Checks his numbers Forgive me. I should have said the majority of young people (below 30) who, for our uses and purposes, are those who count, and the target demographic. It has come to the point that self-declared Christian kids get bullied and insulted [which is definitely wrong and stupid and not a very good sign that the Sanity Waterline was raised much].
Then again, I have this rule of thumb that I don’t count people who don’t attend church as believers, and automatically lump them into the “atheist in the making” category, a process that is definitely not legitimate nor fair. I sincerely apologize for this, and retract the relevant bits.
Now let’s see. For one thing
Statistics on atheism are often difficult to represent accurately for a variety of reasons. Atheism is a position compatible with other forms of identity. Some atheists also consider themselves Agnostic, Buddhist, Jains, Taoist or hold other related philosophical beliefs. Therefore, given limited poll options, some may use other terms to describe their identity. Some politically motivated organizations that report or gather population statistics may, intentionally or unintentionally, misrepresent atheists. Survey designs may bias results due to the nature of elements such as the wording of questions and the available response options. Also, many atheists, particularly former Catholics and former Mormons, are still counted as Christians in church rosters, although surveys generally ask samples of the population and do not look in church rosters. Other Christians believe that “once a person is [truly] saved, that person is always saved”, a doctrine known as eternal security.[5] Statistics are generally collected on the assumption that religion is a categorical variable. Instruments have been designed to measure attitudes toward religion, including one that was used by L. L. Thurstone. This may be a particularly important consideration among people who have neutral attitudes, as it is more likely prevailing social norms will influence the responses of such people on survey questions which effectively force respondents to categorize themselves either as belonging to a particular religion or belonging to no religion. A negative perception of atheists and pressure from family and peers may also cause some atheists to disassociate themselves from atheism. Misunderstanding of the term may also be a reason some label themselves differently.
The fact that Jedi outnumber Jews in the UK should be a sign that people don’t take that part of the polls very seriously.
That said
Several studies have found Sweden to be one of the most atheist countries in the world. 23% of Swedish citizens responded that “they believe there is a God”, whereas 53% answered that “they believe there is some sort of spirit or life force” and 23% that “they do not believe there is any sort of spirit, God, or life force”. This, according to the survey, would make Swedes the third least religious people in the 27-member European Union, after Estonia and the Czech Republic. In 2001, the Czech Statistical Office provided census information on the ten million people in the Czech Republic. 59% had no religion, 32.2% were religious, and 8.8% did not answer.[16]
A 2006 survey in the Norwegian newspaper Aftenposten (on February 17), saw 1,006 inhabitants of Norway answering the question “What do you believe in?”. 29% answered “I believe in a god or deity,” 23% answered “I believe in a higher power without being certain of what,” 26% answered “I don’t believe in God or higher powers.” and 22% answered “I am in doubt.” Still, some 85% of the population are members of the Norwegian state’s official Lutheran Protestant church. This may result from Norwegians being registered into the church at birth, yet having to intentionally unregister after becoming adults.
In France, about 12% of the population reportedly attends religious services more than once per month. In a 2003 poll 54% of those polled in France identified themselves as “faithful,” 33% as atheist, 14% as agnostic, and 26% as “indifferent.”[17] According to a different poll, 32% declared themselves atheists, and an additional 32% declared themselves agnostic.[18]
In Spain, 81.7% are believers, 11% are non-believers and 6% are atheists (according to the 2005 poll of the public Centro de Investigaciones Sociológicas).[19]
This last bit i found particularly troubling because I do not recall metting a single person, in all my time in Spain, who declared themselves a Christian except in name only (as in, embarassingly confessing they only got baptized or went to Communion to please the grandparents). Some entertained some vague fuzziness, but simply telling them a little about “belief in belief” and some reductionist notions has been enough to throw them in serious doubt. I may very well be mistaken, but my perception is that they are really ripe for the taking, and only need to hear the right words.
My perception as a young Arab-European is that the trend is overwhelmingly in the direction of faithlessness, and that it is an accelerating process with no stopping force in sight.
Checks his numbers Forgive me. I should have said the majority of young people (below 30) who, for our uses and purposes, are those who count, and the target demographic. It has come to the point that self-declared Christian kids get bullied and insulted [which is definitely wrong and stupid and not a very good sign that the Sanity Waterline was raised much].
Then again, I have this rule of thumb that I don’t count people who don’t attend church as believers, and automatically lump them into the “atheist in the making” category, a process that is definitely not legitimate nor fair. I sincerely apologize for this, and retract the relevant bits.
Now let’s see. For one thing
The fact that Jedi outnumber Jews in the UK should be a sign that people don’t take that part of the polls very seriously.
That said
This last bit i found particularly troubling because I do not recall metting a single person, in all my time in Spain, who declared themselves a Christian except in name only (as in, embarassingly confessing they only got baptized or went to Communion to please the grandparents). Some entertained some vague fuzziness, but simply telling them a little about “belief in belief” and some reductionist notions has been enough to throw them in serious doubt. I may very well be mistaken, but my perception is that they are really ripe for the taking, and only need to hear the right words.
My perception as a young Arab-European is that the trend is overwhelmingly in the direction of faithlessness, and that it is an accelerating process with no stopping force in sight.