A NATION OF FUZZY DOUBTERS

Ahead of the visit to the UK of Pope Benedict next week, today's Guardian contains an interesting article about how religious adherence is measured.

A nation of fuzzy doubters 

"People cling to the idea of religion as a source of morality," says Terry Sanderson, president of the National Secular Society. "There is general apathy: people don't want to make a fuss."


Many Britons have at best a shallow belief in God: the most recent British Social Attitudes survey found that just a third of the population held firm religious beliefs, with another third deeply sceptical and the final third uncertain.


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"People prefer to talk about spirituality rather than religion, which can mean anything you want it to," says Sanderson.


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According to demographer David Voas at Manchester University: "The part of the population that is properly religious is a minority, but so is that part which is overtly secular. In the middle is an informal group of fuzzy people who don't really care."


Britain is not, as some think, the most secular nation in Europe; it is less so than Scandinavia and parts of the former Soviet bloc.


Migrant communities are the most committed - even long-standing ones, such as the Irish Catholics who dominate what Voas calls "the British bible belt running from Merseyside to Wigan pier."


Most other people are less engaged, although measuring belief is difficult and the data conflicting.


Much depends on how questions are asked and whether they refer to broad social identity or practical belief.


The census, which records the highest level of religious belief, assumes people are adherents of one religion or another and actively asks them to choose from a list.


In 2001, more than two-thirds selected Christian and well under a fifth no religion. that, says Voas, overstates the reality of British religious belief. Asked to choose Christian rather than Muslim or Hindu, people see it as an ethnic identity. Voas argues that the British Social Attitudes survey, which found over half the population holding no strong religious views, is a better measure.


Other polls go further. In a 2006 Guardian/ICM poll only 33% described themselves as religious, against 69% who said they were not - including a majority who described themselves as culturally Christian.


Women and older people were more likely than average to believe in a god, but overall only 13% said they went to a place of worship at least once a week. More people saw religion as a force for harm than for good.


That suggests a country where religion is on the retreat. "There is a huge change - the trend is toward secularism," says Sanderson.


Others, pointing to the impact of migration, from Catholic Poland as well as the Indian subcontinent, are less sure.


The country's religious makeup is fragmenting as the Church of England declines. "It is not the case that Britain is getting more religious," says Voas.