to think we no longer live in a Christian country

[orlantina]

More than 53% of people have no faith - according to a recent survey.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-41150792

That figure changes to 71% amongst 18-25 yr olds.

It surveyed 3000 adults - so it would be interesting to look behind the stats but it seems that more than half the country have no religion.

Christianity is still probably the most common religion out there.

Should this have implications for areas of national life?

I think there's a tendency to equate Christianity with particular Churches e.g Anglican or Catholic. I don't belong to any church but I still regard myself as a Christian because I try to live up to the teachings of Jesus in my own life.

To my mind, Christianity is fundamentally about treating others as you would wish to be treated yourself, to be a decent human being to everyone, and to put others' needs above your own - to 'love thy neighbour'. It also makes us think about what our purpose here might be, and if there might be more to life than a relentless quest for self-fulfillment and the acquisition of material wealth. I cannot see that any of this is harmful to anyone.

I do worry about the world our children are growing up in today - the pressures on young people particularly are enormous, and I think we see this in the growing mental health problems of our teenagers. Just reading the AIBU threads can make all of us despair about the cruelty and selfishness that we see all around us. It's not a new phenomenon, I know, but I think that Christianity provides a counterweight to the pressures of society (I know it has been a help and a comfort to me at some very difficult times).

Fundamentally I think that all religions are searching for the same thing: the idea that there must be something more to life, some greater meaning. And undoubtedly religion has been exploited by the powerful to tragic effect. But I don't think it should be condemned out of hand for that reason. I think human beings have always tried to make sense of their lives, and that's not a bad thing at all.

And what are these Christian values we have lost or are losing?

Respect
Humility
Honesty
living a moral life
Generosity (with time and money)
Kindness
Competence
Competition
Excitement
Performance
Persistence
Creativity

These are all qualities in children that have been encouraged and nurtured in Christian schools. It is these qualities that nearly all of us have (because God created us that way) that children thrive on and prosper. Sadly a lot of it is now diminishing.

For your Hildegard I give you every woman who has ever been executed for witchcraft, usually without any objections from the local clergy... Nobody here is asking to eradicate Christianity or any other faith. We are just pointing out that we do not need a state religion.

Claiming teacher morale is low because of behaviour is an oversimplification of the issue. The teachers I know tend to identify workload and endless curriculum changes before ever mentioning behaviour. As for kids not having morals- that is an awful sweeping generalisation which makes me think your arguments do not merit respect. Some kids are awful. Most are not. Just like, well, people.

The last UK census reports 59% of the population as Christian, 5% as Muslin and only 25% having no faith.

And your values, spaniel are those I learned in my totally secular upbringing and in my totally secular- because not in the UK -school. My DDs are also.learning those values at their secular in all but name bar assembly school. Those values are good human values and claiming them for any particular faith over others or none is arrogant.

I dont agree that any if those are christian values only, they are taught in every school. In fact i would argue that some of those are not christian values at all

Respect
Humility
Honesty
living a moral life
Generosity (with time and money)
Kindness
Competence
Competition
Excitement
Performance
Persistence
Creativity

How arrogant.

Respect
Humility
Honesty
living a moral life
Generosity (with time and money)
Kindness
Competence
Competition
Excitement
Performance
Persistence
Creativity

All of those are about being a good person, whether you are Christian, Muslim, Hindu, Atheist etc.

The church has always positioned itself as a moral leader. Sadly for them, morals have now left them behind and they are seen as behind the times.

Why would anyone want a lesson in morals from an organisation that from top to bottom knew about and conducted child rape for years upon years, did nothing about it other than trying to hide it and move rapists to new sets of victims.

Might as well ask for moral guidance from jimmy saville and gary glitter ffs

Have to laugh at the posts suggesting if we disestablish then we will turn into something like China. Lol

Society is broken, I think because it's losing its soul. I'd rather keep religion. This sums up this thread very nicely.

Translated, as others have said, to "I am losing my Christian privilege, panic, I want to go back to the dark ages good old days when everyone put Christian dogma first."

We have escaped religious morals and use a superior secular morality, why would we ever want to go back? One of the things that became apparent this year is that the idea of of a someone with a fundamentalist religious belief leading our country is quite offensive to most people. Not because they are religious but because we find those morals abhorrent.

I didn't say religion was the magic answer, but i can clearly see a pattern, Christian values slowly eroding away, children lacking moral ethics, and it's not just my dgcs school, across the country, low moral in teachers, often because of unruly out of control kids.

When I was at school 35 years ago I remember children throwing furniture across the classroom, swearing at teachers, smoking in class, drinking wine in class, teachers being locked in the store cupboard, condoms put over the teachers coffee mug etc etc.

The worst I've heard from my child's school is pupils turning up without proper school uniform or not handing in their homework.

I really don't believe the youth of today are in decline. If they were, I doubt it would have anything to do with them not being Christian.

And I think you'll find the low morale amongst most teachers has a lot more to do with our current government, pay, pensions etc than a lack of Christianity amongst the pupils.

The Church does a lot of good in the community
Well I would say its good people doing good things in the community. Are you implying they only do good things because god has told them to and without god they would stop doing good things?

I don't belong to any church but I still regard myself as a Christian because I try to live up to the teachings of Jesus in my own life
I would be interested to know how you determine what those teachings were?

the Catholic Church is the world's biggest charity because that's what christians do
It might be a registered charity but its hardy charitable work when the money is being used to indoctrinate and buy peoples obedience.
I worry that the so called Catholic Churches charity is doing more harm than good in the world.

Respect, Humility, Honesty, living a moral life, Generosity (with time and money), Kindness, Competence, Competition, Excitement, Performance, Persistence, Creativity....

Those are good secular values that are taught in most families and most schools. Nothing to do with Christianity.

Humanism would add a lot more virtues to that list. Tolerance of sexuality, a woman's right to choice, not to abuse children, not to rape, not to kill, not to encourage suffering, marriage equality, contraception, no death penalty, study science, only believe what is true, its ok to eat shell fish... I wont go on.

If there was no religion, we would find something else to kill each other over.

certainly, not all conflicts have to do with religion, but many do. There are clearly a lot where the main issue, or one of the main issues is religion.

It's an odd assumption that without religion we will have the same amount of conflict but for different reasons. Hopefully, the conflicts that whose main motivation is religion will not happen.

Humanism would add a lot more virtues to that list. Tolerance of sexuality, a woman's right to choice, not to abuse children, not to rape, not to kill, not to encourage suffering, marriage equality, contraception, no death penalty, study science, only believe what is true, its ok to eat shell fish... I wont go on
Well someone said up thread that Islam is on the rise, good luck with equality for women and tolerance of sexuality if they get a foot in the door.

The last UK census reports 59% of the population as Christian
And only one third of those 'Christians actually believe that Jesus rose from the dead. Most seem to have ticked Christian because it was perceived as associated with 'being a good person' or because they got married/buried in a church and so are culturally Christian

Most people I know don't believe in any gods but wouldn't call themselves an 'atheist' mainly because they never talk about religion, dont care about it and as such dont know that not believing there is a god is called being an atheist.

Those are good secular values that are taught in most families and most schools. Nothing to do with Christianity.
No they aren't, and they have EVERYTHING to do with Christianity.

If there was no religion, we would find something else to kill each other over

Please dont use the word 'we'. I am not religious and I am not looking for someone to kill. Bad people will always find an 'excuse' for war, but the point is that

"Religion is an insult to human dignity. With or without it you would
have good people doing good things and evil people doing evil
things. But for good people to do evil things, that takes religion."

Respect, Humility, Honesty, living a moral life, Generosity (with time and money), Kindness, Competence, Competition, Excitement, Performance, Persistence, Creativity....

They're values my parents brought me up with. And I am bringing my daughter up with.

They're the values of a good person, not because they're Christian.

No they aren't, and they have EVERYTHING to do with Christianity.

funny then how they develop in non Christian countries. Let me have a quick google of the Bible and see how many of those values are actually in it.

Not everyone has the benefits of good parents. Some kids get absolutely no moral guidance from home. If schools don't give it, they don't get any. Schools are under so much pressure to reach targets that there isn't the time or the will to bother. Maybe your parents got the decent values from growing up in a Christian country?

I can clearly see a pattern,... insert comment from below ... eroding away children's moral ethics.

the internet, sex education, television, short skirts, punk music, abortion, divorce, human rights, immigrants, muslims, women voting, electricity, holidays, facebook, transparancy, homosexuality... the list could go on.

Lets hear it for good christian facts.