The Shotgun Blog
« I gotta have more sleigh bells | Main | Michael Ignatieff comments on foreign ownership »
Sunday, April 12, 2009
Fewer Canadians believe in God: Poll
Ipsos Reid is reporting that as Christians mark the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ this Easter weekend, a new poll finds fewer Canadians believe in God.
Here are the numbers:
Six in ten (58%) Canadians “definitely believe in God”, down from 64% who said the same in 2003. Further, 13% of Canadians indicate that “sometimes they do, sometimes they don't” believe in God, statistically unchanged (down 1 point) from six years ago.
Posted by Matthew Johnston
Posted by westernstandard on April 12, 2009 | Permalink
Comments
An invisible man in the sky flies around and if you hope really, really hard, grants miracles.
This gets harder and harder to believe, to be honest.
Christianity has been vital in history as a philosophy leading to the institutions of commerce, law, science and democracy.
But its relevance in contemporary reality is fading fast.
Posted by: epsilon | 2009-04-12 8:49:29 PM
Is it any surprise when a supposedly conservative PM betrays and tosses overboard all conservative values, principles and ideals? Not much left to believe in, eh?
Posted by: Werner Patels | 2009-04-12 9:24:51 PM
Re: epsilon's comment "Christianity has been vital...as a philosophy..."
Ah, maybe not. Christianity is not a philosophy; it's a "relationship."
And miracles don't happen by squeezing your eyes shut and hoping. Miracles happen because one follows "the system" that's outlined in the Bible. It takes effort and a great deal of discipline to work a miracle.
Judging by your eagerness to disparage a topic in which your knowledge would fill a gnat's navel and still leave room for a seseme seed,it appears that you are an enemy of both qualities. Funny how the people that know the least about a subject are always so willing to jump up and prove it!
If you want to remain hooked into the Babylonian system that rules the world, good on you. But have the decency to show some respect to those of us who choose differently.
Or are you one of those people always preaching about "tolerance," but never showing any to those who believe differently from you?
Posted by: Judith Pankewitz | 2009-04-12 9:25:48 PM
The polls can say what they like. At my church I have to arrive ten to fifteen minutes before Mass starts to assure myself of a seat. And I haven't been to many Catholic churches where it was otherwise.
Posted by: Shane Matthews | 2009-04-12 10:20:08 PM
Don't be too quick to sound the funeral dirge of religion, Epsi. The baby boomers are godless, true. But they are not the harbingers of the future they seem to think they are. They're more like a one-off, an aberration, a pothole in the road of progress.
Posted by: Shane Matthews | 2009-04-12 10:22:09 PM
Baby boomers are not harbingers of the future, but their kids are. And they don't believe an invisible man in the sky and a book full of fairy tales have the answers anymore than politicians (witness declining voting rates), the media (witness bankrupt newspapers/tv stations) or unions or banks or any other institution.
What we understand is that the path to salvation lies in the individual and through directed collaborative efforts.
Fuck religion. It has brought us nothing but war and a polluted planet.
Epsi
Posted by: epsilon | 2009-04-12 10:45:13 PM
Ontarians don't believe in God because that would mean there is a higher power than themselves. Ain't gonna happen.
Posted by: Zebulon Pike | 2009-04-12 10:57:05 PM
Shane, you can't be serious. You honestly think that this move away from religion is temporary? Quite a naive perspective, in my opinion.
Z.P., very true. Ontario is the centre of the universe, after all.
Posted by: Alex T. | 2009-04-12 11:25:51 PM
When societies become arrogant, materialist, and spoiled they don't last long...and neither do the people in them.
http://canadashrugged.freeblogit.com/
Posted by: Jeff | 2009-04-13 1:37:33 AM
Fuck religion. It has brought us nothing but war and a polluted planet. - Unlike, say, crass materialism, overconsumption, and greed.
Posted by: Shane Matthews | 2009-04-13 6:30:34 AM
Actually, Alex, empty churches were a problem observed in the latter half of the 19th century. The church got over that, too. Man is a creature of faith; occasionally it wavers, but before too long he realizes he's missing something important.
Honestly, are you narcissistic enough to believe that the history of society since you were born is the only history that counts?
Posted by: Shane Matthews | 2009-04-13 6:32:31 AM
Even if people don't believe in God He still believes in us.
Posted by: DrGreenthumb | 2009-04-13 7:02:46 AM
Whatever your belief is...It is important to believe in something..whatever it may be. It is about trusting life and doing your best to achieve what is truly important to you. Goals are good but intentions are even better..
Posted by: carol stanley | 2009-04-13 7:24:13 AM
And deeds are best of all, Carol.
Posted by: Shane Matthews | 2009-04-13 10:24:24 AM
Shane
Regarding full churches, have you been to Montreal lately? I was there a couple of years ago and was amazed at the beautiful empty cathedrals. They seem to have become tourist attractions.
As an atheist, I value Christians and Jews as necessary in the development of, and now, the defense of Western civilization given the omnipresent jihad.
Posted by: John Chittick | 2009-04-13 10:48:32 AM
I would hope that those Ipsos Reid numbers are not accurate. In the U.S., we have had magazines(like Time and Newsweek) calling religion in America dead since 1966. Newsweek used a twisted Pew Research poll to say that only 76% of Americans were christians. One mistake was that they forgot to include the 6 million Mormons that live in America. Even this warped poll put atheist, agnostics, and no answers at under 20%. Other recent polls have put Christians at 81-82%(including Mormons) of the population and Jews at another 2%. Another 10% or so was either another religion(Muslim, hindu, etc.)or simply spiritual. In other words, no answers, agnostics or atheists were listed as around 7%-8%. About 40% of Americans attend church weekly. A recent Rasmussen Reports poll showed that Americans believe 79%-10% that Jesus rose from the dead and that 82%-10% that Jesus was the son of God. Secularists are pointing to the election of Obama, the fact that abortion remains legal(though most Americans favor tight restrictions) and that school prayer is not allowed(although over 75% of Americans want it in public schools) as a sign that religion is losing influence here. Unfortunately, for them, most polls say otherwise. Just watch in 2010 to see how the religious right does. THe anti-religion elitist mock us down here but they can't win! I hope that religious Canadians are also eventually triumphant!
Posted by: Jake | 2009-04-13 11:30:35 AM
All churches are empty most of the day, six days a week, John. In any case, Québec has declined in far more ways than religiosity since the Quiet Revolution. Bankrupt government, economically depressed, rampant abortion, declining population; it's perhaps North America's best example of everything that went wrong in the Sixties. Bring back Maurice Duplessis. I'd rather have a corrupt thug who can make things work than a starry-eyed flower child who lets it all fall apart in the name of liberté, egalité, et fraternité, and threatens secession besides.
Posted by: Shane Matthews | 2009-04-13 11:34:52 AM
You Christian conservatives are going to have to be nicer to Dr. Green Thumb now that he has come out in defence of the existence of God. :-)
Posted by: Matthew Johnston | 2009-04-13 1:23:09 PM
I have been in the presence of God, it would be pretty foolish of me to deny Him. All of you will believe in Him when the time comes.
Posted by: DrGreenthumb | 2009-04-13 2:27:04 PM
My dad used to be a strong agnostic. He(like epsilon) used to believe that religion was an outdated concept. Faith was contrary to his carreer as a man of science. However, he has now returned to his religion and feels a serene peace(and calm) that previously alluded him. I am an educated man. I went to a college where many of the professors were left-wing secularists. I came in a conservative and left just as right-wing(try being a conservative in Boston). I was a believer and my faith was reaffirmed. My successes in life are the product of good parents(who gave me good morals), brains, and the blessing of god. My life would have a hole in it without this mix.
Epsilon, I think that it is important that you remember that wars have also been started by nonbelievers. Communism produced murderers such as Lenin, Stalin, Mao, Pol Pot, and Ho Chi Minh(yes, he was both a murderer and dictator who sold out other vietnamese nationalists to the French during the Indo-China War 1946-1954). Hitler was both anti-christian and anti-semitic and his record speaks for itself. Saddam Hussein and his Baath Party were originally anti-religion though after the Gulf War they shifted gears. In addition, I would like to throw the current Spanish prime minister Zapatero into the mix. He hasn't started any wars yet. However, he is staunchly anti-religion and has done everything possible to push a secular anti-catholic agenda in his country. He has made a mandatory pro-gay civics class a requirement in schools and prevented parents from opting out. He also has pushed gay marriage, is removing abortion restrictions(making it almost like Canadian law), and pushed for making anti-gay statements by public officials subject to prosecution. All this and he still had time to pass a civil rights law for gorillas(granting them some legal rights).
Posted by: David | 2009-04-13 3:36:37 PM
Most wars have been started by nonbelievers, David. Or at least by professed believers who didn't take their beliefs much to heart. War is never about religion; the old standbys, land and power, are pretty much the whole deal. They're also often used to divert the attention of a restive populace from problems at home. Religion just offers a convenient hook of respectability on which to hang what might otherwise be just another dubious foreign adventure.
Posted by: Shane Matthews | 2009-04-13 3:46:39 PM
I find it really interesting that a decline in religion is happening at the same time as this.
I don't want to read too much into it, it's just interesting.
Posted by: Janet | 2009-04-13 9:33:28 PM
Interesting, Janet.
Posted by: Matthew Johnston | 2009-04-13 9:52:13 PM
Christianity is down but not quite out in Canada. Don't write it off, I feel that the worm might just turn. In 1990, gun control was a big issue in both Canada and the U.S. Polls showed over 40% support in the U.S. and 73% support in Canada for banning private ownership of handguns. Support for other gun control measures also polled highly. Now, gun control is in bad shape in America and greatly weakened in Canada. Amazing how the public can turn when presented with facts!
Posted by: Jack | 2009-04-13 10:23:25 PM
Interesting, but not surprising, Janet.
Few young people care to be too much like their parents. The baby boomers know that well--they just can't understand why today's young can't make an exception in their case because they're, like, totally groovy, man.
Posted by: Shane Matthews | 2009-04-13 10:46:48 PM
There are three ways to believe in God:
1) The order in nature, the perfectly and very intricately functioning anatomies and physiologies of the countless species of life, can not have come into existence as a result of co-incidents. To expect this would be like tossing a coin a trillion times and expecting the same side will come every time. The superior power, the superior wisdom that lie behind this perfect order, we call God.
2) We experience small and big miracles in our lives, which without such a superior power, could not have happened.
3) Prophets and books who have been sent with miracles (so people should believe they were the prophets and books of God) are also proofs of God.
---
From "SMALL MIRACLES" by Askin Ozcan
ISBN 1598001000 (Outskirts Press)
http://www.outskirtspress.com/smallmiracles
http://www.xlibris.com/AskinOzcan.html
Posted by: askin | 2009-04-14 2:06:40 AM
The comments to this entry are closed.