Christian think tank doesn’t know the difference between atheism and secularism (or, come to that, good news and bad news)

Editorial by Terry Sanderson

A new survey by the Christian “think tank” Theos shows that there are more people in Britain who describe themselves as atheists and doubters than there are self-described Christians. Theos manages to interpret this as a failure of secularism.

Theos describes itself as a “public theology think tank”. Well, it had better get its thinking cap on and reconsider the honesty of its approach.

The poll, conducted for Theos by ComRes, questioned 1100 people about what they believed, and although it was presented by Theos as proof of Britain’s continued “spirituality”, it was actually very bad news for the churches.

When asked “How would you describe your beliefs?” A total of 48% of respondents said either “I am a doubter” or “I am an atheist”. Only 38% said they were “a Christian who doesn’t go to Church regularly” and 8% said they were Christians who “regularly attends church”. This rather dramatically contradicts the finding of the 2001 census, which showed 72% of people describing themselves as Christians.

When asked about their opinions on Jesus, a total of 41% of the ComRes respondents said they thought he never existed or they didn’t know whether he existed or not. Only 40% definitely thought he was “the son of God”. 26% thought that the Easter story had no real meaning today. Only 31% disagreed with the statement that “death marks the end of human existence”. Only 9% believed in “physical resurrection”.

These results were launched by Theos with the claim: “The new Theos Easter research makes uncomfortable reading for those who would claim Britain is, in any meaningful sense, secular.”

Well, now we come to the nub of it, which is Theos’s inability to distinguish secularism from atheism. The survey definitely showed a very strong lurch towards atheism among the British population, but what people do or don’t believe about the supernatural does not necessarily inform their approach to secularism. Some of the most thoughtful and energetic Christians we know are now promoting the idea of a secular society for Britain. Theos, though, goes down the either ignorant or disingenuous road of trying to make out that secularism and atheism are the same thing.

Personally, I’m thrilled that so many Britons are prepared to admit that they’ve abandoned the irrational beliefs that religion demands of them. But I’m equally thrilled that secularism is now becoming a serious topic of conversation in this country. It’s important, though, that we remember that they aren’t the same thing.

Read the poll results in full
Read the Theos analysis of the results

20 March 2008

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