Last summer I was listening to a podcast (can't remember which one) and it was mentioned that 8% of Irish Catholics don't believe in God. I assumed I misheard things as that sounds completely crazy to me, but I made a note to look it up later and then forgot about it until I found the note earlier this week. After a quick google search, I arrived at the following news story which confirms that 8% of Irish Catholics do not believe in God.
The article references a survey and has a ton of interesting numbers. In addition to 8% actually being atheists, 15% "do not believe that Jesus is the son of God", so they are not Christians. I find it strange that these people even call themselves catholic. I'm sure it is for the social aspect, in the same way that many Jews are culturally Jewish but don't really believe any of the supernatural stuff. I wonder what labels they would find acceptable, culturally catholic, catholic atheist? Would they be offended by such labels? It's a shame the article didn't go into more detail on this, I would love to see an in depth interview with one of these people.
I've heard that in Ireland, calling oneself "Catholic" or "Protestant", isn't necessarily in and of itself a reference to their religious beliefs (though people identifying themselves that way do belong to that religious group), it's more of a reference to one's culture/ancestral history and political views.
ReplyDeleteI think you are right, it's really the only thing I can think of that makes any sense. Of course I'm sure the Vatican will claim all of those people as loyal followers.
DeleteI think atheism is growing all over the world because of not having the right preaching of Jesus. We people really don't follow the scriptures what Jesus mentioned. And sometimes I imagine the majority of world is gonna be Atheist.
ReplyDeleteI hope you are right that the majority of the world will be atheist soon. Although it seems there is a long way to go.
DeleteAs to people not following the scriptures, I tend to agree, and I think the world is a better place for it.