41 Percent of UK Don’t Think God Made the Universe (Highest Ever)

By on May 11, 2012 in News 26

Cosmic HistoryCaspar Melville writes at New Humanist:

A press release reaches us from Premier Christian Radio with the headline “UK’s belief that God created the Universe at an all-time low”. It reports the findings of a study conducted by ComRes for PCR (2054 were polled online across the UK in April), ahead of the conference, called “Unbelievable 2012″,  PCR are holding in London on May 26 at which “academics and scientists” from the US and UK will be arguing that contemporary cosmology indicates that God created the world.

The headline findings of the survey are that only 26% believe that God created the world, 41% said they didn’t believe this and 23% didn’t know or didn’t want to say. In what the press release describes as a “strange twist” fully 25% of those who identified as “Christian” did not believe that God was the cause of the Universe.

So, why would a Christian outfit be trumpeting numbers which show that the idea of a God-created universe is is decline, even amongst their own gang? It’s a canny ploy actually, allowing them to make the case that their conference is important – a chance to hear the “very best” scientifically grounded arguments for God. As the presenter and conference host Justin Brierly says in the release: “I believe that modern science is increasing the amount of evidence for God. But it appears that certain atheistic voices have the ear of the British public…

Read More: New Humanist

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  • The only thing to get is money

    Nothing is sacred. God(s) is a concept that is obsolete in explaining anything, in defending itself (it can’t, humans defend god, surprisingly) and to prove it’s worth. All gods and ideas of gods are useless. It is time to move on. It is my wish, that in 5-20 years from now, I come back to this site (if it still exists) and see that the number is 80-90 percent not only in the UK, BUT IN THE WORLD!

    • http://www.jaycob.co.nf/ Scruffy

      Believing a god exists isn’t really where the problems happen. It’s when people start believing all the little specifics people have made up. I think learning and teaching about religion is fine but people should see and teach it as mythology. The idea of god can still inspire people to discover a purpose for their life.

      • The only thing to get is money

        I like what you have said. It’s very smart. Teach the so-called “true” religious faiths as mythology. Like the greek and roman religion which is taught widely in schools but as myths. But the thing is to find out why greek religion is viewed as myth while abrahamic faith is not.

        • http://www.jaycob.co.nf/ Scruffy

          Since I wrote that I opened a old science textbook on electricity in our bathroom, and I noticed one of the front pages says “To my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, from whom all good things originate, to the glory of our Heavenly Father” *facepalm* It’s hard to get mad at people for thinking they know what’s best for humanity without being hypocritical.

          • The only thing to get is money

            So what to do then?

          • http://www.jaycob.co.nf/ Scruffy

            The best way I can think of is to do what we have been doing, which is to pass on and share our beliefs with our immediate families and also encourage them to challenge those and any other beliefs or “facts”.

          • The only thing to get is money

            So I am interested in how exactly you view atheism, which in my opinion is a non-sense word, because atheism itself is not a belief or ideology or philosophy. It is an anti-belief. How do we handle confrontations in the world between religious and non-religious people? And how do we get religious people who view their tales as literal fact to see that is no better or clever than grecian myth?

          • http://www.jaycob.co.nf/ Scruffy

            lol yeah I also see atheism as becoming the belief in nothing, instead of the general belief that religion is wrong. As for the relationship between people it’s much more complex but agreeing on a common goal for humanity wouldn’t be a bad start. I think to religious people, denying their religion, is denying their heritage, and dishonoring their ancestors, so working to eliminate some of our human taboos might help bring future generations around.

  • http://www.ContraControl.com/ Zenc

    Even the early Christian writings don’t all agree that the Abrahamic god made the Universe. 

    • Jin The Ninja

      so. true. and so many facets of that belief; the ‘evil’ demi urge that created the material world in some writings, while a seperate omipresent god that removed themselves from the universe upon their creation of it in others. not to mention the various syncretic beliefs like yazidi, druze, alamites, and mandeans who all have aspects of the semitic mythology, but have interpreted it so differently from the isrealites. belief is so diverse, it seems so myopic to talk about G-d in such a western european context.

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Bobbie-Jean-Pentecost/100000391760333 Bobbie Jean Pentecost

    I honestly don’t care what stupid magical horseshit people believe in as long as they keep it out of science classrooms and don’t try to legislate it into law.

    • Sophisticated Ignorance

      If only the universe believed in mans laws. From natures perspective, the laws of men are stupid magical horseshit.

      • http://www.facebook.com/people/Bobbie-Jean-Pentecost/100000391760333 Bobbie Jean Pentecost

        I’m really not sure what point you’re trying to make. Man’s laws are for men to live by in a complex society. The universe’s laws are well….. universal. They’re true whether we believe them or not. Nothing you’ve said justifies teaching magical stupid bullshit that cannot ever be proven in a science classroom.

    • http://www.facebook.com/people/Matt-Dante/1500162615 Matt Dante

       Or fly planes into buildings, shooting doctors, denying medical care to children, etc.

  • Mauddib

    I was an atheist for a long time. After psychedelics and a lot of odd sober experiences and thinking I’m now more Pandeistic/anamistic/gnostic i suppose. In the spirit of bob wilson, i strive to not believe in anything really. But to think the bit bang was just one big happy random meaningless accident seems pretty absurd to me at this point in the journey

    After being in hyperspace a bit it just seems clear that what’s driving these religious people is a subconscious longing for that state of being

    • Leachpunk

      The Big Bang is just a theory, it is not the end all, be all explanation of the creation of the universe. I believe like most things in life, it just happened, i don’t believe in an astrological version of photoshop for gods to play in. I pretty much believe that things just happen, whether scientists have been able to prove what that “happening” is yet, it’s hard to say, i don’t feel confident in all the explanations, but i also don’t believe in the almighty story teller.

      • Nignips

         ”The Big Bang is just a theory, it is not the end all, be all explanation of the creation of the universe”
        no shit, but no religion even has, or is a theory at all. they are not at all comparable as explanations for existence of the universe. at least the big bang was theorized to explain scientific observations of the universe. they have ‘proof’ so to speak.

    • Thebiophysicist

      Hey, I’m a nonstick pan too. Tho I’ve believed this for most of my life just didn’t know it had a name till recently. scientific evidence makes it more probable than random chance. A universe so finely balanced that it needs 100 to the power of 500 other parallel universes to exist to maintain consistency with an atheist materialistic dogma. Tho my idea of god is definately non abrahamic. Except maybe that god is everywhere as maybe god and the universe are 1. Everything is connected is science fact. Pick a flower and you move the furthest star. My concept of god could even be as abstract an equation that allowed the fundamental laws of the forces that govern our universe.

      • Nignips

         you are ridiculous. you don’t know shit about parallel universes let alone math (or grammar / spelling), so please stop posting things as if they’re facts. thanks.

        • Thebiophysicist

          I suspect I know more than you about parallel universes .Look at 
          http://arxiv.org/abs/hep-th/0302219 Leonard Suskind the father of string theory talks about parallel  universes and the implications for the anthropic principal http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anthropic_principle . I did make a mistake it’s “only more than 10^500 universes” See stephen Hawkings Grand Design book http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Grand_Design_(book) 
            Regarding the connection of all things see Brian Cox’s The Quantum Universe or this easy video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m_H26JrjI9c

        • Thebiophysicist

          It seems to be one of the fundamental features of nature that fundamental physical laws are described in terms of mathematical theory of great beauty and power, needing quite a high standard of mathematics for one to understand it. You may wonder: Why is nature constructed along these lines? One can only answer that our present knowledge seems to show that it is so constructed. We simply have to accept it. One could perhaps describe the situation by saying that God is a mathematician of a very high order, and He used very advanced mathematics in constructing the universe. Our feeble attempts at mathematics enable us to understand a bit of the universe, and as we proceed to develop higher and higher mathematics we can hope to understand the universe better.(Paul Dirac)

  • SmokinTokinJokinBrit

    wow proud to be British for a change, hope this is a sign of things to come, take note US, now if we can just legalize pot i wont have to move to California….. 

  • There is no box

    I sometimes wonder what would happen if characters in a video game became conscious. Would they eventually discover the T.V., the electronics, the code,the information on the disk, the “Xbox” that gives them life? Would they call it God? Even if they discovered all this, and could manipulate it for their own advantage, they would never discover that which created the whole thing to begin with. It’s not in the system itself. A book is not an author. I’m sure they would all bicker and fight about what they believe, but who cares, conflict is meaningless. The Truth would always be beyond them.

  • Phantom

    Be interesting how a Godless country would fair.  Without ultimate consequences of self actions in an afterlife would one be more likely to commit atrocities if they can evade man’s laws?  It’s overlooked by many of the magic of life itself.

  • afriendindenmark

    If one subscribes to the possible multi-universe consequences of quantum mechanics, where each universe is a little different from its adjacent ones, then I suppose there could be a universe where god exists. This in turn begs the question: did god create that universe? Now it might be that someone, somewhere decided that a new universe should pop into existence, and LO there was light. But there can be no way this “creator” can have any further effect on the Universe. We have, therefore, a dichotomy, A god might be able to create a universe, but he/she cannot control what happens there.

    So why, therefore, should we pray? Also, why stop at one god? There could even be giant turtles somewhere.

    N.B. I have always thought that the multi-universe argument is wishful thinking, It doesn’t meet the criteria of Occam’s razor.

    • Guest

      Who said Occam’s razor was right?