My new church

[MikeH]

wow! an interesting and in depth survey... 100 pages long with this religious bit inside...

I find it amazing that UK scored with only 20% of people confirming to be atheist...

60% said they didn't believe in God.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Eurobarometer_poll.png

[OneFootInTheGrave]

but this 40% spirit/force thing is way high...

[Kidlicious]

I imagine that in atheist nations people aren't comfortable making their true beliefs known.

[OneFootInTheGrave]

could be...as according to the survey only one in 5 would confirm that they are clear atheists... while in real life experience... I'd struggle to find 1 in 5 who would not think that anything other than no god/no nothing is an option...

OK this may include older age groups etc... but regardless, I am surprised that the numbers are that high... if 40% was "believe in God" + those agnostic people, it would be more palatable but still high... this way with only 20% identifying as atheist... it's just weird.

[MikeH]

but this 40% spirit/force thing is way high...

Yeah, but what does it mean? Very unclear.

I wouldn't say the UK was an athiest nation though.

[Jon Miller]

I have met a number people who claim to be atheists who seem to think/etc that might be a 'human spirit' or 'universal life force' or something...

JM

[MikeH]

Exactly.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atheism

And by any of the definitions here you'd have to say it was 60% Athiest not 20% for the UK based on those figures.

[MikeH]

Interestingly that's a vastly different number to if you ask people what religion they are, where people will habitually say they are CofE, even if they never go to church and don't really believe in god, just because that's their heritage.

[Jon Miller]

There have been Christian pantheists in my denomination since the beginning, so I don't think that all Christians who don't believe in God are just cultural/heritage Christians (although a good number are).

JM

[molly bloom]

I wasn't talking about Denmark. It's certainly a barbaric place, but at least they're not particularly religious there

I vos chuss kidding. It just struck me that 'Babette's Feast' was particularly apposite since it has two elderly Lutheran women (strict but charitable) in a bleak part of Denmark who accept an immigrant into their home. Who just happens to be a world class French chef...


If there's a Sri Lankan, Vietnamese or Moroccan chef out there looking for asylum, I'm sure I could clear som books out of the way...

[Elok]

In many of the countries with particularly low theist/deist levels, the belief in a spirit/life force is high. I think that there has been a large shift away from theology to mysticism.

Are you suggesting there's a conflict between theology and mysticism, or that theology can't be mystical? Them's fighting words...

Is belief in a "spirit or lifeforce" akin to the big hunk of U.S. youth who identify as "spiritual but not religious"? Because I wouldn't consider that latter group atheists as such; in my limited experience, they seem to have simply taken the modern consumerist ideals of apathy and self-absorption and applied them to religion.

[Kidlicious]

Some of them just really haven't a clue. They say they are spiritual, but if you talk to them it's evident that they haven't really thought about it.

[Nikolai]

Good luck, Kid.