Scotland takes UK lead in rejecting organised religion

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Scotland takes UK lead in rejecting organised religion

JENNIFER CUNNINGHAM June 06 2005




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SCOTLAND is now the most secular part of the UK.
Herald readers have reinforced the findings of the 2001 census that Scots are more likely than people in England, Wales or Northern Ireland to say they have no religion. Despite this, they overwhelmingly regard themselves as spiritual, with a majority believing in God.
Replies to a questionnaire on spirituality and religious belief in the Health and Wellbeing supplement were closely divided between those who are practising members of a religion (53.4%) and those who are not (45.7%).
In the census, 27.5% of Scots said they had no religion, compared with a UK average of 15.4%.
The Herald's figure of 45.7% of people with no religion (from a total of 970 responses) is startling, according to Callum Brown, professor of religious and cultural history at Dundee University.
"The figure suggests Scotland is a leading part of the very pronounced collapse of traditional Christian culture in Europe. In a recent survey of the people of the EU, 42% claimed that religion did not occupy an important place in their life," he said.
The Herald figure is all the more surprising because in a group choosing to respond to questions on religion, the proportion of non-believers might be expected to be lower.
Outwith the aspect of organised religion, 70.9% of respondents described themselves as spiritual; 60.5% said they believe in God; 67.7% in a higher life force; and 62.9% in life after death.
Significantly more people (61.3%) favoured a religious funeral than the 53.4% who were practising members of a religion. That was seen as reflecting reality by Peter Kearney, spokesman for the Catholic Church in Scotland.
"The demise of religious belief in Scotland has been, as this survey shows, greatly exaggerated. Belief in God clearly remains a fundamental truth for an overwhelming majority of Scots. Importantly, belief and practice are not the same thing. Many more believe than actively worship and this does not mean that religion is dead.
"In politics, many more believe in democracy than turn out to vote, but no-one claims democracy is dead. Believing in God continues to be a bedrock issue for most Scots. The challenge for the churches is to build on this belief."
That was echoed by the Rev Alex Millar, who is involved with mission and evangelism at the Church of Scotland. "There is at large a spiritual search being conducted by modern men and women in search of happiness and fulfilment which materialism does not offer.
"The old pattern of measuring religious affiliation is not necessarily the best indication of the strength of religion. Parish ministers up and down the country increasingly have people attending regularly, but who don't belong in the formal sense of membership."
SCOTLAND is now the most secular part of the UK.
Herald readers have reinforced the findings of the 2001 census that Scots are more likely than people in England, Wales or Northern Ireland to say they have no religion. Despite this, they overwhelmingly regard themselves as spiritual, with a majority believing in God.
Replies to a questionnaire on spirituality and religious belief in the Health and Wellbeing supplement were closely divided between those who are practising members of a religion (53.4%) and those who are not (45.7%).
In the census, 27.5% of Scots said they had no religion, compared with a UK average of 15.4%.
The Herald's figure of 45.7% of people with no religion (from a total of 970 responses) is startling, according to Callum Brown, professor of religious and cultural history at Dundee University.
"The figure suggests Scotland is a leading part of the very pronounced collapse of traditional Christian culture in Europe. In a recent survey of the people of the EU, 42% claimed that religion did not occupy an important place in their life," he said.
The Herald figure is all the more surprising because in a group choosing to respond to questions on religion, the proportion of non-believers might be expected to be lower.
Outwith the aspect of organised religion, 70.9% of respondents described themselves as spiritual; 60.5% said they believe in God; 67.7% in a higher life force; and 62.9% in life after death.
Significantly more people (61.3%) favoured a religious funeral than the 53.4% who were practising members of a religion. That was seen as reflecting reality by Peter Kearney, spokesman for the Catholic Church in Scotland.
"The demise of religious belief in Scotland has been, as this survey shows, greatly exaggerated. Belief in God clearly remains a fundamental truth for an overwhelming majority of Scots. Importantly, belief and practice are not the same thing. Many more believe than actively worship and this does not mean that religion is dead.
"In politics, many more believe in democracy than turn out to vote, but no-one claims democracy is dead. Believing in God continues to be a bedrock issue for most Scots. The challenge for the churches is to build on this belief."
That was echoed by the Rev Alex Millar, who is involved with mission and evangelism at the Church of Scotland. "There is at large a spiritual search being conducted by modern men and women in search of happiness and fulfilment which materialism does not offer.
"The old pattern of measuring religious affiliation is not necessarily the best indication of the strength of religion. Parish ministers up and down the country increasingly have people attending regularly, but who don't belong in the formal sense of membership."
SCOTLAND is now the most secular part of the UK.
Herald readers have reinforced the findings of the 2001 census that Scots are more likely than people in England, Wales or Northern Ireland to say they have no religion. Despite this, they overwhelmingly regard themselves as spiritual, with a majority believing in God.
Replies to a questionnaire on spirituality and religious belief in the Health and Wellbeing supplement were closely divided between those who are practising members of a religion (53.4%) and those who are not (45.7%).
In the census, 27.5% of Scots said they had no religion, compared with a UK average of 15.4%.
The Herald's figure of 45.7% of people with no religion (from a total of 970 responses) is startling, according to Callum Brown, professor of religious and cultural history at Dundee University.
"The figure suggests Scotland is a leading part of the very pronounced collapse of traditional Christian culture in Europe. In a recent survey of the people of the EU, 42% claimed that religion did not occupy an important place in their life," he said.
The Herald figure is all the more surprising because in a group choosing to respond to questions on religion, the proportion of non-believers might be expected to be lower.
Outwith the aspect of organised religion, 70.9% of respondents described themselves as spiritual; 60.5% said they believe in God; 67.7% in a higher life force; and 62.9% in life after death.
Significantly more people (61.3%) favoured a religious funeral than the 53.4% who were practising members of a religion
more...
This doesn't surprise me at all!!!

to Love Scotland! And I do!

in the name of religion. The Irish still haven't gotten over it.

been fiercly independent free thinkers. Maybe that's why they don't kowtow to the sheeple mentality.
They repelled the Romans too - hence Hadrians Wall.

British = English, Scots, Welsh.

The continent is still lagging, and America is of course madly regressing.

the other day, and I saw a car with an anti-religion bumpersticker on it. Thinking that it could be spun either way, I pulled up close enough to take a look at the stoplight.

The little print basically said God=good religion/denomination=bad (or at least not important.)

Thank goodness not everyone is a sheeple!

That sounds a lot like the kind of rhetoric I used to hear from the Campus Crusade for Christ. Who knows?

I feel it's mostly remarkably similar to the rest of Britain, so this surprises me. However, I suppose that Edinburgh, Aberdeen and Glasgow are all very well-educated cities, and make up much of the population.

Also... only 15% of Brits are atheists! WTF! I don't think I've ever met anybody who went to church in Britain. Ever.

My family of die hard left wingers are, like many people in the U.K. cultural rather than religious Christians. They are active around church related events, are baptized, wed and buried by the church, but are nevertheless non-believers. The perennial joke whenever it comes to selecting the archbishop of Canterbury is that it's difficult to find a candidate who believes in God.

Half of my family are also of Scottish origins. The Scots have long been a keen, often skeptical people who have produced more famous people, notable in the arts, literature, the sciences and as inventors, philosophers, architects and so on than would be expected for a country of such modest size and population. Hardly the sort to swallow a bunch of fundamentalist nonsnsense. America on the other hand has been dumbed down in the last twenty or so years to the point we've become a nation of stupids.

The only people I know who go to church are over 65 years old.

A difference from what we've got here in this country of numbed down fundies:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=102&topic_id=1526245&mesg_id=1526245

if only we could say the same about america

A great many scientists and inventors are Scottish. Polls of this nature are affected greatly by the questions and bias of the interviewer. To see a factor of two in poll results between two papers is an indication of this. I like the Herald's numbers.

"Scots are more likely than people in England, Wales or Northern Ireland to say they have no religion. Despite this, they overwhelmingly regard themselves as spiritual, with a majority believing in God."

Christianity does not have a monopoly on humankind's need for meaning.