:33:05 AM |
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"Doc" <bushelsofbushrot@HellsHereNow.com> wrote in message
news:de1pna02uai@enews1.newsguy.com...
Religious belief 'falling faster than church attendance'
By Matt Barnwell and Amy Iggulden
(Filed: 17/08/2005)
Organised religion is in near-terminal decline in Britain because parents
have only a 50-50 chance of passing on belief to their offspring, a study
claimed yesterday.
Well well well.. that should save us from the "Muslim Europe in 10 years"
paranoia that some people here like to subscribe to at least.
By contrast, parents without faith are successful in producing a new
generation of non-believers, it said.
Simple Darwinism - survival of the cleverest! Aetheists are breeding faster
than Pixie-worshippers! World peace must be just around the corner..
The report identified institutional religion as having a "half-life" of
one generation, as children are only half as likely as their parents to
say that it is important in their lives.
The generational decline is too advanced to reverse, the report suggested,
as the proportion of people who believe in God is declining faster than
church attendance.
Dr David Voas, who oversaw the study at the University of Manchester, said
religion would reach "fairly low levels" before very long.
Now that can only be a good thing. As long as big business continues to pick
up the slack in partonage of the arts etc. (not that the Church have been
doing much in that area this last half-millenia or so)
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