Atheists getting desperate
5 March 2011
Atheists are keen to boost their numbers. The British Humanist Association (BHA) is canvassing to increase the number of atheist returns in this year’s Census.
The BHA has taken out adverts on buses and at railway stations to encourage atheists to say so in the approaching Census. One wonders why atheists need such encouragement to state their beliefs - is it something they are likely to forget on the spur of the moment? Is campaigning a scientific milieu in which to conduct a census?
However, their campaign has backfired as it has served to highlight that 72% of the population of England and Wales identified themselves as Christians in the last census in April 2001. There are over 41 million Christians in Britain, while 15% of the populations declared themselves to have no religion.
In more recent times, on 23/9/2010 the Office for National Statistics published its largest social survey ever produced - Integrated Household Survey Apr 2009 - Mar 2010. It identified as headline statistics:
• 71% of people in Great Britain stated their religion was Christianity, 8% any other religion and 21% No religious affiliation.
• 1.5% of adults in the UK identified themselves as Gay/Lesbian or Bisexual; 95% identified themselves as heterosexual.
These statistics sit uneasily with current political correctness and one would hardly believe them if one listened only to the noise from the BHA. The proverb comes to mind: “empty barrels make most noise”.
Related Stories
- 28 Sep 2011: Integrated Household Survey April 2010 to March 2011. It is interesting to see what this important survey thinks is worth highlighting. Each year it highlights the percentage of adults in the United Kingdom who “identified themselves as Gay/Lesbian or Bisexual”; and the percentage of people in Great Britain who stated that they had “a religious affiliation with Christianity”. Is there an agenda here? These are considered to be “Headline experimental statistics”. At least it belies the 10% claim for the prevalence of homosexuals in the general population, based on the Kinsey Reports.
