Britain is entering its first ‘atheist age’ as parents fail to pass on religious beliefs to children, a study says.
For the first time in history, the UK now has more atheists than people who believe in the existence of a god, researchers have found.
The team also discovered that the stereotype of the ‘purposeless unbeliever’ – that atheists lead lives devoid of meaning, morality and purpose – simply isn’t accurate.
Instead, many atheists and agnostics endorse objective moral values, human dignity and rights, and see family and freedom as important for finding meaning in the world, the study showed.
The three-year project involved several universities across the UK.
Graph showing the number of people in English and Welsh regions giving up Christianity from 2011 to 2021 rise in people following no religion
Britain is entering its first ‘atheist age’ as parents fail to pass on religious beliefs to children, a study says (stock image)
It included surveys of nearly 25,000 people from across six countries – Brazil, China, Denmark, Japan, the UK and USA – to find out why people become atheists and agnostic.
The team also brought together converging results from the British Social Attitudes Survey and World Values Survey to show the UK now has a relative majority of atheists.
Figures from 2008 showed that 41.8 per cent of Britons believed in God while 35.2 per cent did not.
Within a decade, by 2018, this had reversed, with 35.2 per cent believing and 42.9 per cent not believing.
The interim results from project were presented this week at Conway Hall, in central London,
Dr Lois Lee, from the University of Kent’s Department of Religious Studies, said: ‘The UK is entering its first atheist age.
The team also discovered that the stereotype of the ‘purposeless unbeliever’ – that atheists lead lives devoid of meaning, morality and purpose – simply isn’t accurate
‘Whilst atheism has been prominent in our culture for some time – be it through Karl Marx, George Eliot, or Ricky Gervais – it is only now that atheists have begun to outnumber theists for the first time in our history.’
Analysis revealed that the strongest influences on belief are parental upbringing and the expectations of the rest of society regarding belief in God.
It has long been known that children raised by non-religious parents are more likely to grow up as ‘non-theists’ themselves, but academics found the same was true for children whose parents believe in God but do not actively ‘participate’ in religious rituals.
Common explanations for why people believe in God or not, such as intelligence, fear of death or need for structure, did not appear to have such a strong influence.
Graph showing the change in followers of major religions in England & Wales from 2011 to 2021
Professor Lanman, a cognitive anthropologist from Queen’s University Belfast, explained: ‘Our large cross-cultural surveys reveal that while many factors may influence one’s beliefs in small ways, the key factor is the extent to which one is socialised to be a theist.
‘Many other popular theories, such as intelligence, emotional stoicism, broken homes, and rebelliousness, do not stand up to empirical scrutiny.’
Dr Aiyana Willard, Reader in Psychology at Brunel University of London, added: ‘Such claims are used to stigmatise and harm individuals in our societies who happen to have different positions on the existence of God or gods.
‘Our research demonstrates that these claims are false. We hope that this understanding can be utilised by the public to combat harmful stereotypes.’
