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Come to Britain. You'll get on with British believers all right. šŸ˜†

Britsā€™ Top Response to Theology Questions? ā€˜Donā€™t Knowā€™ šŸ˜†

Excerpts from the article:

In Ligonier Ministriesā€™ first-ever State of Theology survey conducted in the UK, ā€œI donā€™t knowā€ was the top response to numerous questions about Jesus, sin, the Bible, salvation, and other rudimentary theological concepts.

Many Brits remain ambivalent on matters of faith. About a third were unsure about the nature of the Trinity (31%), Jesusā€™ bodily resurrection (33%), the existence of hell (30%), and Jesusā€™ return (31%). Even more, 36 percent, said they didnā€™t know whether to agree or disagree with the statement, ā€œGod counts a person as righteous not because of oneā€™s own works but only because of oneā€™s faith in Jesus Christ.ā€

Half of practicing Christians (49%) attest that religious belief is a matter of personal opinion rather than objective truth. Only 22 percent disagree, and another 21 percent somewhat disagree.

The survey of 520 practicing Christians also found that:

Nearly two-thirds (64%) of British practicing Christians say God accepts the worship of all religions, including Christianity, Judaism, and Islam.

About 7 in 10 (68%) say the Holy Spirit is a force, not a personal being.

And 62 percent of British believers disagree that ā€œeven the smallest sin deserves eternal damnation,ā€ with 42 percent disagreeing strongly.

Even practicing Christians in the UK generally see the Bible as a book of stories. Around half (47%) believe that the Bible contains helpful accounts of ancient myths but is not literally true. About a third of those go on to say that modern science disproves the Bible.

[christianitytoday.com]

#religious #belief #truth #Bible #Jesus #book #hell #god
Ryo1 8 Nov 16
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1

Level 10

Sounds about right of mainland U.K. in my experience of being a Brit, and although of no religion probably have more biblical knowledge than most so called Christians. Here in Northern Ireland I think any survey would throw up quite a different result as the population here is much more into their knowledge of scripture and quoting itā€¦especially the Protestants!

2

Level 9

It is worth pointing out, that this is a Christian group doing the survey, and that the stats are only about Christians for the most part. So it is not the British population as a whole, since it ignores the large percentages of other faiths and none believers. It it hard to tell with some of the stats, because they treat none Christians as none existent, and just refer to themselves as people, as usual.

Here you go.

Christianity (59.5%)
No religion (25.7%)
Islam (4.4%)
Hinduism (1.3%)
Sikhism (0.7%)
Judaism (0.4%)
Buddhism (0.4%)
Other religions (0.4%)
Not stated (7.2%)

Hi there. '...this is a Christian group doing the survey.' I think that that is the whole point about this survey; somewhere in the article, it says that the survey shows rather disappointing results, admitted by some Cristian leader.

I find it interesting that 'Even practicing Christians in the UK generally see the Bible as a book of stories. Around half (47%) believe that the Bible contains helpful accounts of ancient myths but is not literally true. About a third of those go on to say that modern science disproves the Bible.'

@Ryo1 Yes. I think that it is interesting that in the stats. (From Wiki.) over 7% are given as, "not stated". It could be, that an awful lot of those could be none religious, which would push, no religion, up to nearly a third.

@Fernapple We have female vicars, gay bishops, and even gay Muslims who are not hiding any more. A few decades ago, it was unthinkable to have these people, but now they can talk about reconciling their gender, sexuality, etc., with their faiths. To us, non-believers, it simply proves that religion is man-made; it evolves (if that is the right word to use) according to the human interpretation of it. Still, it's not a bad thing that they align their faith values to the 21st century values, though maybe only to a certain extent.
Meanwhile, we have fundamentalists who literally adhere to their scriptures. I think they are a different species. Lol

2

Level 9

Looks like some of them are going in the right direction here.

My big concern with American believers is that you point some of these things out and get the reply that "others have the wrong faith." Religion has always been that way. It is a collection of other faiths and beliefs and is ever growing.

1

Level 8

The fundamental tenet of Christianity is that you are not saved by good deeds but by faith alone.

And hence it is personal.
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