To ask why religion is declining in Britain

[Jackieweaver2024]

Just that really I would be interested to hear everyone’s opinions?

It may be a relevant message, but the majority of people don’t read the bible so don’t know about it.

And that is the crux. It’s a dying cause. People aren’t interested anymore, it doesn’t hold the threat it used to.

Will there even be Christianity in 100 years🤔there’s hardly any now!

[quote jackstini]@LApprentiSorcier - well the other option is to control everything and everyone like robots..?[/quote]
You wouldn't have to control everything like a robot - just step in whenever someone innocent was being harmed.

And why does God allow things like famines, tsunamis, floods etc. where there is no human doing the harm but many innocent people are killed?

@Exhausteddog

What I don't understand is the need to scoff at others, infantalise them or mock their faith system, whatever it is, with taunts of superstition and believing in fairy tales. Believe what you want: no need to be supercilious to others

Agree with this, providing the religious person is not standing in judgement over a non believer.

This ^^ Not having a faith does not make you morally superior. If anything it shows why RE, where children learn about religions still needs to be compulsory in schools.

Because it's a load of bollocks

Not all religion is declining! I'm Jewish and the community is thriving and growing in my town. I attend a progressive synagogue which suits a lot of people as it's LGB friendly, egalitarian etc.

I don't think it's as simple as 'critical thinking' and 'not believing in imaginary friends'. People still believe all sorts of crap they read on the internet without having justification for their belief.

People are largely the same as they've always been, but the way we can access information has changed drastically. Before, learning about the bible was integrated in all schools, passed down from parent to child - it wasn't really socially acceptable not to believe so even if you did have personal questions about it, you'd be less likely to voice then. Now we have a barrage of information coming to us and the church has largely separated from the state when it used to be so entwined.

In a sense, people still 'worship' other individuals. Celebrity culture is the new religion. In fact, the absolute belief in ALL science (and I'm including non peer-reviewed data here too) becomes almost dogmatic. People still want to believe in something, but the choices of things to believe in have widen significantly, so we don't need God or other faith beliefs as the only singular option anymore.

Personally I like to put my belief in humanity, but there are many who would tell me I'm misguided in that too.

@ArseInTheCoOpWindow

The Ten Commandments.

You shall have no other God before me😂
You shall not make idols
Remember the Sabbath day🤣

Yeah the Ten Commandments are really worth following.

What an idiotic remark.

Not having a faith does not make you morally superior. If anything it shows why RE, where children learn about religions still needs to be compulsory in schools

As long as it isn’t taught from a Christian standpoint as it currently is. Children should learn Applied Religion not religion taught from a Christian point of view. It’s disgusting that this is allowed to happen. Just like religious schools.

@AryaStarkWolf

Because it's a load of bollocks

Critical thinking at its best

@ArseInTheCoOpWindow

Not having a faith does not make you morally superior. If anything it shows why RE, where children learn about religions still needs to be compulsory in schools

As long as it isn’t taught from a Christian standpoint as it currently is. Children should learn Applied Religion not religion taught from a Christian point of view. It’s disgusting that this is allowed to happen. Just like religious schools.

I agree

Because it's largely un-necessary in a society governed by perfectly well thought out civil law. Ie, we don't need a to tell us not to steal stuff and murder people for example, and the rest of the "rules" relating to pretty much every religion, are the sort of things decent, informed and civilised people avoid anyway.

It's an idea which has had it's day.

and the church has largely separated from the state
Not as much as it should be.

Why is it idiotic?

That crap doesn’t apply to me. The ones that do apply like ‘Honour thy father and mother’ etc do apply. But l do them because l care about my family and other people. Not because I’m religious. So they have no impact on my life. As if l give a shit about no other Gods.

because he gave people freedom of choice and unfortunately some people choose to be awful

Why would you create beings with the capacity to be awful, or with the potential to choose to be awful? What does that gain anyone? If you were an all-powerful creator, would you create people with the potential to be paedophiles and murderers? Would you create a world with natural disasters and horrific illnesses? I wouldn't. I'd create beings with freedom of choice within certain parameters. Why wouldn't you, unless you were treating humankind as a kind of cruel experiment? God created humans with the ability to choose, but with the potential desire to do bad. Why? (He didn't of course, because he doesn't exist. )

@Sheleg i belong to a liberal synagogue myself. The growth of smaller congregations is largely due to suburbanization and jews moving out of london. My synagogue was built for a thousand- in those days, there were fewer suburban communities and there were even people flying in from edinburgh for yom kippur. Now Edinburgh has its own liberal community with a visiting rabbi from london so there isn't any need to do that.

with regards to the number of jews, the numbers for Reform and Liberal communities have largely stayed stable, mainstream United Shul is dropping like crazy, Masorti is growing. the Haredim are growing like crazy due to their high birth rate, they maybe 50% of all orthodox jews in 30 years times. I read this in a report produced by the Board of Deputies of British Jews which they presented at my synagogue.I don't think Jews are becoming more religious, i think they are becoming less religious; however the ultra orthodox are growing in number simply by having many babies and that skews the whole picture.

I think we need to move back to our celtic roots. Back to celebrating nature and the natural cycles. Because we have progressed we don't need to personify concepts anymore, but I really believe it would improve the health and wellbeing of us and the earth.

As a female, I can't see why anyone would celebrate a religion where they actively contributed to women being seen as unequal etc. Look at how celtic festivals celebrated fertility and sexuality and how Christianity destroyed it, and women in the process.

Organised religion may be declining, but the human capacity to adopt religious-type beliefs and enforce conformity with faith-based group think is alive and well.

Today's faith-based beliefs don't announce themselves as religion. The faithful present themselves as followers of pseudoscience.

Nevertheless, they adopt meaningless mantras, enforce tenets of faith, espouse souls, demand submission, refuse debate, deny facts, eschew science, censor criticism, outlaw blasphemy, and condemn heretics to hell, or prison.

They have the support of mainstream media, corporations and politics, and there's money to be made from the faithful and the converts. It costs money and health to be a true follower, and the faith-healers are well rewarded. The outreach and mission programmes are well funded, and the principles of faith are already worked into secular policies throughout every national institution. Children are taught the new commandments and understand they will be shunned if they question the faith.

Today's religion doesn't call itself religion. But it's right there in plain view, powerful as it ever was.

It's just been rebranded, that's all.

I am a young person, 28 year olds. I converted to Liberal Judaism this year. I think for many people my age, religion is just not relevant to daily life. I am not from the UK and religion was a big part of youth culture in my home country (in East Asia).

However, when I attended church in this country, it felt dead. I feel much more comfortable in synagogue, my husband and his family are also jewish and so it feels much more social.

Critical thinking at its best

Just my opinion, I was born into Catholicism, taught it in school as fact, and came to that conclusion having seen it all first hand. As a person who was indoctrinated through no choice of my own, I think I'm more than qualified to decide.yep that was all a load of bollocks

Because it’s ridiculous and irrational.

Probably been in decline since Cromwell was Lord Protector, to be honest.

A lot of religious theory has been widely debunked with the application of science.

In our family The Church Of Marvel Studios is the religion.

Seriously though; Everything changes. Access to information, working patterns, business hours, education, even sporting events have an influence. I remember being told the Vatican wanted a ban on football games on a Sunday to encourage church attendance (Football being the no.1 religion in Italy).

I am an atheist. Christianity is out of fashion, out of date, and out of step with many values we now have.

I don't think it's as simple as 'critical thinking' and 'not believing in imaginary friends'. People still believe all sorts of crap they read on the internet without having justification for their belief.

There is a big difference in believing a few questionable news stories or celebrities' opinions etc... and believing that a supernatural being (for whose existence nobody has managed to find the tiniest scrap of evidence in thousands of years) created the whole universe and everything in it. And believing in that being to the extent that you create a whole made-up system of dogma and rituals around it. I'd say "You couldn't make it up!"... only they did.

Bribing in Christianity is identical to believing that Bill Gates wants us all jabbed with microchips.

Laughable.

Depends what you mean by religion! I know to s of buddhists, pagans, etc. and interest seems to be growing. Christianity and monotheism generally is a bit last century, no?