Wednesday, August 21, 2002
Religious Affiliation
I've often wondered if there's been a turn to or away from religion since September 11th. Or have things stayed more or less the same even? There are arguments for both but I wonder what the honest stats are. I figured that wouldn't be easily known but then I've often wondered about religion in general and are people turning away as time progresses? You often read that churches are seeing declining attendence but I've also read the opposite, that people are returning to church. Anyway, went to StatsCan to see what I could find. They have Census data and here's a chart of population by religion for 1981 and 1991 to compare. Most of Canada identify as Catholic at 45% in 1991, with 36% being Protestant. Being an Atheist I'm more interested in the bottom row there, those identifying with no religion. That doesn't mean they're atheists of course but I doubt it was an option on the census. The number identifying with no religion climbed from just under 2 million in 1981 to over 3 million in 1991, a growth of over 5% of overall population. I'm hoping that's a sign that we're headed to world without beliefs in superstition and humanism is the order of the day. Everyone sing along with me now ... Imagine there's no heaven ... It's easy if you try ... no hell below us, above us only skyyyyyy ... c'mon now, you can do it ;o)
I've often wondered if there's been a turn to or away from religion since September 11th. Or have things stayed more or less the same even? There are arguments for both but I wonder what the honest stats are. I figured that wouldn't be easily known but then I've often wondered about religion in general and are people turning away as time progresses? You often read that churches are seeing declining attendence but I've also read the opposite, that people are returning to church. Anyway, went to StatsCan to see what I could find. They have Census data and here's a chart of population by religion for 1981 and 1991 to compare. Most of Canada identify as Catholic at 45% in 1991, with 36% being Protestant. Being an Atheist I'm more interested in the bottom row there, those identifying with no religion. That doesn't mean they're atheists of course but I doubt it was an option on the census. The number identifying with no religion climbed from just under 2 million in 1981 to over 3 million in 1991, a growth of over 5% of overall population. I'm hoping that's a sign that we're headed to world without beliefs in superstition and humanism is the order of the day. Everyone sing along with me now ... Imagine there's no heaven ... It's easy if you try ... no hell below us, above us only skyyyyyy ... c'mon now, you can do it ;o)
