God on the Decline

More than half of the British public (53 per cent) say they are not at all religious – a figure that has increased by five percentage points since 2015 and by 19 percentage points since 1983, when just three in 10 people deemed themselves non-religious.

Just over four in 10 people said they followed some form of Christianity, while around one in 20 people in the UK said they belong to non-Christian religions, with 3 per cent describing themselves as Muslim, 2 per cent Hindu and 1 per cent Buddhist. 

The decline in religious affiliation is hitting the Church of England particularly hard, with the number of people considering themselves Anglican having halved since 2000 – at just 15 per cent. Young people were particularly underrepresented, with just 3 per cent of those aged 18-24 describing themselves as Anglican, compared with 40 per cent of those aged 75 and over. Ffigures last year showed that Church of England had lost more than 100,000 worshippers in a decade, with attendance falling an average of 1 per cent each year and 11 per cent since 2005.

The Rt Revd Paul Bayes, Bishop of Liverpool, said: “In this modern world people are more willing to be honest and say they have ‘no religion’ rather than casually saying they are ‘Church of England’.  This honesty is welcome...But saying ‘no religion’ is not the same as a considered atheism. People's minds, and hearts, remain open.”"

Humanists UK, said it was “meaningless” for the Church of England to remain the national legally established church, and to urge the Government to end the “ever-increasing” state funding for religion.

Chief executive Andrew Copson said: “How can it be right that 97 per cent of young people today are not Anglicans, but some 20 per cent of the state schools to which their children will go belong to the Church of England?  More generally, how can the Church of England remain in any meaningful sense the national legally established church, when it caters for such a small portion of the population?" Copson urged that the “collapse” in people adhering to the Church of England indicates that the Government should reduce state funding for religion and public emphasis on religious groups, adding: “It is clear that the Church of England is experiencing ongoing and probably irreversible collapse in adherents. This should just be their private concern, but the fact that their response to this has been to seek ever more power and public money, even as the case for such state support evaporates, makes it a matter of public interest. It is long overdue that the Government woke up to the demographic reality of today’s Britain and recognises that ever-increasing state funding for religion, and public emphasis on the activities of religious groups, is the reverse of what the public wants.”

Many express surprise when told that to join the Socialist Party a prerequisite is that they must have no religion. For some, religion is regarded as a ‘personal matter’ that should not be subjected to any cross-examination. In spite of the rapid decay of organised religion as this survey confirms, many people still cling to a vague belief in God and in related religious ideas. A few adopt and defend them fervently.

The reasons which make people want to turn to religion are genuine reasons. They are sufficiently aware of the world they live in to know that life for the great majority of people, is hurried, anxious and stultifying, while millions in the world are haunted by insecurity, poverty, starvation and the fear of war. But religion, or what is left of it, has become thoroughly integrated with the sick philosophy of modern capitalism – that the only things we can have in this life are the things that don’t really matter. This is not only false – it is dangerous for the future of humanity. What angers the socialist is what this vague religious attitude which many people still retain enables their feelings and thoughts to be manipulated by the unscrupulous, through modern techniques and media of persuasion, so that they are not left free to do their own thinking. In a multitude of subtle ways, people are persuaded that no real relief or improvement is possible – above all, that there is nothing they themselves can do about their problems.

The socialist applies scientific enquiry thoroughly to human affairs themselves – and asks how it is that our living standards, our personal relationships, industrial relations, commercial practice, international affairs, are as they are, and why they change as they do. Instead of faith, humility, and resignation, the socialist approach is one of knowledge – of coping with reality instead of escaping into higher things and celestial realms.

For more see "Socialism and Religion"