I had no idea people in Britain were so religious?

wideload · Post by **wideload** » Thu Jan 26, 2006 7:08 pm

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/4648598.stm

thats a lot of people who deny evolution....

Bouncelot · Post by **Bouncelot** » Thu Jan 26, 2006 8:17 pm

That really surprises me. Creationism in the UK is pretty much confined to Evangelical Christian groups who aren't all that numerous (the Evangelical Alliance apparently represents about 2 million people - counting both individual members and non-members who belong to churches which are Evangelical) and that's nowhere near 44%. Methinks that the survey probably had a particularly biased sample.

Oh, and of course, the survey doesn't say that people actually believe in either Creationism or Intelligent Design, but that they want it taught in schools.

Yaya · Post by **Yaya** » Thu Jan 26, 2006 9:00 pm

What's are the religious demographics of Britian anyway?

Legion · Post by **Legion** » Thu Jan 26, 2006 10:06 pm

straight from the wiki's mouth!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographi ... m#Religion

Bouncelot · Post by **Bouncelot** » Thu Jan 26, 2006 10:15 pm

It's probably worth noting that the vast majority of the 70% or so who claimed to be Christian in the 2001 census aren't Christians by any meaningful definition - only about 7% of the population regularly attend a church (unless you count Christmas and Easter as "regularly"), and even within that there are a large chunk whose Christianity stops when they leave the building.

Post by **Best First** » Thu Jan 26, 2006 11:06 pm

ugh. idiots.

Impactor returns 2.0 · Post by **Impactor returns 2.0** » Fri Jan 27, 2006 12:34 am

read that.

A survey of 2000 ppl - wow thats good when there are 60 million ppl in our country!!!

Predabot · Post by **Predabot** » Fri Jan 27, 2006 1:38 am

What I found interesting was that 4280 000 people is in the Not Stated category, they JUST WONT TELL what their religion is, since apparently they feel it's not anybody elses bloody bussiness.

Post by **Denyer** » Fri Jan 27, 2006 3:38 am

The bastards in officialdom won't recognise my religion, despite there being around 390,000 of us proud to acknowledge and try to follow the teachings of Yoda... 0.7% of the national population, in fact...

It's worth noting that, since there aren't evangelical PR campaigns in the UK like there are in parts of the US, most people wouldn't know the difference between creationism and "intelligent design" (indeed, the latter includes the notion that a possible deity started everything, then left things for evolution to work out) -- and it's also unlikely most of those surveyed know what "intelligent design" means in a US sense.

Religion isn't something many people in the UK talk about, full stop, unless they happen to be online amongst Americans.

Aaron Hong · Post by **Aaron Hong** » Fri Jan 27, 2006 4:15 am

Predabot wrote:What I found interesting was that 4280 000 people is in the Not Stated category, they JUST WONT TELL what their religion is, since apparently they feel it's not anybody elses bloody bussiness.

Two-thirds of them are Jedi, I think.

Yaya · Post by **Yaya** » Fri Jan 27, 2006 5:03 am

Aaron Hong wrote:
Predabot wrote:What I found interesting was that 4280 000 people is in the Not Stated category, they JUST WONT TELL what their religion is, since apparently they feel it's not anybody elses bloody bussiness.
Two-thirds of them are Jedi, I think.

Legion · Post by **Legion** » Fri Jan 27, 2006 9:18 am

Aaron Hong wrote:
Predabot wrote:What I found interesting was that 4280 000 people is in the Not Stated category, they JUST WONT TELL what their religion is, since apparently they feel it's not anybody elses bloody bussiness.
Two-thirds of them are Jedi, I think.

Hmmm... but if they're not owning up to it... maybe they're Sith!

Post by **Best First** » Fri Jan 27, 2006 9:30 am

i'd say at least 2 of them must be.

not sure about the assertion people in th euk don't talk about religion much - its a fairly common pub topic my way.

KingMob · Post by **KingMob** » Fri Jan 27, 2006 9:59 am

Best First wrote:not sure about the assertion people in th euk don't talk about religion much - its a fairly common pub topic my way.

Yeah. That gave me pause as well. You pretty much can't escape the Catholic/Protestant topic up here. A friend of mine from Belfast assures me that our seeming (routinely violent) obsession with it is decidely small beer compared to what it's like back in her home city...

angloconvoy · Post by **angloconvoy** » Fri Jan 27, 2006 11:25 am

I think an important point to note is that this poll is being hyped by Horizon, or "shock tactic biased science for media whores" as I like to call it. Would be far more interested in seeing the real breakdown of the sample and just how biased the questionairre they're extrapolating these "facts" from is.

Scraplet · Post by **Scraplet** » Fri Jan 27, 2006 1:17 pm

At first I thought that these were unlikely figures, but then i thought "could 50% of the British public be stoopid?", and of course the answer is a resounding YES.

But, as Impy and Angloconvoy pointed out, it depends who they asked and how they asked it. 2000 people is not a statistically significant sample. I think you need a random sample of 14,000 people to achieve that for the UK popuation (if my recollection from my statistics classes as uni is correct

)

Metal Vendetta · Post by **Metal Vendetta** » Fri Jan 27, 2006 2:36 pm

There was a report lately that claimed around 7% of Britons didn't know who Tony Blair was.

Obfleur · Post by **Obfleur** » Fri Jan 27, 2006 3:22 pm

Those 7% must be infants, surely?

Metal Vendetta · Post by **Metal Vendetta** » Fri Jan 27, 2006 3:37 pm

Are they the same people who are being polled the question "do you think God made the world in 7 days?" 'cause I don't think I'd trust their opinions on that either....

Legion · Post by **Legion** » Fri Jan 27, 2006 4:08 pm

Metal Vendetta wrote:Are they the same people who are being polled the question "do you think God made the world in 7 days?" 'cause I don't think I'd trust their opinions on that either....

i thought he did it in six?!

damn, there goes my bibical knowledge!

Post by **spiderfrommars** » Fri Jan 27, 2006 6:24 pm

Obfleur wrote:Those 7% must be infants, surely?

When I was a Youngling I thought Margaret Thatcher and the Queen were the same person.

I also thought God was our local vicar.

sprunkner · Post by **sprunkner** » Fri Jan 27, 2006 6:40 pm

Legion wrote:
Metal Vendetta wrote:Are they the same people who are being polled the question "do you think God made the world in 7 days?" 'cause I don't think I'd trust their opinions on that either....
i thought he did it in six?!

damn, there goes my bibical knowledge!

Union rules. He got paid for his vacation day.

Optimus Prime Rib · Post by **Optimus Prime Rib** » Fri Jan 27, 2006 6:44 pm

Impactor returns 2.0 wrote:read that.

A survey of 2000 ppl - wow thats good when there are 60 million ppl in our country!!!

seriously? Thats a WHOLE lotta people crammed into an island. How large is the UK anyway? We have 200 million, but we also take up roughly 1/3 of a continent.

Legion · Post by **Legion** » Fri Jan 27, 2006 7:00 pm

Optimus Prime Rib wrote:How large is the UK anyway?

about a quarter of a million square kilometers i think... i could google it, but i can't be arsed...

inflatable dalek · Post by **inflatable dalek** » Fri Jan 27, 2006 9:56 pm

Metal Vendetta wrote:There was a report lately that claimed around 7% of Britons didn't know who Tony Blair was.

True- But that 7% had just spent a night on the tiles with Charles Kennedy and were in no position to remember who anyone was...

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Sat Jan 28, 2006 12:13 am

Impactor returns 2.0 wrote:A survey of 2000 ppl - wow thats good when there are 60 million ppl in our country!!!

That's still potentially more representative than Parliament, tho.

Optimus Prime Rib wrote:How large is the UK anyway? We have 200 million, but we also take up roughly 1/3 of a continent.

Let's just say that aside from the Hawaiian Islands and the District of Columbia, the UK will fit easily into any of the major geographical regions of the United States. In many cases, many times over.

Post by **Denyer** » Sat Jan 28, 2006 5:07 am

Optimus Prime Rib wrote:seriously? Thats a WHOLE lotta people crammed into an island. How large is the UK anyway? We have 200 million, but we also take up roughly 1/3 of a continent.

Large parts of which are barely habitable, to be fair.

Best First wrote:not sure about the assertion people in th euk don't talk about religion much - its a fairly common pub topic my way.

Religion or the political and civil unrest that tends to accompany? I suppose it's more that people tend not to talk directly about their beliefs.

I mean, I can recall a few evenings ending up with slurring out theories of life, the universe and everything, but more often it's just part of the usual mish-mash of topics, pinballing between Al Qaeda, Neocons, the BNP and the fact Guinness tastes awful when pipes haven't been properly maintained.

KingMob · Post by **KingMob** » Sat Jan 28, 2006 8:22 am

Denyer wrote:Religion or the political and civil unrest that tends to accompany?

They tend to be somewhat muddied together, in my experience.
Also, religion is far from just pub talk in this city.
I find the whole thing rather tiresome.

Bouncelot · Post by **Bouncelot** » Sat Jan 28, 2006 11:30 am

Best First wrote:not sure about the assertion people in th euk don't talk about religion much - its a fairly common pub topic my way.

In my workplace, religion seems to be a relatively common topic of discussion.

Optimus Prime Rib wrote:seriously? Thats a WHOLE lotta people crammed into an island. How large is the UK anyway? We have 200 million, but we also take up roughly 1/3 of a continent.

I thought the US population was about 320 million.

Yaya · Post by **Yaya** » Sat Jan 28, 2006 6:30 pm

Why is it so surprising to some that the majority of the country, nay, the world follow a religion and believe in a supreme being? Granted, many here have called this delusional, but nevertheless, the godless are still a very small minority overall.

If there's something I have gathered from this board, its the concept that most of the world is delusional and require psychiatric investigation.

I made my appointment with a pyschiatrist after taking your advice, but he was still at church.