Churches in Northern Ireland have said they remain open to everyone and are in a healthy position, despite a new report, led by academics at Queen’s University Belfast (QUB), claiming that the number of atheists in the UK outnumber the believers in God for the first time.
Led by Professor Jonathan Lanman, from the School of History, Anthropology, Philosophy and Politics at QUB, the interim report from the ‘Explaining Atheism’ project, which has been running for the past three years, signalled that “the UK is entering its first atheist age”.
Adding to that, Dr Lois Lee of the University of Kent said: “Whilst atheism has been prominent in our culture for some time, it is only now that atheists have begun to outnumber theists for the first time in our history.”
While the Church of Ireland insisted it “remains open to everyone”, the Presbyterian Church added that it still has around 200,000 members across more than 500 congregations in Northern Ireland, after the report suggested that Protestants are deserting religion in greater numbers than Catholics.
While the interim report did indicate that Northern Ireland still remains the most religious region of the UK, the signs were that society here is moving away from traditional religious beliefs.
Read more
Brunel University London’s Dr Hugh Turpin, who works in Dublin and was a key part of the research team, is now extending his research to the three most religious countries in western Europe — Northern Ireland, the Republic of Ireland and Poland — to further understand the shift away from religious belief.
“We already have more people identifying as ‘no religion’ — that tends to be amongst the young who are moving away from following the traditional beliefs of their parents,” he said, adding that, from his research to date, more people from a Protestant background are moving away from church influence than those from Catholic families.
He said that the disengagement with belief was particularly prevalent among young people who now live in a more liberal society and suggested they could also have been turned away from politics as a consequence of the religious contest associated with it in Northern Ireland.
The Presbyterian Church in Ireland said that while it is aware that Northern Ireland is now a much more diverse society than it ever has been, people are still finding a place for God in their lives.
“While we can’t comment directly on a report that we have not had sight of, we recognise that we live in an increasingly pluralist society,” the church said.
“However, we believe that there is a God-shaped vacuum in the heart of every man and woman that only Jesus Christ can fill.
“While this report may suggest a rise in atheism at home and abroad, we continue to see men, women, boys and girls come to faith in Jesus. And we recognise this is the work of God, which continues through the ages.”
At the Church of Ireland, reaching out to new members of society is something it will continue to do.
“Church of Ireland services of worship are open to everyone, including to people from other countries and regions for whom Ireland is their new home,” it maintained.
“A total of 1,954 people, both children and adults, were baptised in Church of Ireland churches last year.”