Re:The second-largest religion in each state
by polemic on Thursday June 05, 2014 @05:57PM
(#7854846)
In New Zealand the 2013 census had 40% declared No Religion. Just under 50% are Christian, a full 12% were undeclared.
Re:The second-largest religion in each state
by pionar on Thursday June 05, 2014 @07:19PM
(#7855254)
But, there's a difference between not having a religion and atheism. Atheism is the belief that there is no God.
Just because one does not have a religion does not make them atheist.
I have no religion and yet I am not an atheist.
Re:The second-largest religion in each state
by lukevdp on Thursday June 05, 2014 @07:53PM
(#7855387)
Atheism is the lack of a belief in a god. You can categorise it into a subset of people who believe there is no god (positive atheism) and people who simply have no belief (negative atheism) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atheism#Implicit_vs._explicit
Semantics perhaps but isn't a 'belief that there is no god'? I tend to think of agnosticism as a 'lack of belief in a god'
A unicorn agnostic would say "I have no evidence for the existence of unicorns, so there may or may not be unicorns" but a unicorn atheist would say "I have no evidence for the existence of unicorns, so I don't believe unicorns exist".
It is a matter of semantics.
Re:The second-largest religion in each state
by TheCoelacanth on Friday June 06, 2014 @11:47AM
(#7858577)
Agnosticism is a subset of atheism.
Re:The second-largest religion in each state
by esrauch on Thursday June 05, 2014 @08:37PM
(#7855543)
What if you can believe in god and have no religion?
Broadly speaking you would be a non religious theist.
If you believe a God exists and reject that it can be known through religion, that would make you a deist
Re:The second-largest religion in each state
by baddox on Thursday June 05, 2014 @05:42PM
(#7854746)
I wonder if people who identify as following no religion are more likely to answer the UK census question than people who follow a religion.
Re:The second-largest religion in each state
by chestnut-tree on Thursday June 05, 2014 @05:55PM
(#7854834)
Perhaps. The video states that 7% (of the population of England and Wales) did not answer the question about religion. Also, these stats don't tell us anything about the practice of belief i.e. how religious people are. For example, are they nominally religious or actively practicing?
In the UK, we have a census every 10 years that tries to collect detailed information about the population. The last census was in 2011 and contained an optional question: what is your religion? The number who said they had no religion was 14.1 million which equals 25% of the population of England and Wales. This is a rise from the 2001 census where 15% of the population (of England and Wales) said they had no religion.
There was a decline in the number of people who called themselves Christian and a rise in all other minority religions.
Here's a very informative short video (4 mins) from the Office of National Statistics in the UK examining religion in England and Wales from the 2011 census.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tXdZJoXuxC8