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Friday, February 7, 2025

British amongst most sceptical about religion, survey suggests

THE public within the UK take a more negative view of the social effects of faith than most of the remaining of the world does, a study suggests.

More than half of 1,017 people surveyed within the UK believed that religion had a negative impact — and much more that it encouraged intolerance fairly than tolerance, the Pew Research Center, a Washington think tank, reported.

Globally, its study, based on surveys in 36 countries, found that, broadly, people held a positive view of faith and its effect on society.

The study was drawn from surveys of 41,503 people outside, and 12,693 inside, the United States, conducted in the primary quarter of 2024.

An average of 77 per cent of the respondents said that religion mostly helped society, while a median of 19 per cent said that it mostly hurt it. Views of the impact of faith were particularly positive in parts of Asia, the Middle East, and Africa.

In the UK, nonetheless, greater than half — 51 per cent of the respondents — said that religion was not helpful to society. The only country where more respondents took this view was the Netherlands, at 54 per cent.

When asked whether religion promoted tolerance or intolerance, 57 per cent within the UK said that it promoted intolerance. Only Sweden was higher, at 62 per cent.

More positive views of faith were likelier in middle-income countries. The study suggested that the wealth of a rustic was a superb indicator of whether people wanted their country’s laws rooted in religion, and likewise whether or not they wanted their leaders to carry a spiritual faith.

In middle-income countries, reminiscent of Kenya, Brazil, and Malaysia, people were more more likely to say that the predominant text of their religion must have either an important deal of influence or a good amount on their country’s laws.

They were also more more likely to say that religious texts must have the ultimate say, over and above the desire of the people, in a rustic’s national laws, when there was a conflict between the 2.

In the UK, Australia, France, and other high-income countries, a majority of those interviewed said that religious text shouldn’t shape their country’s laws, and that the desire of the people should prevail.

The outlier was the United States. Although it’s a high-income country, almost half (49 per cent) thought that the Bible should influence national laws. In all countries, the adherents of a faith were most definitely to say that their text should influence laws.

When asked whether a spiritual text was currently influencing the prevailing legal system across countries in Europe, those that were atheist or agnostic were more likely than Christians to say that the Bible did influence current laws. Fifty-six per cent of religiously unaffiliated Greeks, for instance, said that the Bible had a good amount or an important deal of influence on Greek laws today, compared with 39 per cent of Christians in Greece.

People in middle-income countries were also more likely than people in high-income countries to say that they wanted their leaders to get up for people’s religious beliefs. This was rated as more vital than having a pacesetter who shared their religious belief, or held strong but different religious beliefs.

In Bangladesh and Indonesia, seven out of ten respondents said that it was vital for a pacesetter to get up for religious beliefs, but in high-income countries reminiscent of France and Japan, only 11 per cent and five per cent respectively said that this was vital of their prime minister or president.

Again, the US and likewise Israel were outliers. In the US, 64 per cent said that it was vital, and, in Israel, that figure rose to 68 per cent.

Across all of the countries surveyed, those that followed a faith, including those that prayed each day, were more more likely to say that it was vital to have a pacesetter with a powerful personal faith. In the UK, 29 per cent of adults who prayed each day said this, compared with just six per cent of those that prayed less often.

The Pew study sought to point out what quantity of individuals in each country saw the dominant religion as central to their national identity. This, together with questions on the influence of spiritual texts on society and the religion of a rustic’s prime minister or president, were then used to supply a measure for religious nationalism. Those who scored highly in all these areas were defined as religious nationalists by the researchers.

The study concluded that, although religious nationalists didn’t make up a majority of the respondents in any of the 35 countries surveyed, middle-income countries, including Kenya, Bangladesh, and Indonesia, had a better proportion of spiritual nationalists than Europe. In Germany and Sweden, lower than one per cent might be defined as religious nationalists.

In the US, only six per cent of adults might be defined overall as religious nationalists — much like the number in Chile and Mexico — although, in some areas, the US the scored rather more highly than other high-income countries.

The study also found a link between religious nationalism and the ideological Right. In Europe, those that supported right-wing populist parties were more more likely to meet the definition of a spiritual nationalist.

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