Wednesday, May 19, 2004
We believe, but not in church.
A new Home Office report has found that four out of five people in England and Wales say they feel an affiliation with an organised religion. The largest number - 74% - say they are Christians.
However with church attendance on the decline and only 7% of Christians in the UK attending church, the figure seems remarkably high.
Why do so many people who have no formal contact with a religious organisation still claim to believe in some form of higher power?
Hanne Stinson, director of the British Humanist Association, says she thinks many of them are "cultural Christians".
They see themselves as being Christian in the same way as they are British, almost in a tribal way.
"People label themselves with what they were brought up with," said Hanne.
"If they haven't gone to church for 20 years they still put themselves down on official forms as Church of England.
"Even one of our members put himself down as Christian on the census - it's a common reaction of someone who's been brought up Christian."
Ms Stinson blames the way forms such as the census are worded, with a choice of organised religions or "none" on the boxes to be ticked.
"Some people have a vague belief in some sort of deity and they don't like writing 'none'.
"You have to be fairly convinced to write 'none'."
There is an inner aspect to our consciousness which can't be fully explained away in purely material terms
While Dr Cowie said both figures from census-style questions and church attendances are "not very meaningful", a "very clear majority" of people have some spiritual sense.
And that there is evidence that under extreme pressure the number who turn to prayer is even higher than the figures quoted by the Home Office.
The answer to the gaping void between church attendance and people who claim an affiliation with a religion appears to be twofold.
People may tick the Christian/Jewish/Muslim boxes because of their cultural heritage but psychologists say the need to believe in a higher being is almost innate in humans.
"There is an inner aspect to our consciousness which can't be fully explained away in purely material terms," said Dr Les Lancaster, of the School of Psychology Liverpool John Moores University.
"And aspiring to something greater than themselves, for many people does not mean going to a place of organised worship."
The problem of the gulf between faith and active worship seems one peculiarly belonging to established Christian churches.
The Home Office survey shows people want to believe in a supernatural power so why is that failing to fill the pews on Sundays.
"I don't think the structures of the past are answering everyone's needs," said Dr Lancaster.
"They can buy into Buddhism, and Islam is very attractive. It's beliefs that are bound up in institutions that are different.
"Christianity seems to have difficulty incorporating a contemporary view of the world."
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