Religious Belief/Unbelief 2017

The statistic just published shows that the majority of the British population now has no religious belief see the quote below  courtesy BBC:


Last year 53% of people described themselves as having "no religion", in a survey of 2,942 adults by the National Centre for Social Research.

Among those aged between 18 and 25, the proportion was higher at 71%.

The Bishop of Liverpool said God and the Church "remains relevant" and that saying "no religion was not the same as considered atheism".

The figures, shown to BBC Radio 5 live, reveal a downward trend for religious belief in the UK.

When the national centre's British Social Attitudes survey began in 1983, 31% of respondents said they had no religion.

If correct the above stat makes for depressing reading which is perhaps well illustrated by 

another quote this time from the Daily Telegraph:

Holding religious or spiritual beliefs is important for ‘thriving’ in life, a study by the University of Portsmouth has found. Dr Daniel Brown, a sport and exercise scientist, assessed all the research on what helps people to flourish to come up with a definitive list for living well.

To thrive a person must be optimistic, spiritual or religious, motivated, proactive, enjoy learning, flexible, adaptable, socially competent and have good self belief. They also must have opportunity, support from family and colleagues, a calm environment, trust and a high degree of autonomy.

Interestingly the above stats have been published at about the same time as articles about the huge fall in numbers of people adhering to the Church of England with comments that the relatively slight fall in Catholics arising from the probability that many immigrants from the Eastern EU come from Catholic backgrounds. Yet surprisingly the numbers of adherents to other faiths appear to have fallen as well. My impression had been that the percentage of the UK population   adhering to Islam was  increasing yet if the latest stats are to be believed that faith too has a smaller percentage of adherents now than was previously the case.

My own feeling is that in general  there is greater tendency to religious belief the older one becomes. The young understandably concentrate on earning a living, perhaps marrying and bringing up children finding somewhere to live and of course paying for the above. Religious beliefs for many logically come quite far down the list. 

Paradoxically perhaps, Christ was barely 33 when he was crucified thus perhaps signifying that there is no  right age for mankind's religious belief or as the case may be and indeed as regards  mankind generally bearing in mind that Christ is god made man, that human logic actually plays little role in religious faith.