LONDON, ENGLAND, June 20, 2008: More than half of Britons think Christianity is likely to have disappeared from the country within a century, according to a survey. Research by the Orthodox Jewish organisation Aish found that just over a third of people thought religions like Christianity and Judaism would still be practiced in Britain in 100 years’ time. Although four in 10 people said they would choose to be a member of the Christian religion, almost the same number said they would rather practice no religion at all. Buddhism however, proved more attractive than both Islam and Judaism, and was chosen by nine per cent of those questioned. Aish UK’s executive director Rabbi Naftali Schiff said the results of the YouGov poll of 2,000 people were alarming. “It clearly demonstrates that religion, including Judaism, is becoming unattractive to the British public.
Research published earlier this year suggested that church attendance is declining so fast that the number of regular churchgoers will be fewer than those attending mosques within a generation. Åccording to Religious Trends, an analysis of religious practice in Britain, the huge drop off in attendance means that the Church of England, Catholicism and other denominations will become financially unviable. In contrast, the number of actively religious Muslims is predicted to increase from about one million today to 1.96 million in 2035./phr /