Belief in life after death is as common in Britain as it was 30 years ago in spite of a sharp decline in church attendance, a study suggests.
While the number of people who say they believe in God or call themselves Anglicans has fallen significantly in the course of a generation, some core Christian beliefs appear to be holding their ground.
The proportion of Britons who believe in Hell has risen from 26.2 per cent in 1981 to 28.6 per cent in 2008, while belief in the afterlife held steady over the same period at about 44 per cent.
Over those three decades the proportion of people who hold all five of the religious beliefs covered by the study ”” God, life after death, Heaven, Hell and sin ”” has also slightly increased to almost a third of the UK’s population.
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([London] Times) Church attendance in freefall but we still believe in Hell
Belief in life after death is as common in Britain as it was 30 years ago in spite of a sharp decline in church attendance, a study suggests.
While the number of people who say they believe in God or call themselves Anglicans has fallen significantly in the course of a generation, some core Christian beliefs appear to be holding their ground.
The proportion of Britons who believe in Hell has risen from 26.2 per cent in 1981 to 28.6 per cent in 2008, while belief in the afterlife held steady over the same period at about 44 per cent.
Over those three decades the proportion of people who hold all five of the religious beliefs covered by the study ”” God, life after death, Heaven, Hell and sin ”” has also slightly increased to almost a third of the UK’s population.
Read it all (requires subscription).