Freedom of Religion

Posted on October 3, 2010 by Clive D. Field

It is ten years since the Human Rights Act entered the statute books. To commemorate the anniversary, the campaigning organization Liberty has commissioned ComRes to undertake a poll of public attitudes to human rights. Fieldwork was conducted by telephone between 24 and 26 September 2010 among a sample of 1,000 adults aged 18 and over. The results of this survey appear at:

http://www.comres.co.uk/libertyhractpolloct10.aspx

Respondents were asked about the importance of particular rights in modern Britain. 85% said that it was vital or important to protect freedom of thought, conscience and religion, against 6% who deemed it unnecessary (including, surprisingly, 12% of 18-24 year olds). The highest level of support (90%) was found among those aged 45-54 and the AB socio-economic group.

However, freedom of thought, conscience and religion was not as highly valued as the right to a fair trial (95%), respect for privacy, family life and the home (94%), the protection of property (94%), and the right not to be tortured or degraded (91%). In terms of being vital or important, it was somewhat more prized than freedom of speech, protest and association (84%) and the right not to be detained without reason (81%).

The problem with this survey is that interviewees were not asked to prioritize, or choose between, individual freedoms. From this perspective, it is instructive to look at a Pew Global study in April-May 2007 which asked its sample of Britons which freedom mattered most to them in their personal lives. Even combining first and second choices, only 18% elected for freedom to practice their religion, a long way behind freedom to say whatever they wanted in public (40%), freedom from hunger and poverty (68%), and freedom from crime and violence (71%).

People also have qualified views about the importance of protecting religious freedoms in practice. In the 2008-09 Citizenship Survey of England and Wales 26% actually criticized the Government for doing too much to protect the rights of different religions, with 39% saying it was doing the correct amount and 27% too little. Those aged 16-24 (34%) and UK-born Asians and blacks, Muslims and black Caribbean Christians (more than two-fifths in each case) were most likely to contend that Government was not doing enough.

Churchgoing Christians are also becoming concerned that their rights are being undermined by Government policies and judgments in test legal cases. In a ComRes poll of them in December 2009-January 2010 70% agreed that the Human Rights Act’s protection for freedom of thought, conscience and religion needed more active support from politicians. 44% claimed to know somebody who had been discriminated against on the basis of religion.

Two other ComRes surveys from February 2010, in this instance among the general public, confirmed that the picture on the ground was not as rosy as could be wished. One found that 32% thought that religious freedoms in Britain had been restricted over the past ten years, the other that 44% detected Britain was becoming less tolerant of religion.

Of course, in reality, attitudes in these matters are shaped by personal prejudices and day-to-day experiences. Thus, in the 2008 British Social Attitudes Survey 69% agreed that we should respect all religions but 13% disagreed. More worryingly, only one-half wanted all religious groups in Britain to be accorded equal rights and 23% were opposed. Islamophobia doubtless accounts for many of these reservations.

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A Pot-Pourri of Beliefs

Posted on October 2, 2010 by Clive D. Field

Opinion pollsters Populus have recently released the results of an online survey of attitudes to topical questions, including a number of religious interest. Fieldwork was conducted between 20 and 23 August 2010 among a representative sample of 1,037 adult Britons aged 18 and over.

In the realm of what might be termed traditional beliefs, only 19% of Britons now accept the biblical account that God created the earth in six days and rested on the seventh. 55% think this to be untrue, while 25% are undecided. The biggest demographic difference is between men and women, 63% and 48% respectively disbelieving the Bible story.

Conversely, 67% of adults take a Darwinian line in thinking human beings to have evolved from apes. Just 14% consider this statement untrue, with 18% uncertain. Notable here are variations by socio-economic group, with 73% of ABs being evolutionists against 61% of DEs.

A minority (37%) now believe in life after death. This is a lower proportion than in most British polls on the subject since the Second World War, although not completely unprecedented (four surveys in the 1970s returned between 35% and 37%). See the time series at:

http://www.brin.ac.uk/figures/documents/afterlife.xls

A further 26% deny the existence of an afterlife and 37% are unclear. Women (44%) believe more than men (29%). Whereas 26% more women believe than disbelieve, for men there is a net 6% disbelief. Other groups registering large net belief figures are the 25-34s (+19%), the 45-54s (+17%), the over-65s (+14%) and the DEs (+25%).

As for alternative beliefs, opinions are less clear-cut. For example, 39% think that some people have genuine psychic powers and can foresee the future, but 32% disagree and 29% do not know. Women (50%) are almost twice as likely to believe in psychic powers as men (28%). Other highs are recorded among the middle-aged and the DEs.

Asked whether unidentified flying objects (UFOs) have visited the earth from other planets, 31% say this is the case, 31% that it is not so, with 38% unsure. Those aged 18-24 are particular disbelievers (45%, against 23% thinking the statement to be true).

As for time travel, 18% believe this to be possible, 49% impossible and 33% cannot say. 18-24s (31%) are most likely to accept the possibility, three times as many as among the over-65s (10%).

This is a somewhat disparate set of questions, and it is hard to draw very firm conclusions from them. Perhaps one of the most significant features is the large number of don’t knows, suggesting that people often struggle to engage with or comprehend the supernatural and transcendental, or perhaps simply do not care. Among those with firmer views, on the evidence here, Christian orthodoxy is more likely to be rejected than accepted.

For the full data tables from this survey, with breaks by gender, age, socio-economic group and region, see:

http://populuslimited.com/uploads/download_pdf-230810-Populus-Populus-poll—topical-questions.pdf

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Halloween

Posted on October 1, 2010 by Clive D. Field

Halloween this year falls on Sunday, 31 October. The festival is a curious hybrid of paganism and a Christian feast of the dead, but mainly the former. As Ronald Hutton has shown in chapter 37 of his The Stations of the Sun (Oxford University Press, 1996), its celebration was relatively muted in Great Britain until the latter half of the twentieth century when successively Irish and American influences brought it more to the fore.

Halloween has now been effectively hijacked by the retail industry, which is striving hard to develop a Halloween seasonal market and thus indirectly to boost observance of Halloween by Britons. Asda led the way, learning from Walmart (its American parent company), but all the other British supermarkets have followed suit.

Back in 2001, the market was only worth £12 million in this country, according to Planet Retail. It increased tenfold to £120 million by 2006 and then grew to £195 million in 2008 and £235 million in 2009, with a forecast of £280 million in 2010. Nielsen puts its value even higher, at nearer £300 million. Halloween has now become the third biggest retail event in the seasonal calendar after Christmas and Easter.

Leading the quest for even bigger revenues this year is Tesco. It has announced that it alone is expecting to sell £55 million of Halloween-related goods, including 1.4 million pumpkins, 2 million toffee apples, 1.5 million fancy dress costumes and 1 million copies of an exclusive film with Dreamworks, Monsters vs Aliens: Mutant Pumpkins from Outer Space. Tesco’s Halloween sales have almost trebled since 2005.

Tesco’s expected Halloween turnover of £55 million contrasts with its £20 million for Father’s Day, £28 million for Valentine’s Day, £37 million for Mother’s Day, £110 million for Easter and £320 million for Christmas.

Food manufacturers are all jumping on the bandwagon, too. For instance, Tango is giving its soft drink bottles and cans a zombie make-over, Cadbury is launching Screme Eggs and Cauldron’s Mix sweets, while Premier Foods is introducing Mr Kipling Fiendish Fancies and Mr Kipling Devil Slices.

Manufacturers and retailers would doubtless claim merely to be responding to customer demand for a new fun-filled festival for family and friends. But is this true? Unfortunately, the only British national survey which appears to exist on the subject of Halloween was conducted by Angus Reid Public Opinion on 28-30 October 2009, among an online sample of 2,004 adults.

On that occasion just 14% of Britons claimed always to celebrate Halloween (compared with 41% of Americans and Canadians). 41% said that they never celebrated it and 45% sometimes did. 55% intended to carry out no Halloween-related activities during the 2009 weekend (against 26% in Canada and 14% in the USA), handing out sweets to trick-or-treaters being the commonest activity.

While 45% of Britons in 2009 associated Halloween with fun, 35% regarded it as overrated. 30% saw it as harmless, but for 31% it had connotations with paganism and for 40% with witchcraft.

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