British atheism

A Eurobarometer poll in 2010 reported that 37% of UK citizens "believed there is a God", 33% believe there is "some sort of spirit or life force" and 25% answered "I don't believe there is any sort of spirit, God or life force".^[1]

A Eurobarometer poll in 2010 reported that 37% of UK citizens "believed there is a God", 33% believe there is "some sort of spirit or life force" and 25% answered "I don't believe there is any sort of spirit, God or life force".^[2]

In 2014, The Telegraph reported: "The British are among the most sceptical in the world about religion, a global study has found. Just over a third of people in the UK believe religion has a positive role to play in our daily lives, compared to a global average of 59 per cent."^[3]

Britain has had a significant influence on global atheism through its promotion of the atheistic ideology of evolution.

In the beginning portion of the 21st century, various members of Britain's atheists/agnostics, for example Richard Dawkins, have engaged in aggressive atheism evangelism efforts. In addition, the late Christopher Hitchens was born in Britain and emigrated to the United States in 1981 was a high-profile atheist. However, the movement they lead, New Atheism, has significantly waned and is now essentially dead (see: Decline of New Atheism).

See also: Growth of Islam in the United Kingdom and UK and secularism and European desecularization in the 21st century and Acceleration of 21st century desecularization

In 2022, new churches and Pentecostal churches were growing rapidly in the United Kingdom.^[4]

In December 2018, The Times indicated: "The number of atheists in Britain has fallen in the past year, according to a survey suggesting that more people are attending church, albeit irregularly."^[5]

The Guardian published an article in 2017 entitled Nearly 50% are of no religion – but has UK hit ‘peak secular’? which declared:

In the United States, the vast majority of individuals who are "Nones"/"no religion" (people who are not part of organized religion) believe in the existence of God. Fewer than 15% of the "nones" consider themselves atheists.^[7]

Conatus News reported in 2017:

The 2019 journal article When will European Muslim population be majority and in which country? published in PSU Research Review indicates: "Among three scenarios, the most likely mid-point migration scenario identifies 13 countries where the Muslim population will be majority between years 2085 and 2215: Cyprus (in year 2085), Sweden (2125), France (2135), Greece (2135), Belgium (2140), Bulgaria (2140), Italy (2175), Luxembourg (2175), the UK (2180), Slovenia (2190), Switzerland (2195), Ireland (2200) and Lithuania (2215). The 17 remaining countries will never reach majority in the next 200 years".^[9]

Growth of Islam in the UK

See also: Growth of Islam in the United Kingdom and Atheism vs. Islam

According to the website Statista.com's article Islam in the UK - Statistics & Facts: "Like most major European countries, the United Kingdom has a significant Muslim population living within its borders. With the number of Muslims in Europe predicted to increase significantly in the near future, the UK's share of Muslims in the population could rise from 6.3 percent in 2016 to 17.2 percent by 2050."

• UK sees rapid growth in Muslim population: census, 2022. Muslim population stood at 3.9 million or 6.5 percent of the total UK population in 2021, up from 4.9 percent in 2011.
• Number of Muslims in UK up 44% in a decade, Arab News, November 2022

See also: Richard Dawkins and debate and Atheism debates and Evidence for Christianity

Richard Dawkins declared "Christianity may actually be our best defence against aberrant forms of religion that threaten the world".^[10][11] See also: Richard Dawkins and Islam

Richard Dawkins is a new atheist and agnostic (See: Richard Dawkins and agnosticism).

Richard Dawkins has established a reputation for avoiding debates with his strongest opponents. On May 14, 2011, the British newspaper The Daily Telegraph published a news story entitled Richard Dawkins accused of cowardice for refusing to debate existence of God.^[12]

As noted above, in The Daily Telegraph article Dr. Daniel Came, a member of the Faculty of Philosophy at Oxford University, was quoted as writing to fellow atheist Richard Dawkins concerning his refusal to debate Dr. William Lane Craig: "The absence of a debate with the foremost apologist for Christian theism is a glaring omission on your CV and is of course apt to be interpreted as cowardice on your part."^[13]

In October 2011, Dr. Craig went to England and the Daily Telegraph declared that Dawkins is either a fool or a coward for his refusal to debate William Lane Craig plus declared that Dawkins is a "proud man" and a "coward" who puts on an "illiterate, angry schtick" for the public.^[14] In addition, Christian apologist Ken Ammi called Dawkins a "cowardly clown" because Dawkins and other prominent atheists refused to debate Creation Ministries International at the 2010 Global Atheist Convention.^[15]

As far as Dawkins and his comfort level around professional philosophers, the atheist philosopher Massimo Pigliucci wrote:

Below are some resources relating to Dawkins refusal to debate various debate opponents:

• Richard Dawkins' public refusal to debate creationists

• Richard Dawkins and William Lane Craig

• Richard Dawkins and Dinesh D'Souza

• Richard Dawkins and Rabbi Shmuley Boteach (Denied debating him after losing video taped debate, refuses to debate another time)

In addition, respected biochemist and intelligent design researcher Dr Michael Behe has openly challenged prominent evolutionists and proponents of Darwinism to debate him regarding the many failings of evolutionism, yet Richard Dawkins - one of the most outspoken Darwinists today - has declined all such invitations. Dawkins has also refused to debate prominent creationist and evangelist Ray Comfort.

Sam Harris once described William Lane Craig as “the one Christian apologist who has put the fear of God into many of my fellow atheists”.^[17]

See also: Atheism and Debate and Atheism and cowardice

Humanists UK is a society of British humanists whose origins go back to 1896 (The society is the result of various humanist groups merging).^[18] Humanists UK was previously called the British Humanist Association.^[19]

On August 19, 2011, Fox News reported:

On August 19, 2011, the leading British Anglican weekly newspaper the Church Times wrote:

See: Cowardly, irreligious British vs. British, Muslim terrorists and British, Muslim groomer gangs

See also: Essay: Attention British, militant atheists! Brace yourself for the mighty, religious wave that is coming

A mighty wave of religiosity is heading towards the UK.

For more information, please see: Essay: Attention British, militant atheists! Brace yourself for the mighty, religious wave that is coming

Recently, there have been a number of signs that in the 21st century British atheism will experience a dramatic decline as far as being an influential ideology:

1. Britain's Financial Times published an article in 2018 with the title/subtitle of: "The return of religion. Among atheists as well as believers, strident secularism is giving way to a renewed sense of faith’s hold."^[21] See also: Atheists and the endurance of religion and Decline of militant atheism in the West

2. British academic and religious/political demography expert Eric Kaufmann declaring that the future of the Western World and the world at large belongs to religious conservatives due to religious conservative immigration to the West and the higher birth rates of religious conservatives (and the sub-replacement level of births of the irreligious).^{[22][23][24][25]} See also: Desecularization

Most atheists in the United Kingdom (UK) are white. In the UK, by the year 2050, 30 percent of the population is expected to be non-white.^[26] Atheists in the Western World have historically not engaged in evangelism of racial minorities in their countries (see: Western atheism and race). Yale Daily News reported in an article entitled White Europeans: An endangered species? that "Without a major shift in the current fertility trends, industrialized Europe will see its native population decline by about three-fourths over the 21st century."^[27] See also: Decline of global atheism and Global Christianity

3. British evolutionist Richard Dawkins, who formerly championed militant atheism and was previously Britain's most prominent atheist, emphatically and repeatedly denying he was ever an atheist to Rowan Williams who at the time was the Bishop of Canterbury (See: Richard Dawkins and agnosticism). A likely reason why Dawkins disavowed ever being an atheist, despite championing militant atheism in the past, is that he cannot prove that God does not exist. In addition, many theists have very negative views of atheists (Views on atheists).

Furthermore, Richard Dawkins lost a considerable amount of influence due to some statements that offended many women atheists (see: Elevatorgate and Richard Dawkins and women and Richard Dawkins' loss of influence).

4. Evangelical Christianity is growing in England and increasingly challenging the more liberal Anglican Church.^[28]

5. The Muslim population is growing in Britain and may become a majority in the 21 century. The 2019 journal article When will European Muslim population be majority and in which country? published in PSU Research Review indicates: "Among three scenarios, the most likely mid-point migration scenario identifies 13 countries where the Muslim population will be majority between years 2085 and 2215: Cyprus (in year 2085), Sweden (2125), France (2135), Greece (2135), Belgium (2140), Bulgaria (2140), Italy (2175), Luxembourg (2175), the UK (2180), Slovenia (2190), Switzerland (2195), Ireland (2200) and Lithuania (2215). The 17 remaining countries will never reach majority in the next 200 years".^[29]

The British new atheist Richard Dawkins

6. The British Humanist Society and Richard Dawkins backing down from debate offers from the Christian apologist William Lane Craig. The Oxford University atheist Daniel Came told Richard Dawkins that his refusal to debate Craig was bound to be seen by many as an act of cowardice. See: Atheism and cowardice

7. Worldwide young earth creationism is seeing dramatic growth (see: Global creationism).^[30] Eric Kaufmann told a secular audience in Australia: "The trends that are happening worldwide inevitably in an age of globalization are going to affect us."^[31]

8. British atheist Rory Fenton, who is the president of the National Federation of Atheist, Humanist and Secular Student Societies (AHS) declaring in 2014:^[32]

- "For non-religious students on [university] campuses across the UK, 2013-14 has been the most challenging year to date, with criticism of religion censored and religious rules enforced in lecture theatres."

- "At their Freshers' Fayre in October, our members at LSE [London School of Economics] wore t-shirts featuring the satirical Jesus and Mo webcomic...At the request of their own students' union, the body surely set up to defend student rights, the university sent 10 security guards to surround the two students and their offending cotton, demanding that they remove the t-shirts or be removed themselves."

- "...at London South Bank University our members were told they could not invite speakers who criticised religion at all, or even engage religious societies in debates, putting joining the South Bank Atheist Society on a par with joining the BNP. This February the same university banned images of the Flying Spaghetti Monster, a satirical deity in which nobody believes, on the grounds that they were "religiously offensive".

Much of the muzzling of atheists on British campuses is due to campus administrators and/or student leaders not wanting to upset Islamic militants on British universities/colleges.^[33]

9. Economic adversity has an inverse relationship to atheism as many people turn to God in times of trouble.^[34] On the other hand, pentecostal and holiness Christian churches have historically increased during tough economic times.^[35][36] In 2011, the UK had a 406% external debt to gross national product (GNP) ratio which was equivalent to $160,158 of debt per person.^[37] Such a large amount of external debt certainly could cause future problems for the UK economy.

10. Scientism/materialism currently has very limited appeal in the UK. In October 2013, The New Statesman reported: "A mere 13% - and only a quarter of the non-religious - agreed with the statement that "humans are purely material beings with no spiritual element".^[38]

See also: Atheism and the media

The Daily Mail reported about Britain's influential broadcaster the BBC:

See: Happiness: British non-religious vs. British religious

See: British irreligion, libertinism, undisciplined behavior, lack of mental toughness and cowardice

• Atheism in the Anglosphere

• Desecularization and aging populations

• Polly Toynbee

• Britain and morality

• Irreligious Britain and low social mobility

• Growth of evangelical Protestantism in Europe

• Irreligion in Australia

• Irreligion in New Zealand

Essay:

• Attention British, militant atheists! Brace yourself for the mighty, religious wave that is coming

• British atheism is crumbling. British Evangelical Christianity is on the rise

• A thermonuclear bomb of Christianity has hit the region formerly known as "godless Britain"

• Google UK: Interest in atheism is dropping like a rock. Google trend data for the UK

• 1 million more reasons why British atheism is doomed

• The British state’s silent war on religion by Frank Furedi (Sociologist and commentator), Spiked, June 9, 2015

• Pentecostalism Invades Lambeth Palace by Peter L. Berger, The American Interest, December 18, 2013

• The Church of England: Hot and bothered - The rise of evangelicalism is shaking up the established church, The Economist, March 10, 2012

• Evangelical Christianity is rising in the UK. Demographic data points to upcoming reversal of secularism in the UK. No English speaking country will be safe for Darwinism, March 12, 2012

• Prominent Brit atheist Polly Toynbee pulls out of debate with apologist William Lane Craig, Uncommon Descent, August 14, 2011

• Richard Dawkins accused of cowardice for refusing to debate existence of God, The Daily Telegraph, May 14, 2011

• Children who front Richard Dawkins' atheist ads are evangelicals, by Ken Ham, December 16, 2009

• Atheist's bizarre bid to convert Christian by Richard Smith, The East Anglican Daily Times, September 12, 2008