Global growth of religions

I find it strange that you, as an atheist, would feel the need to cross your fingers behind your back, granjura! Who or what is going to strike you down for telling a lie?

dj no I wasn't watching it - I was enjoying some coffee in the front lobby where there was a television on the other side of the room.

Yes to the question about denominational schools - they would all go.

What gave you that idea, soon?

Meeting your MP or your MP meeting you means the same thing. I do not expect my MP to turn up at my house. She has rather a large constituency. It's enough for her to say when she is going to be up here, so we can go and see her.

Perhaps there are a lot in your constituency, loopy, who feel that your MP is working for them, which is why they do not vote him out. That's democracy for you.

I think loopylou means MPs coming to see us. Rather than us going to see them.

You're lucky dj, I've never voted for mine in the 24 years he's held his seat, so it isn't easy to vote them out unfortunately!

I met mine just last month. When we lived in York, we used to meet ours at meetings to do with climate change. My sister, living in Hull, writes to and meets her MP quite often to do with the area in which she lives.

I write to my MP regularly and always get an individual reply. It's not because she has nothing else to do, as she was and probably will still be on the education select committee.

My local shop has a notice in at the moment saying where and when she is coming here so we can go and see her if we want to.
It's up to everyone to hold his or her MP to account, and if they do not work for you, vote them out.
By the way, all the MPs I am talking about are Labour.

I don't think that I've ever had to put my religion on any form, or perhaps I just left it blank.
I'm a christian rather than of any denomination at the moment.

I've felt like the subject of every government; I think the majority of MPs, of any persuasion, are in it for their own gain rather than the voters personally.

I've found writing to any local MP or Councillor to be a fruitless exercise (and no, they weren't all Tories), it didn't change a thing.

How many MPs actually ever meet their voters?

Following on from Joan's post, when did any of you start being honest about your religious affiliation?
I did about 20 years ago, when I stopped saying Christian on hospital forms and started saying none. But for about ten years I still hesitated before saying it.

True, but I feel more like a subject of the wealthy Tories than the Queen.
The government has gone back to what it was like in Victorian times with patronage, even down to the birthday honours list.
Never actually been too concerned about the Queen being the head of the church.
If we became a secular republic, would that get rid of church schools?
I had someone telling me yesterday that non-RC should not go to RC schools, which is a problem in this village, which has three schools with every one of them belonging to one denomination or another.

Anyway, what were you doing in Paris watching the Queen's speech? Surely that's the ideal time and place to get away from it.

I can always remember a young French man one Christmas. We were in Paris for the duration and in a hotel, where many of the Brits were watching the Q's Speech.

He grinned and said "That is the difference between us and you. You are subjects, but WE are citizens"

My sentiments exactly!

I would also be keen to see the UK become a republic.

That would be interesting. Which political party would take that on? Where would the queen stand? Presumably it would not happen until after Charles became King. He probably would not mind as he wants to be defender of all faiths.

Personally I would be keen to see the UK become a secular state.

Really agree with your post Joan, I'm a great believer in "live and let live". I don't know what the percentage of Hindus and Sikhs we have in this country, but it often occurs to me, that they are in most cases, Sikhs particularly, exemplary examples of religions that are low key and un threatening to the majority. I personally find radical Islamists particularly alarming.

No-one knows how many people have a totally different private opinion from what they say openly. If you are Iranian, for instance, and an atheist, you would be insane to tell anyone. Better to go through the motions and just pretend.

As an atheist I find normal Christianity very safe and unthreatening. I don't like evangelical Christianity - it has caused a rift in my family, between my late nephew's widow, and my nephew's atheist Dad, my brother. She has simply rejected her in-laws 'cos they are not co-believers. I think she got involved in the church in York, when my nephew was dying.

Islam is far too 'in-your-face' for my liking. Why wear Islamic dress in a non-Islamic country. All you do is set yourself apart. Praying 5 times a day?? What a nuisance that must be. But I would never be rude to anyone for their religious practices - I just don't understand them. I do believe that even in Western countries there will be many atheists from Muslim families who keep quiet about their lack of belief., for the sake of peace

I have the same attitude to Judaism as to Christianity - it is usually low key and very unthreatening, especially nowadays with so very much intermarriage. Mind you, atheist Jews are not usually reticent about their lack of belief. My last boss was one, and we used to laugh about 'Jewish atheism, and 'christian' atheism.

But - my point is that stats on belief v unbelief are skewed - people have a lot of reasons to fib.

Hardly the dominant religion - 11.3% of the UK's population by 2050?

It's hardly surprising that Islam will become the dominant religion given that more and more Muslim countries either totally suppress other faiths or are doing their best to wipe them out. I find the march of Islam quite alarming in the same way Christianity must have been when the Spanish Inquisition started to gain momentum.

I think that's a bit of an exaggeration, jingl. According to this article, by 2050 45.5% of the UK population will describe themselves as Christian, 11.3% will say they are Muslim and 39% will be 'without religion'.

www.express.co.uk/news/uk/568188/Christianity-to-be-a-minority-religion-in-Britain-by-2050

(PS, don't ask me what the remaining 4.2% of the population said!)

I heard something the other day about Islamist Fundamentalists forbidding children to be vaccinated against polio . Found that very worrying as things like that cause a knock on effect, surely.

I think it's sad that Islamism will soon overtake Christianity in the UK.

I knew that Christianity is thriving in Africa, but this amazes me!

Who'd have thought it?

Even in the USA the numbers of 'nones' is quite rapidly increasing.

The UK is only 1 nation out of about 196 countries.

Political identity may have something to do with it. You could be right.

It is difficult isnt it to have a general conversation about the whole world, when it is hard to generalise about even 1 individual country.

Do we have evidence for an increase in family breakdown in e.g. The Thirld World? I could understand this argument if it tallied with an increase in religious affiliation in the UK but the YouGov poll suggests the opposite. Growth in the Catholic Church in S America is I believe massive as well as Africa. IF one is looking at the Middle East is it perhaps in parallel with political identity?
Food for thought.