To ask why religion is declining in Britain

[Jackieweaver2024]

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

I used to go as a kid, not with family, of my own accord, I was the only one that believed. Then I realised two things:

1. the bible isn't very nice, God isn't very nice, it's not nice to women and I don't agree with alot of the things it taught.
2. the adults at my church were really shitty, judgemental, bitchy, self-righteous people. I didn't want to be around them and if those people cam behave like that and still get into heaven just for worshipping God then I dont want to go.

Now I think religion is something we create for two purposes:

1. we cant understand how everything came to be so explained it, essentially, with magic.
2. to control people, tell them someone is watching all the time and they'll be tortured for eternity if they do something you dont like.

A more extreme version of the Santa story tbh.

Because I've got enough of my own imaginary friends in my own head

It's testament to the doctrine of Christianity that a humanist and open society had been allowed to function - it's not as simple as "it's all Bollocks so no one believes it anymore" in some Islamic societies the adherence is 99% out of all of those milllions of people how many do you think wish they could declare it's all bollocks and I don't want to do this anymore?

Interesting point, but it's a bit 'chicken and egg'. Did people leave the Christian church because the church allows revisionism and decline, or did the church lose its power to make people follow it or stick to its original rules because not enough people believed in it any more? It's not as if the Christian churches (especially Catholic) through history have always been particularly tolerant of people picking and choosing which rules to follow, or declaring that they didn't believe in god, or that the church teachings were wrong.

Way to broad a question:

Which religion?

Religion or faith?

Declining in what context? Specific church attendence? Belief in God? Which God?

How are you comparing decline? From when to when are you comparing decline?

Sources for your data?

*too broad

The foundation of our culture and society is rooted in Christianity. Hence why it's allows for revisionism and decline unlike other religions. It's testament to the doctrine of Christianity that a humanist and open society had been allowed to function - it's not as simple as "it's all Bollocks so no one believes it anymore" in some Islamic societies the adherence is 99% out of all of those milllions of people how many do you think wish they could declare it's all bollocks and I don't want to do this anymore?

It's not down to the separation of church and state because in England Scotland and Wales the state does have a religion still...

I am grateful for being born in a country with Christianly as a founding story - its down to luck and nothing more and personally I still feel connected to Christianity and the practice of it - without being dogmatic
Yeah..... so where I live (Canada), we've only fairly recently seen an end to the practice of Indigenous children being stolen from their families and forced into church-run residential schools.

The aim was to extinguish the traditional religions and beliefs of various First Nations groups, by enforced Christianization of their children.

Many children were abused and died in the schools. I believe the last such school closed in the 1990s.

Christianity is responsible for plenty of dogmatic intolerance.

@mabelandivy

Too outdated and out of touch with todays society, particularly Catholicism where a Priest will give holy communion to a rapist, but not to a divorcee. I was told this from somebody from within the local church society.

That is news to me!! I know plenty of divorcees who receive Holy Communion. Infact I know 2 divorcees who also give Holy Communion as well as receive

Because it is largely irrelevant.

Infact I know 2 divorcees who also give Holy Communion as well as receive

Whereas my auntie was shunned by her church and refused communion after she was divorced.

There, I’ve balanced the anecdata.

Because the penny dropped

Religion was dinned into me as a child (CoE), sent to very strict RC convent where ‘non-Catholics’ were targeted as potential RCs and questioning was punished.
As I grew up I found the most religious people I knew were the biggest hypocrites and decided that religion in any form wasn’t for me. Horrified my mother who wrote me off as beyond redemption.
The abuse in the. church and the wars etc that are done in the name of religion really makes me wonder why anyone believes.

Because we're better educated now and aren't easily brainwashed into believing a fantasy.
We want scientific proof now.

Most of these answers are so rude and dismissive!

Because it's all bullshit
Because you grow out of imaginary friends

etc, etc.

What an arrogant, intolerant attitude to a perfectly reasonable question. I'm not actually a Christian, but this posting stood out for me

Why would any sane person link themselves to pedofile rings, which i believe is the heart most religious organisations .

Written by someone who not only cannot spell paedophile - but believes that this is the heart of most religious organisations...

That's just embarrassing. If you aren't capable of reasonable, informed debate then perhaps don't bother posting?

@Warsawa31

Not all religions are declining only Christianity and Judaism.

The foundation of our culture and society is rooted in Christianity. Hence why it's allows for revisionism and decline unlike other religions. It's testament to the doctrine of Christianity that a humanist and open society had been allowed to function - it's not as simple as "it's all Bollocks so no one believes it anymore" in some Islamic societies the adherence is 99% out of all of those milllions of people how many do you think wish they could declare it's all bollocks and I don't want to do this anymore?

It's not down to the separation of church and state because in England Scotland and Wales the state does have a religion still...

I am grateful for being born in a country with Christianly as a founding story - its down to luck and nothing more and personally I still feel connected to Christianity and the practice of it - without being dogmatic

It wasn't always they case. Britain hasn't always been a humanist society, people were jailed for criticising the church. Scotland still technically has blasphemy laws.

I struggle with anything misogynistic or homophobic. I like all the stuff about love and forgiveness, but am not there for the wrath and judgment. My religion is love, and I don't need to go to church to practice that.

Written by someone who not only cannot spell paedophile - but believes that this is the heart of most religious organisations...
I agree the PP overstated it with 'the heart' but (again referring to my home, Canada), the evils of Christianity in driving/participating in the systemic abduction of children, and the abuse and murder of many of them, are hard to overlook.

TBH there is more judgement on this post than I've heard in my local church. (Yes it is open and serving the community)

Some of the people slating the church are going to be ringing them up to ask them to do a funeral if/when they lose a loved one.

@NovemberR

Most of these answers are so rude and dismissive!

Because it's all bullshit
Because you grow out of imaginary friends

etc, etc.

What an arrogant, intolerant attitude to a perfectly reasonable question. I'm not actually a Christian, but this posting stood out for me

Why would any sane person link themselves to pedofile rings, which i believe is the heart most religious organisations .

Written by someone who not only cannot spell paedophile - but believes that this is the heart of most religious organisations...

That's just embarrassing. If you aren't capable of reasonable, informed debate then perhaps don't bother posting?

It’s the way it always goes here at the mention of religion. MN is crammed with posters who are so finely attuned to a whiff of sexism that they become incandescent at the form of address used on an envelope yet feel it’s perfectly fine to vie to outdo one another with cynical and rude observations about religion.

It appears that only certain things deserve respect and religion and its adherents are treated with utter contempt here.

@lazylinguist

I think lots of people actually would enjoy and benefit from the social / community aspect of church membership, if the teaching aspect was more accepting and relevant.

Yes, but there's the small matter of not believing in god! I absolutely agree that it's a shame to have lost the community focus that church provided when most people attended (although doubtless there were bad aspects to that side of it too). But even if the sermons etc were more relevant and tolerant, I doubt many people would come to listen to them unless they were already believers. I just don't think most people believe in god tbh.

Yes, it's what has stopped people believing in God that I would like to know. eg 100 years ago, a lot more people did. 200 even more. (Going by Christianity as 100 years ago it would have been the main UK religion. I've always wondered what caused the change in belief and whether it was the increase in rational scientific perspective, and if so how did that trickle down?

Because people now worship at the alter of rampant consumerism.

How two faced that the same people on here criticizing churches and running down "stupid" people for believing "nonsense" are going to be all nicey nicey to their local Priest/Vicar/Minister when they suddenly need to plan a funeral.
I bet then they'll appreciate support then. How convenient.

@Buybuybuy

Because people now worship at the alter of rampant consumerism.

You say that but one of the most money obsessed couples that I know is a reasonably high profile vicar and wife who insist that their four children must have private education (clergy bursaries) and always have the best of everything, including three holidays a year.

There are some very wealthy London charismatic churches that are full of stockbrokers desperate to get to heaven.

People would perhaps like to be free, and are starting to understand what freedom means.

Religion comes from the Latin religare, meaning "to bind". Bond, obligation, duty. It creates a hierarchy, and hierarchies in human societies inevitably lead to abuses of power.

It's irrelevant how friendly and welcoming your local church is, if the "priest" down the road is ruining young boys' lives because his religion tells him he can't have sex with an adult woman.

Well, I would put myself somewhere between agnostic and Christian. God as a deity, I am relatively comfortable with as an idea (and I waver but on balance believe in him), but at the moment I haven't found a church near me that really suits (the biggest one in our town is very evangelical and sticks quite closely to some biblical teachings that I don't think I can ignore, whilst others I have been to felt a bit austere). I found church comforting when I used to attend when I lived elsewhere, but I haven't found a community that fits, or a way of factoring it into my routine/life at my current stage, probably because I don't make it enough of a priority. I suspect lots of lapsed Christians might feel this way.

I loved the prédit who we used for my mimes funeral. He knew we were atheists but she had been a believer in later years (much to family shock!).
If anyone tried to arrange a religious funeral for me it would have to be over my dead body