[QUOTE]More than half of people in Scotland now have no religion, according to research.
Findings from the Scottish Social Attitudes survey show 52% of people say they are not religious, compared with 40% in 1999 when the survey began.
The proportion who say they belong to the Church of Scotland has fallen from 35% in 1999 to just 20%.
Other religious groups, including Roman Catholic (15%) and other Christian (11%) have remained steady.
The number of non-Christians has remained at 2%.
The research, published by ScotCen Social Research, also reveals attendance at religious services is at the lowest level recorded since 1999.[/QUOTE]
[url]http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-35953639[/url]
Religion is barely a thing on the east coast (Edinburgh/Dundee/Aberdeen), it's extremely atheist.
[QUOTE=SeamanStains;50059654]Religion is barely a thing on the east coast (Edinburgh/Dundee/Aberdeen), it's extremely atheist.[/QUOTE]
The only people who seem to be excited about religion here seem to be weirdoes that seem to be carbon copies of American Evangelical types who shittalk evolution.
There's the religions of immigrants too, but that's about it in Edinburgh I think.
One of the only people I know who was raised christian rejected his religion when we got into like 3rd year of High school, I'm not wanting to take credit for "converting" him, considering I see myself as agnostic but we used to debate ideas and exchange opinions so I'm not really surprised tbh
just to make it clear his parents where alright with it, upset but proud he made his own decision
Also growing up outside of Glasgow and seeing the sectarianism between Catholic and Protestant kinda turns you off to the whole organised religion imo
[QUOTE=Sobotnik;50059677]The only people who seem to be excited about religion here seem to be weirdoes that seem to be carbon copies of American Evangelical types who shittalk evolution.
There's the religions of immigrants too, but that's about it in Edinburgh I think.[/QUOTE]
Quite a lot of Mormon evangelical types about, strangely.
Religious second immigrants don't to last long though. I knew two Sikhs and a Muslim and they all lost their religion about 16-22.
Maybe Scotland is so dreary it makes people question why a divine being would have created such a miserable place.
I don't mean religious beliefs but people need to remember that religion is personal.
[QUOTE=raz r23;50059960]I don't mean religious beliefs but people need to remember that religion is personal.[/QUOTE]
I don't understand what you mean.
[QUOTE=SeamanStains;50059654]Religion is barely a thing on the east coast (Edinburgh/Dundee/Aberdeen), it's extremely atheist.[/QUOTE]
I have to agree, here in Fife I tend to find its mostly the older folk who are still religious, other wise pretty much everyone I know isn't.
[QUOTE=SeamanStains;50059890]Quite a lot of Mormon evangelical types about, strangely.
Religious second immigrants don't to last long though. I knew two Sikhs and a Muslim and they all lost their religion about 16-22.
Maybe [B]Scotland is so dreary[/B] it makes people question why a divine being would have created such a miserable place.[/QUOTE]
its what made me question it tbh but learning sciences and music made it twice as fun and my RE teacher made me question my ethics more than anything else so I'm glad I learned about religions.
as a point of reference my primary school was supposed to be a non-denominational but we still were made to sing songs about jesus at school plus we'd go to church and shit at the holidays, the same in highschool but most people only did it to get out of class.
[QUOTE=dunkace;50060036]I have to agree, here in Fife I tend to find its mostly the older folk who are still religious, other wise pretty much everyone I know isn't.[/QUOTE]
This is the case across the UK - only age groups over 55 are still majority religious
[t]http://i.imgur.com/TnfmagE.png[/t]
[url=http://www.bsa.natcen.ac.uk/media/38958/bsa28_12religion.pdf]Source - British Social Attitudes[/url]
Good news, glad that it's happening to America and Canada too. I don't care if religion exists, but it's dangerous having one religion be such a large majority such as Christianity 100 years ago here. Nowadays even young people that are religious tend to be very moderate and respectful about others' beliefs.
I'm pretty sure this is a global trend. Here's a chart for the USA
[t]http://i.imgur.com/sEx6L1n.png[/t]
[QUOTE=Dougz;50060536]I'm pretty sure this is a global trend. Here's a chart for the USA
[t]http://i.imgur.com/sEx6L1n.png[/t][/QUOTE]
in 3 different classes of about 30 not a single one of them were religious, while about 25% was raised religiously
i live just outside the edge of the dutch "bible belt" so there are regions where atheism is even more mainstream
They must make up most of the statistics, considering that at least a third of people in the UK are Atheist.
[QUOTE=FreyasFighter;50061078]They must make up most of the statistics, considering that at least a third of people in the UK are Atheist.[/QUOTE]
Or most people don't answer the polls. Assuming most young people are atheists, and unless they care very deeply about the subject, they won't answer a poll. Considering most them likely don't care about answering polls, there is a misrepresentation in the numbers. It's not that they made up the figures, it's under representation due to a lack of participation.
Wow, info from Stats 101 actually paid off in life. Who knew?
[QUOTE=dunkace;50060036]I have to agree, here in Fife I tend to find its mostly the older folk who are still religious, other wise pretty much everyone I know isn't.[/QUOTE]
Oh cool, another person from fife.
Keep forgetting how many British people are on this forum.
Not surprising. Our church attendance has been steadily shrinking as older folks pass and there is no young people joining the assembly.
[QUOTE=Hogie bear;50061583]Oh cool, another person from fife.
Keep forgetting how many British people are on this forum.[/QUOTE]
Quite a few Scots on the forum, let alone Brits in general.
I'm from Aberdeenshire but currently working in Perthshire 5 days a week.
[QUOTE=Mr Kotov;50062438]Not surprising. Our church attendance has been steadily shrinking as older folks pass and there is no young people joining the assembly.[/QUOTE]
A trend my parents notice in their church (I'm one of the non-religious in the statistics, my parents are in the over 55 more likely to be religious demographic), doesn't help that the really old people in the church are actively making younger people not feel welcome, especially younger couples with children.
[QUOTE=Craigewan;50062755]
A trend my parents notice in their church (I'm one of the non-religious in the statistics, my parents are in the over 55 more likely to be religious demographic), doesn't help that the really old people in the church are actively making younger people not feel welcome, especially younger couples with children.[/QUOTE]
Yeah, that was a problem in my old church, and I've heard similar stories. I also think that because younger people tend to be more liberal many of them don't hold religious beliefs as many denominations aren't exactly the most liberal places in the world. For example, there is seven churches and chapels in my town, and only the one that I attend accepts gays as part of the congregation.
[QUOTE=Mr Kotov;50062819]For example, there is seven churches and chapels in my town, and only the one that I attend accepts gays as part of the congregation.[/QUOTE]
The thing that pisses me off is that some churches say they're churches, but they enforce the Pastor's/Minister's opinions and not what it says in the Bible. Being gay does not mean they should not be allowed in the church. One of the biggest aspects of Christianity is spreading the word and how are they going to do that if they are excluding people?
[QUOTE=FreyasFighter;50061078]They must make up most of the statistics, considering that at least a third of people in the UK are Atheist.[/QUOTE]
This shit's pretty hard to poll actually because it depends a lot on how you phrase the question. Different phrases like "Are you religious?" vs "Are you a member of a religion" vs "Which religion do you identify as?" vs "Do you have a religion?" will mean very different things to people and give very different results. Plenty of people in the UK fall into this awkward hard-to-define gap of identifying as Christian (if asked in a certain way), but not actually going to Church or doing anything actively, and they would probably identify as "no religion" if you phrased it differently - in that case it's difficult to know which is the "correct" way to phrase the question as anything you say will influence them one way or another.
The UK census has a religion question, so in theory that should be [I]the[/I] definitive answer, but it's phrased differently from the polls and consistently shows religion as much stronger than the polls do.
[QUOTE=smurfy;50063182]This shit's pretty hard to poll actually because it depends a lot on how you phrase the question. Different phrases like "Are you religious?" vs "Are you a member of a religion" vs "Which religion do you identify as?" vs "Do you have a religion?" will mean very different things to people and give very different results. Plenty of people in the UK fall into this awkward hard-to-define gap of identifying as Christian (if asked in a certain way), but not actually going to Church or doing anything actively, and they would probably identify as "no religion" if you phrased it differently - in that case it's difficult to know which is the "correct" way to phrase the question as anything you say will influence them one way or another.
The UK census has a religion question, so in theory that should be [I]the[/I] definitive answer, but it's phrased differently from the polls and consistently shows religion as much stronger than the polls do.[/QUOTE]
Reminds me of how like 3/4 of the Catholics in France are atheists
[QUOTE=Sobotnik;50063279]Reminds me of how like 3/4 of the Catholics in France are atheists[/QUOTE]
Oh I forgot about that, that's a whole other crazy complicating factor and is present in Britain too
[url]https://yougov.co.uk/news/2015/02/12/third-british-adults-dont-believe-higher-power/[/url]
[quote]Only 55% of self-identified Christians believe in a God while 23% believe in “some sort of greater spiritual power”, but not a God. Nearly one in ten Christians (9%) don’t believe in any higher power, and 12% don’t know what they believe in. At the same time, 22% of non-religious people believe in some kind of higher power.[/quote]
Religion just means a lot of different things to people, it's really hard to turn these complex feelings and belief systems into a set of numbers on a spreadsheet. But having said that yeah it's defo in decline, we know that much
[QUOTE=smurfy;50063311]Oh I forgot about that, that's a whole other crazy complicating factor and is present in Britain too
[url]https://yougov.co.uk/news/2015/02/12/third-british-adults-dont-believe-higher-power/[/url]
Religion just means a lot of different things to people, it's really hard to turn these complex feelings and belief systems into a set of numbers on a spreadsheet. But having said that yeah it's defo in decline, we know that much[/QUOTE]
It's actually very simple, and all people go under two categories:
1) Those who [B]deny[/B] the seemingly Absurd nature of universe&existence, aka believers
2) And those who [B]accept[/B] it.
[QUOTE=Bat-shit;50066178]It's actually very simple, and all people go under two categories:
1) Those who [B]deny[/B] the seemingly Absurd nature of universe&existence, aka believers
2) And those who [B]accept[/B] it.[/QUOTE]
That seems like kind of a generalization
I know many people of faith who believe in science in the same way that most atheists do
Looking from the long perspective I think Scotland is one place where religion has had an almost exceptionally divisive and damaging influence an almost anthropological scale, the mixed associations of religion, language, and identity post protestant reformation really spent a long time poisoning the political and ethnic landscape of Scotland and has caused a tremendous degree of strife and bloodfueding over the last 500 years, and even today there's still seems to be a pesky amount of residual sectarianism that spills over and mixes between Ireland and Scotland, and visa versa. The sooner religion gets pried off of politics and national identity in scotland, the better. Recent questions of identity and independence would become clearer, one way or another, with religion making it's way out of the picture.
[QUOTE=hypno-toad;50066532]Looking from the long perspective I think Scotland is one place where religion has had an almost exceptionally divisive and damaging influence an almost anthropological scale, the mixed associations of religion, language, and identity post protestant reformation really spent a long time poisoning the political and ethnic landscape of Scotland and has caused a tremendous degree of strife and bloodfueding over the last 500 years, and even today there's still seems to be a pesky amount of residual sectarianism that spills over and mixes between Ireland and Scotland, and visa versa. The sooner religion gets pried off of politics and national identity in scotland, the better. Recent questions of identity and independence would become clearer, one way or another, with religion making it's way out of the picture.[/QUOTE]
Likewise, I think that if we are to remain a part of Britain then we shouldn't let petty arguments over religion divide us like that.
[QUOTE=Bathtub;50066197]That seems like kind of a generalization
I know many people of faith who believe in science in the same way that most atheists do[/QUOTE]
No it's really not.
If you asked these "many people of faith" if there is a greater purpose to life that is beyond life itself, they would probably say there is, as [I]most[/I] believers do.
Which means they still deny it. That's called having faith.
[QUOTE=Bat-shit;50068008]No it's really not.
If you asked these "many people of faith" if there is a greater purpose to life that is beyond life itself, they would probably say there is, as [I]most[/I] believers do.
Which means they still deny it. That's called having faith.[/QUOTE]
I don't understand what you're trying to say.
[QUOTE=Bat-shit;50066178]It's actually very simple, and all people go under two categories:
1) Those who [B]deny[/B] the seemingly Absurd nature of universe&existence, aka believers
2) And those who [B]accept[/B] it.[/QUOTE]
Where would someone with solipsism syndrome go?
Where would an existentialist go?
Where would a nihilist go?
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