Thoughtful LOLZ

Saw this outside a church:

My first thought was "God".

Though it does highlight a problem for the Church in this country.

Church attendances are dropping year on year (the latest stats released this year from the C of E for example show a 2% drop on the previous year), which is unsurprising, given the increasingly secular proportions of the UK.

Of course, as Neil deGrasse Tyson has pointed out: "...religiosity drops with education, especially with science education, but does not drop to zero, not even for members of the National Academy? I think that’s an amazing statistic, which tells us something about the human mind that is not yet understood." It may seem like a losing battle for the Church, and religion in general, but the truth seems to be that religion is probably here to stay for quite some time. So long as we can end up with a secular state (which is the fairest way for all religions), I'm ok with that.

But not until then.

Not quite, Pope

Well, now the Pope has thankfully left the UK, as is custom, he has summed up his visit saying that "Christianity is still strong and active" in the UK. Whilst I"m all for people changing their minds given the evidence (for, his initial address was on the threat from us nasty, Nazi, atheists), this isn't actually the case, though his conclusion is unsurprising given that he must have spent his time surround by sychophants.

Religion is in decline in the uk.

With over 170 distinct religions counted in the 2001 Census, the religious make-up of the UK is diverse, complex, multicultural and surprising. Less than half of the British people believe in a God, yet about 72% told the 2001 census that they were Christian, and 66% of the population have no actual connection to any religion or church, despite what they tend to write down on official forms. Between 1979 and 2005, half of all Christians stopped going to church on a Sunday. Religion in Britain has suffered an immense decline since the 1950s, and all indicators show a continued secularisation of British society in line with other European countries such as France.

The decline has been nicely visualised (do check out that link, it's report that goes with this graphic):