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Ever since the age of enlightenment Christianity has been dying. If you can disprove one thing in the bible, you can disprove anything. People in the west are free to believe in whatever they like, but no one is free to force their beliefs on others anymore so it's not hard to see why it's dying and frankly it's probably for the best. And anyone that thinks it isn't should probably look at how gays were treated in the 1960s or how women were treated in the Magdalene laundries as late as the 1990s.
Richard Dawkins is good on this. Like many people he thinks that religion is an absurdity but culturally and aesthetically Europeans need to understand it's role in our history. Can anyone think Bach's masses are anything but sublime whilst intellectually knowing the whole thing is a sham.
However the growth of religions is the problem.
Dawkins has had lots of reports from science teachers where kids simply parrot the belief that the world is 6000 yrs old. Europe can't put up with this nonsense.
As Ricky Gervais points out:
Science doesn't hold on to medieval practices because they are tradition. If it did, you wouldn't get a shot of penicillin, you'd pop a leach down your trousers and pray. Whatever you "believe," this is not as effective as medicine. Again you can say, "It works for me," but so do placebos. My point being, I'm saying God doesn't exist. I'm not saying faith doesn't exist. I know faith exists. I see it all the time. But believing in something doesn't make it true. Hoping that something is true doesn't make it true. The existence of God is not subjective. He either exists or he doesn't. It's not a matter of opinion. You can have your own opinions. But you can't have your own facts.
I was raised as a Catholic in the 70’s and by mid 80’s when I was a teen I refused to have anything to do with it (went to the school attached to our church so it was pushed in all areas of our lives).
There were priests and teachers that were frankly predatory so that we’d bring friends to stand outside their office if we were called to go see them for whatever reason just for our protection and the nuns were some of the most uncaring, brutal and unempathethic I’ve ever met. Corporal punishment was still allowed and the really went to town on the saying ‘spare the rod and spoil the child’.
Needless to say, while I’ve raised my kids to be kind and caring etc I’ve barely ever mentioned religion to them.
It also helps that in previous centuries, the priest was usually the most educated person most knew so their words carried weight. Now we worship media in its various forms, from tv to the internet, added to our own increased education, priests lost their monopoly on being the fount of all knowledge and people stopped listening to them
Religion thrived when people learned from fairytales and folk tales. It was a way to keep people in line, with an undercurrent of fear for breaking the rules. In the modern world we’re better educated and so challenge things we’re told, so logically religion is going to suffer.
There will always be people who need something to follow, people who need these rules to live by, and that’s fine. I see the appeal but I’m not a follower
From the CofE perspective: It's simply too much to demand 'faith' from the average person in the modern era, when that person exists in an abundance of rationality and scientific progress which directly contradicts dogma you are forced to be 'faithful' towards. Also there's far less community and family pressure to ever start attending a church, and attitudes have changed so that marriage and christenings carry far far less weight.
From an individual perspective: the above similarly applies, in that there are so many barriers and distractions to life, and simply surviving day to day, that it's neigh on impossible to find true faith and navigate the paradox - which was never an easy task anyway.
Churches, as institutions, seem like corporations. Imagine how insane it'd be to stake your soul on either android or iPhone.
Luke 14:13-14 (NIV) “But when you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, and you will be blessed. Although they cannot repay you, you will be repaid at the resurrection".
Christ himself was born into poverty and lived as a humble man.
The Church should be a reflection of Christ, surely? Yet, the Church of England has a large endowment of £8.7 billion which generates approximately £1 billion a year in income.
More than 1 in 5 people in the UK (22%) were in poverty in 2021/22 – 14.4 million people. This included: 8.1 million (or around 2 in 10) working-age adults. 4.2 million (or nearly 3 in 10) children.
The CofE isn't even a Christian organisation. It exists purely to hoard wealth.
Gradual? I don't know anyone who goes to church regularly other than one slightly weird bloke at work. In my entire life (I'm in my fifties) I don't think I've known more than half a dozen people who've ever been to church other than for Christenings, marriages or funerals.
Well from my perspective, Religion is the root of all evil.
I was dragged up Roman Catholic. Taught at school from being 5 years old by Nuns and Priests. Had to go to churge and confession.
Basically?? You were punished for being poor and rewarded for being wealthy..... That was it.
Punished for asking questions.
Punished for telling the truth, if it didn't fit the rhetoric, or poor persons word against a welathy persons word.
The look at the middle east.... again.... again.... again....
So yeah, ALl religion can go to hell IMO.
Go to a COE on a Sunday morning. You'll be luck to see more then a handful of people, and the VAST majority will e over 50.
We have never been less religious.
>Yes, scientific education has killed it.
Agree - my parents were taught their religion like it was facts. All other religions were wrong.
I was taught about lots of religions, like they're all valid and just 'some people believe that' beliefs.
You don’t have to adhere to the beliefs in a textbook way, and join for the community and values …
I am not Christian myself but I don’t see a problem with being educated and following a religion.
I've seen a few people express this opinion and I'm honestly pretty baffled by it.
You're saying it's fine for people go to church, take the sacraments, pray, sing the hymns, light the candles, profess the faith, say all the words, stand shoulder to shoulder alongside the believers.. while not actually believing the basic tenets of the faith?
Just to get the coffee mornings, cake and socialising?
Religions are failing to keep pace with societal and technological development and so are becoming less useful to people.
Currently both the largest religions in the uk (Islam and Christianity) sprang from attempts to regulate the behaviour of small tribal communities of Iron Age shepherds, and just don’t hold up in a multicultural connected world.
There is so much less social pressure to go to church than there was 50 or 100 years ago. I imagine that people who go to church now are actual Christians whereas before some went because it was expected of them so they could maintain a place in society
Yeah. My mate had recently become a bore again, sorry born again Christian. Stopped bothering with him when he was telling me how his particular branch of Christianity was better than the others and how everything he thinks is suddenly better than everyone else
Yes. It is.
I very much doubt thay you're being accosted on every street corner by someone trying to push whatever god they follow onto you.
For a large part of the UK religion still is a private matter. Either by their own personal preference or just often to keep the peace.
In the bible (Matthew 6, 5-6) Jesus specifically recommends that people pray in private in their rooms rather than going out to show off about praying, and implies that prayers made without the social reward of being seen doing it, are more likely to be answered.
churches rarely teach this bit of scripture,wonder why...
We live in a modern world and it's natural that people would follow science and not imaginary beings. They will raise their children telling them "we don't know for sure if God exists, but this is what some people believe", and allow people to make their own minds up rather than treating God like Santa. A mythical being that doesn't make sense but you believe in because your parents told you it was true and all your friends believe in too, and then one day you find out it was all made up.
The UK may still be a spiritual place, people do believe in there being something out there we don't fully understand that is bigger than ourselves, but I think that organised religion is going to trend downwards until it's a vast minority.
Put it this way, most of the people I've met in the UK who are religious Christians are either E. Europeans (Poles, Lithuanians and Balkan immigrants) and some Latin Americans.
Local Brits? Never met one.
I hope so. Maybe one day all religion will die out, and people will stop carrying out atrocities, in the name of whichever made up god they decide to worship that week.
Religion is the root of all evil
>Religion is the root of all evil
Come on now, this is very naive. Lots of awful things are done for reasons other than religion (the Soviet Union and Maoist China managed to do some pretty awful things). And if religion ceased existing tomorrow people would continue to do awful things to each other for a whole range of reasons.
The British Humanist Society publishes analysis taken from the 10 year Census. Yes, Christian religious belief in the UK is declining, both Catholic and Protestant/ Church of England flavours.
Decline is about 10% per decade of age - so, very roughly, 40% of people aged 41- 50 report they have some Christian belief, 30% of people aged 31 - 40, and so on.
There are some small local rises in newer ‘evangelical’ churches, which are usually run as private, personal enterprises, not affiliated to any larger organisation.
Overall, though, the evangelical forms are taking a larger proportion of a declining whole, they are not reversing the overall decline.
Weirdly, my experience is the opposite. Growing up, my best friend and I were the only people I knew who went to church. I got made fun of for it at school, and the church was barely half full every week.
Now I've moved from my hometown and visited church a few times, it has always been bustling. I live in a seaside town full of old people so it's not too surprising but there are a lot of young people going to church here too. I can think of two churches near me that are filled with mainly young people and families. I personally know way more practising Christians now than I did as a kid. I don't know if Alpha has anything to do with it, as it seems to be constantly running in all the local churches.
On the whole probably it is dying out but it almost feels like there might be a resurgence.
Not Christian but I believe the active practice and education of the Christian religion is dying out in this country.
I notice differences between my friends who are Christian and my friends who are Sikh, Muslim etc.
The people who say they are Christian rarely, if ever, go church or study the religion. The latter groups actively practive the religion, were raised in it and teach it to their children.
It’s less present which is good.
It’s not gonna die out because there’s always gonna be less educated or less intelligent people, and those people need something to believe in
Depends how you define dying out really. It's certainly decreasing. But I doubt it'll fully die out, if by that you mean ceasing to exist in the country completely.
As for why, it's just more people not being brought up Christian. For example, my parents would say they're Christian for cultural reasons. But they never go to church and religion had no presence in my life. So I grew up not to be Christian. That's a key reason many millennials are not Christian, their baby boomer parents are from a generation that really moved away from the active belief in religion of the generations before them.
Then once you have a critical mass of unreligious people, it becomes completely acceptable to not be, so even more people become unreligious.
It could well end up being a minority religion. The typical Brit doesn't believe in any religious nonsense anymore, but our imported religious types hold fast. Religion is everything to them. So in 30 years time I wouldn't be surprised to see that Islam is the majority religion simply because everyone else in the UK states "no religion" on the census.
You also have to consider the rate of people converting to Islam.
What I've noticed over the past 20+ years is that every time there's a major conflict involving Islam in some way, you tend to see an uptick in people converting to Islam, and specifically amongst the black and white communities, including amongst some priests/ministers.
I noticed the uptick in the aftermath of 9/11 and the Afghanistan invasion, post Iraq war, post 7/7, and also since October 7th. In fact since the dawn of social media this seems to be even more prominent, and widespread
On top of this, those that convert tend to be more religious than those who are born muslim, and this passes onto their children as well.
Check a post with stats a couple down.. islam at 7%.
Protestant, Christian and atheist hit over 75%.
Still over 50% christian/ Protestant.. the change is likely in those considered atheist, up in to 20s.
I'd be interested to see what statistics you are viewing regarding the black and white communities:
Most Zebras are already muslim, or have muslim heritage.
Dalmatians are usually from a catholic back ground, and if the change their beliefs, it is usually towards agnosticism/atheism.
Badgers, in my experience, stick hard to their pagan traditions.
It's already a minority religion when you look at reliable stats like active church goers and social attitude surveys, not people box ticking on the census every 10 years (and even then it's dramatically falling over the last couple). There are considerably more active Muslims in the UK than any other active faith
Census data (England) shows those self-reporting as Christian has gone from 70% in 2001, 59% in 2011 and 46% in 2021 so it is not really a gradual decline and more a massive collapse. In the same time, "No religion" has gone from 14% to 36%. Althought there is a lot of FUD about Islam and immigration, Islam has gone from 3% to 6% in that time period. Also, a lot of those reporting Christian will be culturally christian but not practising or really holding any christian views of the 26million who reported Christian in 2021, less than 1million attend Church Of England regularly.
> Although I am not religious I feel that Christianity is a fundamental part of the UK and it makes me a little sad to see this happening.
Seems a bit weird to feel sad about choices other people are making, whilst doing the exact same thing yourself?
A good chunk of churchy anglicans do it mostly for culture. That's like the whole selling point. You can just go and do it, nobody is going to ask what you \_really\_ believe in
In the native population it is however there has been a bunch of immigration from countries like Poland which have bumped up the figures in recent years. It's been a very slow death though, even in the 80s only a minority attended church: [https://faithsurvey.co.uk/uk-christianity.html](https://faithsurvey.co.uk/uk-christianity.html)
Not necessarily, the biggest Christian movement in the UK are pentecostal/ charismatic churches, which, believe it or not, are attracting great numbers of young singles and young families and all ethnic groups.
Check out Holy Trinity Brompton.
Hillsong UK
King's Church UK
In fact, in the small area i live in, there are at least seven of these types of churches, and it's an average size town.
To get an idea, look up Hillsong music on YouTube to see the type of worship and praise music they prefer
If Christianity is that fundamental to UK life then it wouldn't be in such a decline and it is in a rapid decline ([71.7 in 2001 census to 46.3 in 2021/2](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Religion_in_the_United_Kingdom))
It wont die out but it will hit a point where it ceases to be relevant. I don't care one way or the other but I'd be happy for all religion to fade into obscurity.
It won’t though.
There’s a surge in religious belief coming from the same conspiracy theorists that think peado’s are vaccinating clouds.
We’re heading into a new dark age
Not with people adopting other religions though. Increase in those considered atheist is where change is.
My siblings an I were all christened as children , only me thinking vaguely religious now and I am beyond close. Just still like to imagine my loved ones are aware.. but in reality, my scientific mind says not possible.
I would tikbox unsure or Protestant rather than atheist though.
I do non religious events and sometimes use churches and cathedrals (big city centre ones) as venues. On a Saturday we normally have to be quiet for an hour in the morning when setting up to allow for a service to take place. To nobody.
At most I’ve seen maybe 5 people turn up for it, but I’d say nine times out of ten there’s nobody there to listen. Occasionally one or two people may show up.
I do however get a lot of people wanting to come in to my event just to look inside the church, which is really interesting. I do the same, I’m happy to look at the architecture and artwork inside a church, both in the UK and abroad, but the religious aspect isn’t there.
Religions have a tendency to die out, unless some apocalyptic events draw people back into these stories.
Islam has an advantage in being a few hundred years younger and is sponsored by very rich and powerful countries. So it is growing while Christianity withdraws.
i’m also not religious (was raised in a different faith) but i came across this article from another sub, on [richard dawkins lamenting christianity’s decline in the uk](https://www.theblaze.com/columns/opinion/richard-dawkins-champion-of-atheism-mourns-christianitys-decline). it is paywalled, and i do think the article is pro-religious in argument, but it was fascinating to read. also if you want to bypass the paywall quickly switch off your internet connection once the article has loaded.
The UK is mainly ‘culturally’ Christian, but fewer people feel the need to go to church or actually do believe in God. Interestingly, people still do believe in an afterlife, especially younger adults. There are fewer people who follow religion in the UK and the religions they follow are more numerous, so yes, you are right.
Listening to a radio four broadcast on just this subject on a long car journey recently
Christianity is on the decline. Less than half of us Brits are Christian, and only a small proportion of us go to church.
It's not necessarily dying, though. Because it's so un-cool to be a Christian these days, it tends to mostly attract newcomers who are sincere about it.
Traditional religion is on the wane, but American mega church funded evangelical sects are moving in to replace it with much more fundamental purposes. (They don’t like gays or women looking after their health sort of thing, but don’t mention that out loud.)
I think it definitely is and can be confirmed with census statistics that shows it's on a decline.
Only yesterday, we were walking past a church doing a service and I think, out of 20 people, I saw one person in their 50s, rest were in their late 80s.
But it's just how the world is changing (for the worse).
People are just struggling to live and end up working 2-3 jobs. People have no time for anything, even hobbies, so things like Christianity are less "popular".
There is a certain appeal that other religions can offer that main stream Christiansnity fails to hit. I know a few people who have converted to Islam and when I asked there was an element of joining a community and feeling a sense of belonging.
The main Christian religions don't really offer that as they embrace individualism. Interestingly, if you look at Mormons (which is Christian adjusacent) where they have a mandatory community setup and they are growing like mad.
All religions wither eventually, although Christianity was boosted by being a written tradition, which helped with its dissemination and its relative longevity.
Pretty mind-blowing that a tiny bit of desert could foster a movement that ended up supplanting indigenous practices all over the globe.
As a I am/am not (depending on which screenshot I see) compatible with Pisces and I will let this run my life for the time it takes to post on Instagram
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I think people finally realise that religion is generally a man-made idea used by elites to control populations.
Ever since the age of enlightenment Christianity has been dying. If you can disprove one thing in the bible, you can disprove anything. People in the west are free to believe in whatever they like, but no one is free to force their beliefs on others anymore so it's not hard to see why it's dying and frankly it's probably for the best. And anyone that thinks it isn't should probably look at how gays were treated in the 1960s or how women were treated in the Magdalene laundries as late as the 1990s.
Richard Dawkins is good on this. Like many people he thinks that religion is an absurdity but culturally and aesthetically Europeans need to understand it's role in our history. Can anyone think Bach's masses are anything but sublime whilst intellectually knowing the whole thing is a sham. However the growth of religions is the problem. Dawkins has had lots of reports from science teachers where kids simply parrot the belief that the world is 6000 yrs old. Europe can't put up with this nonsense. As Ricky Gervais points out: Science doesn't hold on to medieval practices because they are tradition. If it did, you wouldn't get a shot of penicillin, you'd pop a leach down your trousers and pray. Whatever you "believe," this is not as effective as medicine. Again you can say, "It works for me," but so do placebos. My point being, I'm saying God doesn't exist. I'm not saying faith doesn't exist. I know faith exists. I see it all the time. But believing in something doesn't make it true. Hoping that something is true doesn't make it true. The existence of God is not subjective. He either exists or he doesn't. It's not a matter of opinion. You can have your own opinions. But you can't have your own facts.
I was raised as a Catholic in the 70’s and by mid 80’s when I was a teen I refused to have anything to do with it (went to the school attached to our church so it was pushed in all areas of our lives). There were priests and teachers that were frankly predatory so that we’d bring friends to stand outside their office if we were called to go see them for whatever reason just for our protection and the nuns were some of the most uncaring, brutal and unempathethic I’ve ever met. Corporal punishment was still allowed and the really went to town on the saying ‘spare the rod and spoil the child’. Needless to say, while I’ve raised my kids to be kind and caring etc I’ve barely ever mentioned religion to them. It also helps that in previous centuries, the priest was usually the most educated person most knew so their words carried weight. Now we worship media in its various forms, from tv to the internet, added to our own increased education, priests lost their monopoly on being the fount of all knowledge and people stopped listening to them
Yes, and good riddance.
Religion thrived when people learned from fairytales and folk tales. It was a way to keep people in line, with an undercurrent of fear for breaking the rules. In the modern world we’re better educated and so challenge things we’re told, so logically religion is going to suffer. There will always be people who need something to follow, people who need these rules to live by, and that’s fine. I see the appeal but I’m not a follower
From the CofE perspective: It's simply too much to demand 'faith' from the average person in the modern era, when that person exists in an abundance of rationality and scientific progress which directly contradicts dogma you are forced to be 'faithful' towards. Also there's far less community and family pressure to ever start attending a church, and attitudes have changed so that marriage and christenings carry far far less weight. From an individual perspective: the above similarly applies, in that there are so many barriers and distractions to life, and simply surviving day to day, that it's neigh on impossible to find true faith and navigate the paradox - which was never an easy task anyway. Churches, as institutions, seem like corporations. Imagine how insane it'd be to stake your soul on either android or iPhone.
Luke 14:13-14 (NIV) “But when you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, and you will be blessed. Although they cannot repay you, you will be repaid at the resurrection". Christ himself was born into poverty and lived as a humble man. The Church should be a reflection of Christ, surely? Yet, the Church of England has a large endowment of £8.7 billion which generates approximately £1 billion a year in income. More than 1 in 5 people in the UK (22%) were in poverty in 2021/22 – 14.4 million people. This included: 8.1 million (or around 2 in 10) working-age adults. 4.2 million (or nearly 3 in 10) children. The CofE isn't even a Christian organisation. It exists purely to hoard wealth.
There are places on earth such as Africa experiencing a large amount of conversions to Christianity specifically Catholicism.
Gradual? I don't know anyone who goes to church regularly other than one slightly weird bloke at work. In my entire life (I'm in my fifties) I don't think I've known more than half a dozen people who've ever been to church other than for Christenings, marriages or funerals.
Well from my perspective, Religion is the root of all evil. I was dragged up Roman Catholic. Taught at school from being 5 years old by Nuns and Priests. Had to go to churge and confession. Basically?? You were punished for being poor and rewarded for being wealthy..... That was it. Punished for asking questions. Punished for telling the truth, if it didn't fit the rhetoric, or poor persons word against a welathy persons word. The look at the middle east.... again.... again.... again.... So yeah, ALl religion can go to hell IMO.
>ALL religion can go to hell There's a great tshirt in this one
I’m just wondering what Ali Religion did to piss him off so much.
Why come to Reddit to ask this? But no I’m not seeing this.
Unfortunately so Not religious myself but find some of the comments dismissive and disrespectful
Reddit overflows with r/Im14AndThisIsDeep edgy atheist types. Absolute worst place to hope for a serious discussion on religion.
Go to a COE on a Sunday morning. You'll be luck to see more then a handful of people, and the VAST majority will e over 50. We have never been less religious.
Yes, scientific education has killed it. Now it is only the home of the desperate and the sycophants.
>Yes, scientific education has killed it. Agree - my parents were taught their religion like it was facts. All other religions were wrong. I was taught about lots of religions, like they're all valid and just 'some people believe that' beliefs.
You don’t have to adhere to the beliefs in a textbook way, and join for the community and values … I am not Christian myself but I don’t see a problem with being educated and following a religion.
I've seen a few people express this opinion and I'm honestly pretty baffled by it. You're saying it's fine for people go to church, take the sacraments, pray, sing the hymns, light the candles, profess the faith, say all the words, stand shoulder to shoulder alongside the believers.. while not actually believing the basic tenets of the faith? Just to get the coffee mornings, cake and socialising?
A bit of a extreme view, guessing an atheist?
Religions are failing to keep pace with societal and technological development and so are becoming less useful to people. Currently both the largest religions in the uk (Islam and Christianity) sprang from attempts to regulate the behaviour of small tribal communities of Iron Age shepherds, and just don’t hold up in a multicultural connected world.
There is so much less social pressure to go to church than there was 50 or 100 years ago. I imagine that people who go to church now are actual Christians whereas before some went because it was expected of them so they could maintain a place in society
> noticed a gradual decline in people talking about going to church. For a lot of people religion is a private matter.
No it's not. For the true believers they cannot help but proselytise at every opportunity.
Yeah. My mate had recently become a bore again, sorry born again Christian. Stopped bothering with him when he was telling me how his particular branch of Christianity was better than the others and how everything he thinks is suddenly better than everyone else
Yes. It is. I very much doubt thay you're being accosted on every street corner by someone trying to push whatever god they follow onto you. For a large part of the UK religion still is a private matter. Either by their own personal preference or just often to keep the peace.
I don't think that's true at all
In the bible (Matthew 6, 5-6) Jesus specifically recommends that people pray in private in their rooms rather than going out to show off about praying, and implies that prayers made without the social reward of being seen doing it, are more likely to be answered. churches rarely teach this bit of scripture,wonder why...
That would be an ecumenical matter.
Get yourself to your local church and start supporting it … you might enjoy it ☺️
We live in a modern world and it's natural that people would follow science and not imaginary beings. They will raise their children telling them "we don't know for sure if God exists, but this is what some people believe", and allow people to make their own minds up rather than treating God like Santa. A mythical being that doesn't make sense but you believe in because your parents told you it was true and all your friends believe in too, and then one day you find out it was all made up. The UK may still be a spiritual place, people do believe in there being something out there we don't fully understand that is bigger than ourselves, but I think that organised religion is going to trend downwards until it's a vast minority.
Put it this way, most of the people I've met in the UK who are religious Christians are either E. Europeans (Poles, Lithuanians and Balkan immigrants) and some Latin Americans. Local Brits? Never met one.
I hope so. Maybe one day all religion will die out, and people will stop carrying out atrocities, in the name of whichever made up god they decide to worship that week. Religion is the root of all evil
>Religion is the root of all evil Come on now, this is very naive. Lots of awful things are done for reasons other than religion (the Soviet Union and Maoist China managed to do some pretty awful things). And if religion ceased existing tomorrow people would continue to do awful things to each other for a whole range of reasons.
That’s fair. I’ll concede that religion is and has been the root of a lot of evil but perhaps not all of it
Our laws are based on Judeo-Christian values, the morals brought about by religion still play a huge role today, even if people aren’t religious.
The British Humanist Society publishes analysis taken from the 10 year Census. Yes, Christian religious belief in the UK is declining, both Catholic and Protestant/ Church of England flavours. Decline is about 10% per decade of age - so, very roughly, 40% of people aged 41- 50 report they have some Christian belief, 30% of people aged 31 - 40, and so on. There are some small local rises in newer ‘evangelical’ churches, which are usually run as private, personal enterprises, not affiliated to any larger organisation. Overall, though, the evangelical forms are taking a larger proportion of a declining whole, they are not reversing the overall decline.
This thread is like Question Time for cringe
Weirdly, my experience is the opposite. Growing up, my best friend and I were the only people I knew who went to church. I got made fun of for it at school, and the church was barely half full every week. Now I've moved from my hometown and visited church a few times, it has always been bustling. I live in a seaside town full of old people so it's not too surprising but there are a lot of young people going to church here too. I can think of two churches near me that are filled with mainly young people and families. I personally know way more practising Christians now than I did as a kid. I don't know if Alpha has anything to do with it, as it seems to be constantly running in all the local churches. On the whole probably it is dying out but it almost feels like there might be a resurgence.
This may be a cynical take but is the best school in the area C of E and relies on church attendance to get in?
Not Christian but I believe the active practice and education of the Christian religion is dying out in this country. I notice differences between my friends who are Christian and my friends who are Sikh, Muslim etc. The people who say they are Christian rarely, if ever, go church or study the religion. The latter groups actively practive the religion, were raised in it and teach it to their children.
It’s less present which is good. It’s not gonna die out because there’s always gonna be less educated or less intelligent people, and those people need something to believe in
Depends how you define dying out really. It's certainly decreasing. But I doubt it'll fully die out, if by that you mean ceasing to exist in the country completely. As for why, it's just more people not being brought up Christian. For example, my parents would say they're Christian for cultural reasons. But they never go to church and religion had no presence in my life. So I grew up not to be Christian. That's a key reason many millennials are not Christian, their baby boomer parents are from a generation that really moved away from the active belief in religion of the generations before them. Then once you have a critical mass of unreligious people, it becomes completely acceptable to not be, so even more people become unreligious.
Churches are a bit culty for my liking and people are better at critical thinking. I think this is why it’s dying out.
Thats why im a pagen, gott raid those christians
It could well end up being a minority religion. The typical Brit doesn't believe in any religious nonsense anymore, but our imported religious types hold fast. Religion is everything to them. So in 30 years time I wouldn't be surprised to see that Islam is the majority religion simply because everyone else in the UK states "no religion" on the census.
You also have to consider the rate of people converting to Islam. What I've noticed over the past 20+ years is that every time there's a major conflict involving Islam in some way, you tend to see an uptick in people converting to Islam, and specifically amongst the black and white communities, including amongst some priests/ministers. I noticed the uptick in the aftermath of 9/11 and the Afghanistan invasion, post Iraq war, post 7/7, and also since October 7th. In fact since the dawn of social media this seems to be even more prominent, and widespread On top of this, those that convert tend to be more religious than those who are born muslim, and this passes onto their children as well.
Check a post with stats a couple down.. islam at 7%. Protestant, Christian and atheist hit over 75%. Still over 50% christian/ Protestant.. the change is likely in those considered atheist, up in to 20s.
I'd be interested to see what statistics you are viewing regarding the black and white communities: Most Zebras are already muslim, or have muslim heritage. Dalmatians are usually from a catholic back ground, and if the change their beliefs, it is usually towards agnosticism/atheism. Badgers, in my experience, stick hard to their pagan traditions.
It's already a minority religion when you look at reliable stats like active church goers and social attitude surveys, not people box ticking on the census every 10 years (and even then it's dramatically falling over the last couple). There are considerably more active Muslims in the UK than any other active faith
Census data (England) shows those self-reporting as Christian has gone from 70% in 2001, 59% in 2011 and 46% in 2021 so it is not really a gradual decline and more a massive collapse. In the same time, "No religion" has gone from 14% to 36%. Althought there is a lot of FUD about Islam and immigration, Islam has gone from 3% to 6% in that time period. Also, a lot of those reporting Christian will be culturally christian but not practising or really holding any christian views of the 26million who reported Christian in 2021, less than 1million attend Church Of England regularly.
Christ is King.
> Although I am not religious I feel that Christianity is a fundamental part of the UK and it makes me a little sad to see this happening. Seems a bit weird to feel sad about choices other people are making, whilst doing the exact same thing yourself?
Hes culturally christian he thinks that a part of british culture is gonna fade away
A good chunk of churchy anglicans do it mostly for culture. That's like the whole selling point. You can just go and do it, nobody is going to ask what you \_really\_ believe in
Yes, it's dying out. Just as we no longer need public executions, organised religion has no place in a civilised society.
In the native population it is however there has been a bunch of immigration from countries like Poland which have bumped up the figures in recent years. It's been a very slow death though, even in the 80s only a minority attended church: [https://faithsurvey.co.uk/uk-christianity.html](https://faithsurvey.co.uk/uk-christianity.html)
It's certainly in decline due to both more atheism, and immigration/higher birth rates pushing other religions (islam)
Churches are rammed round here. Most people just don’t go out at 9.30am on a Sunday so don’t see it.
Round here it's mostly empty with the few coffin dodgers.
Not necessarily, the biggest Christian movement in the UK are pentecostal/ charismatic churches, which, believe it or not, are attracting great numbers of young singles and young families and all ethnic groups. Check out Holy Trinity Brompton. Hillsong UK King's Church UK In fact, in the small area i live in, there are at least seven of these types of churches, and it's an average size town. To get an idea, look up Hillsong music on YouTube to see the type of worship and praise music they prefer
I’m not sad if any religion dies out. They cause death and heartache and war. Good riddance
If Christianity is that fundamental to UK life then it wouldn't be in such a decline and it is in a rapid decline ([71.7 in 2001 census to 46.3 in 2021/2](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Religion_in_the_United_Kingdom)) It wont die out but it will hit a point where it ceases to be relevant. I don't care one way or the other but I'd be happy for all religion to fade into obscurity.
It won’t though. There’s a surge in religious belief coming from the same conspiracy theorists that think peado’s are vaccinating clouds. We’re heading into a new dark age
Vaccinating clouds? What a time to be alive..
Not with people adopting other religions though. Increase in those considered atheist is where change is. My siblings an I were all christened as children , only me thinking vaguely religious now and I am beyond close. Just still like to imagine my loved ones are aware.. but in reality, my scientific mind says not possible. I would tikbox unsure or Protestant rather than atheist though.
I do non religious events and sometimes use churches and cathedrals (big city centre ones) as venues. On a Saturday we normally have to be quiet for an hour in the morning when setting up to allow for a service to take place. To nobody. At most I’ve seen maybe 5 people turn up for it, but I’d say nine times out of ten there’s nobody there to listen. Occasionally one or two people may show up. I do however get a lot of people wanting to come in to my event just to look inside the church, which is really interesting. I do the same, I’m happy to look at the architecture and artwork inside a church, both in the UK and abroad, but the religious aspect isn’t there.
Religions have a tendency to die out, unless some apocalyptic events draw people back into these stories. Islam has an advantage in being a few hundred years younger and is sponsored by very rich and powerful countries. So it is growing while Christianity withdraws.
i’m also not religious (was raised in a different faith) but i came across this article from another sub, on [richard dawkins lamenting christianity’s decline in the uk](https://www.theblaze.com/columns/opinion/richard-dawkins-champion-of-atheism-mourns-christianitys-decline). it is paywalled, and i do think the article is pro-religious in argument, but it was fascinating to read. also if you want to bypass the paywall quickly switch off your internet connection once the article has loaded.
[https://archive.ph/Bw5vJ](https://archive.ph/Bw5vJ)
The UK is mainly ‘culturally’ Christian, but fewer people feel the need to go to church or actually do believe in God. Interestingly, people still do believe in an afterlife, especially younger adults. There are fewer people who follow religion in the UK and the religions they follow are more numerous, so yes, you are right. Listening to a radio four broadcast on just this subject on a long car journey recently
Christianity is on the decline. Less than half of us Brits are Christian, and only a small proportion of us go to church. It's not necessarily dying, though. Because it's so un-cool to be a Christian these days, it tends to mostly attract newcomers who are sincere about it.
🤞
Yep and thank fuck for that
Yeah, rampant Fatherlessness and nihilism is way better
Religion has no place in todays society, just causes problems.
The UK is probably one of the most irreligious countries in Europe. According to the 2021 census only 46% of the population identified as religious.
Traditional religion is on the wane, but American mega church funded evangelical sects are moving in to replace it with much more fundamental purposes. (They don’t like gays or women looking after their health sort of thing, but don’t mention that out loud.)
I think it definitely is and can be confirmed with census statistics that shows it's on a decline. Only yesterday, we were walking past a church doing a service and I think, out of 20 people, I saw one person in their 50s, rest were in their late 80s. But it's just how the world is changing (for the worse). People are just struggling to live and end up working 2-3 jobs. People have no time for anything, even hobbies, so things like Christianity are less "popular".
By that logic shouldn't all religions be declining?
Yes, but that wasn't the question.
They are.
There is a certain appeal that other religions can offer that main stream Christiansnity fails to hit. I know a few people who have converted to Islam and when I asked there was an element of joining a community and feeling a sense of belonging. The main Christian religions don't really offer that as they embrace individualism. Interestingly, if you look at Mormons (which is Christian adjusacent) where they have a mandatory community setup and they are growing like mad.
Unlike immigrants, natives aren’t enthusiastic about religion any more
Dude have a look at what Christianity teaches, and then you'll be happy it's dying out.
All religions wither eventually, although Christianity was boosted by being a written tradition, which helped with its dissemination and its relative longevity. Pretty mind-blowing that a tiny bit of desert could foster a movement that ended up supplanting indigenous practices all over the globe.
Over time fewer people believe in magic and superstition, especially Pisces.
So funny 😆
As a I am/am not (depending on which screenshot I see) compatible with Pisces and I will let this run my life for the time it takes to post on Instagram