ecco

God, I hope not!

bluefugue

I remember a recent TV news report about the decline of the Church of England. It included some priests frankly admitting that church was becoming increasingly irrelevant in their society. What I objected to about the report was its underlying assumption that people rejected religion because they were distracted by material concerns, i.e. they were too busy with their careers or their fast cars or their rave parties or whatever. Seldom do we hear the alternative possibility, that they simply think it's a lot of hooey. But, perhaps people who would identify themselves as Christian, but don't bother going to church, are actually not consciously skeptical, but merely lazy. Or maybe they're just trying to keep up appearances when people ask them what religion they belong to. Or maybe they don't even think of religion as a conscious belief-set, but rather as a demographic one has no control over, like one's ethnicity.

[ February 26, 2002: Message edited by: IesusDomini ]</p>

britinusa

I agree. And there is a subtle but important difference between the two questions "are you a christian?" and "do you believe in god?" I'm sure many of the people who took part in the C of E survey made the common mistake of equating xianity with good moral behaviour, with belief in god merely a side issue.
The C of E is partially correct in stating that "people reject religion because they are distracted by material concerns..." But I believe it would be more correct to say that apatheists ignore religion because they are distracted by material concerns.
Atheists do not ignore religion.