Category Archives: Survey news

‘Religious Swearwords’

The ancient common law offences of blasphemy and blasphemous libel, which made it illegal to insult Christianity, were abolished two and a half years ago in England and Wales by Section 79 of the Criminal Justice and Immigration Act 2008. … Continue reading

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ET

It seems a fair bet that Steven Spielberg’s blockbuster 1982 film ET will be on the television schedules this Christmas, but how many of us actually believe in extra-terrestrials? Some answers to the question can be found in a newly-released … Continue reading

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Christmas Present

Further to our recent post on the religious meaning of Christmas in contemporary Britain, as recorded by GfK NOP/The Children’s Society (http://www.brin.ac.uk/news/?p=744), additional insights are provided in a poll released by the theological think-tank Theos on 8 December. The study … Continue reading

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Religious Meaning of Christmas

A new poll, published by The Children’s Society on 1 December, suggests that the religious side of Christmas is struggling to get a hearing as Britons prepare for the festive season. The survey was conducted online by GfK NOP among a … Continue reading

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YouGov’s Advent Calendar

Last Sunday, 28 November, marked the start of Advent and thus the beginning of the ecclesiastical year in Western Christianity. Derived from the Latin Adventus, meaning coming, Advent has for Christians traditionally been a penitential season leading up to the … Continue reading

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Dunfermline Presbytery Community Survey

Other than statistics regularly collected by the various Christian denominations, there is only limited national data about religion in Scotland in very recent years. One has to go back to sources such as the 2001 civil census, the religion module … Continue reading

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Church and (Big) Society

We hear a lot about David Cameron’s ‘Big Society’ proposal these days. Not unnaturally, faith organizations are keen to engage with it and to demonstrate the ways in which they are already involved with local communities. In September 2010, over … Continue reading

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Psychological Type and Biblical Interpretation

Much important work in the field of religious statistics has been undertaken by psychologists of religion. In general, it is relatively little-known outside the immediate discipline of psychology, partly, perhaps, because it tends to be based upon specialized samples rather … Continue reading

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Christmas Cards

More than one in three (36%) of us Brits will be sending fewer Christmas cards this year than we did five years ago, new online research from Oxfam reveals today. This equates to 141 million fewer cards in 2010 than … Continue reading

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Religious Archives

The origins of record-keeping in this country are primarily religious, rather than secular. The state was a remarkably late entrant on the scene. Thus, until well into the nineteenth century, the registration of births, marriages and deaths and the proving … Continue reading

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