Comments on: YouGov Poll: 60% of folk say they are not spiritual

By: Simian

Simian — Tue, 11 Oct 2011 07:28:08 +0000

I share your surprise webmaster on the apparent 60% who indicated they were not spiritual, particularly when taken against the figure for those who ticked the ‘Christian’ box; which includes ‘cultural’ Christians (72% in 2001 UK Census).

As an atheist I often find myself engaged in conversation with people about religion. A very common response is that they are not sure about God but they do believe there is something. Wouldn’t that be viewed as spiritual? I guess I must be mixing with a very unrepresentative sample of the UK population.

By: Jack

Jack — Mon, 10 Oct 2011 20:47:15 +0000

I dont believe the 69% Christian figure. Last census had 2 million only being active Christians. 7 million were avowed atheists. This seems more correct.

People call themselves ‘Christian’ because it has a past vague feeling for them, not that it means anything. AS said above ‘Christian’ has a cultural heritage for some people, it means nothing to them in any religious sense.

Religion is irrelevant to the vast majority of people, and so are pointless terms like ‘spirituality (unless you are anew age dripp hippy. Or a happy clappy…)

By: Simian

Simian — Mon, 10 Oct 2011 07:18:45 +0000

Could it also be that for many people, the label ‘Christian’ is one they adopt for cultural reasons, and it has little to do with actual belief?

By: webmaster

webmaster — Sun, 09 Oct 2011 08:06:31 +0000

I like that will, that makes a lot of sense.

By: will

will — Sun, 09 Oct 2011 08:04:42 +0000

This is a classic “what questions you ask and the order you ask them” type of survey. It was sent up brilliantly on Yes Minister. You ask a question and then the second leads on from the first. Here, spiritual is related to psychics and mediums and not directly to God etc. Therefore the second question is a “dodgy” one – there is an in-built bias.