It has been concluded that a generation gap does reside within the results, as it seems that a stark proportion of young people appear to not have any affiliation with religion. Within the age band of 18-24 year olds, results show that only 5% of young adults describe themselves as being Catholic, alongside the 3% who identify as being Anglican. On the basis, it has been reported that almost three out of four young adults aged between 18-24 claim that they do not belong to any religion.
In respect to the older generations, there are still a considerable number of non-religious believers, however this view seems to constitute of a minority. Within the 65 to 74-year old age band, 40 per cent of these survey participants do not identify with any religion. As for the over 75’s, it has been reported that 27% do not inhibit any religious attitudes.
Surprisingly as well, the results from the 55 to 64 age band show that the ratio of religious to non-religious believers is split between 50-50. Compared to the 2015 results, the 2017 survey shows that the existence of non-religious residents in Britain have increased by 9%.
In retrospect, it can be concluded that the collapse of religious attitudes can be seen from within all age bands, but the younger generation are the main culprits behind this fall. Due to this news, the religious values that are going to be upheld by the next younger generation are therefore brought into question by the Church of England.
The Bishop of Chelmsford, the Rt Revd Stephen Cottrell announced that it was “always troubling for the institution of the Church to see numbers declining, and to hear how younger people are less and less engaged with the life of the Church.
“But the Church is not an institution. The Church is that community of men and women whose lives are centred on Christ. We do care about numbers, but only because we care about people.
Terry Sanderson, president of UK’s National Secular Society and gay rights activist also declared: “These statistics indicate that the time has come for this country to have a serious debate about the place of religion in our society.”
More specifically, the National Secular Society believe that these results show that the existence of UK faith schools should be called into question. As well as this, the society argues that seats should not be reserved for bishops in the UK House of Lords as a result of the evident decline in religion.
Campaigns displayed by the National Secular Society. Source - National Secular Society.
In speculating the reasoning behind the fall in religious beliefs, many believe that it is the Church of England’s pre-existing traditional attitudes which is what sets people away. For example, the C of E still displays resistance towards same-sex marriage and issues surrounding homosexuality.
Furthermore, some young people comment that the current values held by the Church of England is not a representation of the true diverse nature of 21st century British society.
Sources – The Guardian, The Australian/The Times, The Church Times
No comments:
Post a Comment