Atheist Nations are more Peaceful

[AthiestAtheist]

The only christian people I know are the polish family next door and my mum.
I know quite a few people and thats the way it is here.

Your personal experiences are completely meaningless. I've met about 4 or 5 people that I know believe in God (as opposed to everyone else who either doesn't, or I don't know if they do), so by that logic, most people in the US are atheist.

[Napoléon]

Your personal experiences are completely meaningless. I've met about 4 or 5 people that I know believe in God (as opposed to everyone else who either doesn't, or I don't know if they do), so by that logic, most people in the US are atheist.

Britain is a much smaller place than the US. You can tell by general culture over here than there aren't as many religious nuts as the US.

[5thHorseman]

The stats are always BS

Indeed. I was helping a friend with a geography assignment for a college class she was taking and in pulling up a CIA World Factbook on Argentina it stated that the country was nominally "catholic" 92% and then in parentheses stated "less than 20% practicing."

That means that a lot of Argies would need a lot of "practice!"

They should also learn the meaning of what colonialism too, fucking clowns.

[AthiestAtheist]

Britain is a much smaller place than the US. You can tell by general culture over here than there aren't as many religious nuts as the US.

1. Your personal experience doesn't override factual analysis.

2. Not nuts doesn't mean not religious.

[kılıç_mehmet]

I still don't see the corrolation between religiosity and peace.

[teblin]

Well, the fact that Pope Pius supported and helped legalise the Nazi regime speaks for something.

Religious-driven extremism in the Middle East causes untold-of turmoil. Even today people still have their heads, ears, hands chopped off and are stoned to death because Muslims believe those who choose apostasy, adulterists etc. should be punished.

"Those who blasphemed and back away from the ways of Allah and die as blasphemers, Allah shall not forgive them."

-Qur'an, 4:48

[Fidel_Castronaut]

Stats on Christianity in Britain (with some references for those that wish to check up on them ) (Also, forgive me, I don't know how to 'spoil' the text so it doesn't appear like a tl;dr post)

The decline in worship for Christian churches in the UK has been well documented. Summed up by Brown (2009), he elucidates that Christianity’s regression in Britain was down to the culmination of variables that disenchanted people from the structural certainty it offered; in short, “… a formerly religious people have entirely forsaken organised Christianity in a sudden plunge into a truly secular condition” (Brown 2009: 1). This view, with the exception of some authors (Stark et al. 1995; Stark and Innaconne 1995; Stark 1999) is commonplace within the research done on Christian belief in Britain. Bruce (1995: 420-421, specifically Tables 1 and 2) displays comparative figures for this decline, extrapolating from prior research conducted by Currie, Gilbert and Horsley the drop in church attendance from 1800 to 1990. The figures reveal that between 1900 and 1990 the population of the UK increased by just over 20 million from 24.7million people to over 45million . At the same time however, total attendance in Christian churches (here defined as Anglican and Episcopalian, Presbyterian, Methodist, Roman Catholic and various nonconformist churches) remained relatively stable at around 6 million, with a comparative drop of around 11% of the population attending worship (Ibid.). Crockett and Voas (2006: 575) investigated results from the British Household Panel Survey (BHPS) and the British Social Attitudes (BSA) survey conducted during the 1990’s, finding that successive generations have placed less emphasis on church attendance than the generation that preceded them. Indeed, the impact of “generational” or “cohort” effects, where younger generations dissociate themselves from organised Christianity, is cited by the authors as the central reason of the drop in Christian church attendance (Ibid.: 576-578). This is line with the BSA survey analysis (BSA 2012: 182) which evaluated religious affiliation amongst generations using four surveys between 1983 and 2010. The results show a clear decline in affiliation from one generation to the next, with 65% of 18-24 year olds having no affiliation in 2010 compared to 24% of 75-94 year olds (Ibid.: 182, table 12.7).
Demonstrable drops in church attendance and affiliation however do not account for levels of religiosity amongst both current parishioners and those who identify as Christian but are regularly absent from worship. It is of course possible to maintain a personal faith without public acts of worship. Davie (1994) posits that this is indeed the case, stipulating that research into European religiosity reveals a trend of “high belief and low practice”, albeit with a few exceptions such as Ireland (Davie 1994: 14). However, measuring the exact level of religiosity felt by the UK population is somewhat complex. Davie herself seeks to avoid ambiguity on statistics over religion by relaying the difference between attendance and membership. For example, she cites that whilst only 14.4% are active in attending worship (Ibid.: 47), the overall statistics reveal that a majority of the UK population (37.6 million as of 1992) still affiliate themselves in an at least non- direct way to a Christian Church (Ibid.: 49-50 specifically table 4.2), a figure that agrees with the data taken in the 2001 Census where 72% of people in England Wales identified as being Christian (ONS 2003). More recent studies however appear to contradict both the Census and Davie’s thesis. The 2012 BSA analysis shows that up to 50% of the British population are no longer affiliated with any church, with the Church of England/ Anglicanism suffering the biggest drop in association since 1983 (BSA 2012: 175, 180 – table 12.1).

Or if you prefer, the WIKI article as opposed to my words:

The 2001 census found that 76.8% of the UK population had a religion.[10] Surveys that employ a "harder" question tend to find lower proportions. The British Social Attitudes Survey survey, produced by the National Centre for Social Research in the same year, reported that 58% considered themselves to "belong to" a religion.[11] An Ipsos MORI poll in 2003 reported that 43% considered themselves to be "a member of an organised religion".[12]

In the 2001 census Christianity was the largest religion, being designated by 71.6% of respondents.[10] The 2007 Tearfund Survey which revealed that 53% identified themselves as Christian[13] and the 2007 British Social Attitudes Survey, found that it was almost 47.5%.[14] The EU-funded European Social Survey published in April 2009 found that only 12% of British people belong to a church.[15]

Although there are no UK-wide data in the 2001 census on adherence to individual Christian denominations, Ceri Peach has estimated that 62% of Christians are Anglican, 13.5% Roman Catholic, 6% Presbyterian, 3.4% Methodist with small numbers of other Protestant denominations and the Orthodox church.[16] The 2007 British Social Attitudes Survey, which covers England, Wales and Scotland, but not Northern Ireland, indicated that 20.87% were part of the Church of England, 10.25% non-denominational Christian, 9.01% Roman Catholic, 2.81% Presbyterian/Church of Scotland, 1.88% Methodist, 0.88% Baptist, other Protestant 1.29, URC/Congregational 0.32%, 0.08% Free Presbyterian, Brethren 0.05% and 0.37% other Christian.[14]

Religions other than Christianity: Islam, Hinduism, Sikhism and Judaism have established a presence in the UK, both through immigration and by attracting converts, including the Bahá'í Faith, Rastafari movement and Neopaganism. In the 2001 census 3.30% were Muslim, 1.37% Hindu, 0.43% Jewish, 0.37% Sikh and others 0.35%.[14]

There are also organisations which promote rationalism, humanism, atheism[17] and secularism. The UK has a large and growing non-religious population with 13,626,000 (23.2% of the UK population) either claiming no religion (15.1%) or not answering the question on religion at the 2001 census.[18] According to the British Humanist Association 36% of the population is humanist, and may, by the same token, be considered outright atheist.[19]

[Napoléon]

1. Your personal experience doesn't override factual analysis.

2. Not nuts doesn't mean not religious.

1. It's not just my personal experience.

2. That's not possible!

[AthiestAtheist]

1. Your personal experience doesn't override factual analysis.

2. Not nuts doesn't mean not religious.

1. It's not just my personal experience.

2. That's not possible!

1. Personal experience is still not as reliable as statistics. So your idea of the Christian/atheist ratio comes from just... a feeling? That sounds familliar...

2.