Is Britain a religious country?

Résumé du document

Nowadays, in the modern western countries, religion is becoming less and less important, and that includes Great-Britain. Since the end of Second World War, religion has lost its grip on peoples lives for many reasons. According to the many polls that have been conducted recently by a national organism, just over three-quarters of the United Kingdom population was reported having a religion. The main religion is still Christianity, with more than seven out of ten people. The second religion is Islam, with nearly 3 percent describing their religion as Muslim. The next largest religious groups are Hindus, followed by Sikhs, Jews, Buddhists, and people from Other religions. These groups each accounted for less than 1 percent and together accounted for a further 3 percent of the United Kingdom population. About 16 percent of the United Kingdom population stated that they had no religion. This category includes agnostics, atheists, heathens and those who wrote Jedi Knight. However, even if Christianity is still the main religion in Great Britain, people with no religion form the second largest group, which thus comprise 15 per cent of the population. These statistics are quite the same in all European countries, but, for French people, Britain can be considered as a more religious country, because of the principle of secularism. Indeed, in France, religion and the state are completely separated since 1905, to avoid interference from religion over domains such as education or politics. And thus, it seems odd to French people that religion has the opportunity to have influence in public domains.

Extraits

[...] This means for instance that the teaching of religion has been excluded from state schools: prayers had thus been banished from classes, and as for the teaching of religions, it only exist in the first year of college a brief teaching of what are the three main religions in history classes, when pupils are about 10. Only in public schools exist a teaching of the religion the school is founded on. Plus one can not show his/her religious belonging to a specific religion in his/her job: crosses or other sign of religious belonging are strictly forbidden from public places. This concept is based on the belief that one's religion is a private affair, that must be practised at home, or in specific private places such as churches. [...]

[...] Nowadays only 33% of the British public considers that religion is important. Moreover in the last twenty years the Church of England has suffered a 27 per cent decline in church membership. According to a national poll, in per cent of the population claimed to belong to a specific religion with 55 per cent being Christian. However, half of all adults aged 18 and over who belonged to a religion have never attended a religious service. The fact that less and less people believe in God or regularly practice their religion is to link with the fact that religious education is more and more shunned from young people's education, and that there is today an obvious lack of concern from the average English people for all religious matters, Reverend David Edwards, 'The English have lost any sense of what religion is'". [...]

[...] Is Britain a religious country? Would you consider Britain a religious country? Compare Britain with your own country, giving specific examples from both countries, to explain your viewpoint Nowadays in the modern west countries, religion is becoming less and less important, and that includes Great-Britain. Since the end of Second World War, religion has lost its grip on people's lives and this for many reasons. According to the many polls that had been made recently by a national organism, just over three-quarters of the United Kingdom population was reported having a religion. [...]

[...] Those statistics are quite the same in all European countries, but for French people, Britain can be considered as a more religious country, because of the principle of secularism. Indeed in France religion and the state are completely separated since 1905, to avoid interference from religion over domains such as education or politics. And thus it seems odd to French people that religion has the opportunity to have influence in public domains. But the question can be asked of whether this absence of secularism does mean that Great-Britain is a more religious country than France. [...]

[...] However, despite those facts, Great-Britain is in fact not such a religious country, as it will be seen in the next part. Many facts tend to prove that, just as France and many other European countries, Great-Britain is becoming less and less religious. First of all, even if there are members of the Church of England sitting in the House of Lords, considering the lack of importance of the House of Lords in the legislative process, this do not allow them to have a real importance in political matters. [...]