Modern British attitude towards Christianity...

[The Dawktor]

I'm not sure that we should take the baying mob outside the BB house as an accurate barometer of UK public opinion loz'!

[floppit]

I think christianity is dying out, slowly maybe but the redeveloped churches and lack of big hats on a sunday street kind of tell their own story.

I'm of the opinion that this alone won't change much, just a change of superstition from religion to self baked theories on the evils of aspartame sweeteners and vaccines! While christianity isn't visible in every public place or market the magnetic beads and dream catcher cobwebs seemed to have filled the gaps. Nothing drove this home more clearly to me than having a kid. Through pregnancy and her babyhood I met with all kinds of baked up twaddle, amber beads for teething, baby led weaning (including an utterly irrational book given me by a health worker!), people shitting a brick because their 8 month old got a bite of a chocolate biscuit!

I also like to go to shows and markets and while it's ever rarer to see the god botherer stall they would struggle to winkle in between the new fad cures and potions!

I hope christians aren't abused or made to feel small, I've never believed that to be the answer to creating a more rational world. I believe superstition comes from an innate desire to understand and give meaning to the world around us, and in such a literate age, with such developed media/access to knowledge science can fill that desire. It's what people get right that needs encouraging.

[DaveScriv]

Yep, I agree pretty much with all the previous posters. Christianity is mostly left to old ladies (e.g my very nice next door neighbour) and a few weird American style fundies (which my home town, Shepton Mallet, will be host to hundreds of next month for the 'New Wine' camps @ the Bath & West agricultrual showground).
In the meantime, Shepton is filling up today & tomorrow with lots of new age woo merchants on their way from Stonehenge & the Avebury Stone Circle (for the summer solstice) to the 'Glastonbury' rock festival (actually at the village of Pilton, which is a lot closr to S.M. than Glastonbury, although the rest of the year Glastonbury is England's 'Woo Central', with all its shops selling woo merchandise & books.

[Beelzebub2]

Not so much here in the central Europe, especially not after the fall of communism. Christianity has become a way to climb the social ladder, and a matter of prestige. In Croatia the privileged position of the Catholic Church is manifested in financial privileges which are based on an agreement with the Vatican whereby the Government undertook the long-term obligation to finance Church activities, and provided for the powerful influence of religion on education, the state-owned media such as Croatian Television, and even on the legislative branch of government. This kind of influence is not only incompatible with the fundamental doctrines of a secular state; it is also very expensive. Since the agreement was concluded with the Vatican, Croatia has paid over 3 billion kuna (416.53343 million Euros) to the Catholic Church, and the obligation in 2009 amounted to 291 million kuna (40.4037427 million Euros). Most of this goes to wages for priests, for which some 357,000,000 kuna (49.5674782 million Euros) are to be paid out this year. The country is in recession, still the Church gets paid without delays.

Here it may die out in about another 500-1000 years, which is approximately the time we're behind the developed West and UK.

[Feck]

Not so much here in the central Europe, especially not after the fall of communism. Christianity has become a way to climb the social ladder, and a matter of prestige. In Croatia the privileged position of the Catholic Church is manifested in financial privileges which are based on an agreement with the Vatican whereby the Government undertook the long-term obligation to finance Church activities, and provided for the powerful influence of religion on education, the state-owned media such as Croatian Television, and even on the legislative branch of government. This kind of influence is not only incompatible with the fundamental doctrines of a secular state; it is also very expensive. Since the agreement was concluded with the Vatican, Croatia has paid over 3 billion kuna (416.53343 million Euros) to the Catholic Church, and the obligation in 2009 amounted to 291 million kuna (40.4037427 million Euros). Most of this goes to wages for priests, for which some 357,000,000 kuna (49.5674782 million Euros) are to be paid out this year. The country is in recession, still the Church gets paid without delays.

Here it may die out in about another 500-1000 years, which is approximately the time we're behind the developed West and UK.

Wow your Government PAYS the church that's fucking crazy ..I thought it was bad enough that our gov doesn't tax the churches .

so has anything been said at all about all the child sex scandals ?

[AnInconvenientScotsman]

I should add, though, that those who remain religious remain fiercely so, especially the elderly. Any mention of atheism or the evils of religion can be very quickly met with hostility if you're not careful who you voice your opinions around.

Having said that it's not like I tip-toe around insecure religious types to make them feel happy

[Beelzebub2]

Not so much here in the central Europe, especially not after the fall of communism. Christianity has become a way to climb the social ladder, and a matter of prestige. In Croatia the privileged position of the Catholic Church is manifested in financial privileges which are based on an agreement with the Vatican whereby the Government undertook the long-term obligation to finance Church activities, and provided for the powerful influence of religion on education, the state-owned media such as Croatian Television, and even on the legislative branch of government. This kind of influence is not only incompatible with the fundamental doctrines of a secular state; it is also very expensive. Since the agreement was concluded with the Vatican, Croatia has paid over 3 billion kuna (416.53343 million Euros) to the Catholic Church, and the obligation in 2009 amounted to 291 million kuna (40.4037427 million Euros). Most of this goes to wages for priests, for which some 357,000,000 kuna (49.5674782 million Euros) are to be paid out this year. The country is in recession, still the Church gets paid without delays.

Here it may die out in about another 500-1000 years, which is approximately the time we're behind the developed West and UK.

Wow your Government PAYS the church that's fucking crazy ..I thought it was bad enough that our gov doesn't tax the churches .

so has anything been said at all about all the child sex scandals ?

Yes, but the media is (mostly) under the Church influence, and since it's mostly related to other countries it hasn't affected the state of affairs much.

This can be found on the web, no English version unfortunately.