Scotland’s religious collapse

Last week, I had a drink with a Catholic priest friend who works with young people in custody. Inevitably, our talk turned to how radically unchurched they are – not badly disposed to Christianity, just unfamiliar with much of the doctrine and almost all the forms of worship, even though many had a Catholic granny or a non-practising parent. He mused over the startling speed of the secularisation of society. ‘Protestantism has collapsed,’ he said, and not in any triumphalist spirit.

And so it has turned out in Scotland. The latest census, published last month, shows that for the first time a majority of Scots identify as ‘no religion’ whatsoever. This makes Scotland that bit more secular than England and Wales, which are majority non-Christian but not majority non-religious. The Church of Scotland, which is Presbyterian, has lost a million members since 2000. Just a fifth of Scots identify with it; it’s down 35 per cent in a decade, which, in a population of about five and a half million, is quite something.

The Catholic numbers are also down in the same census by more than 117,000 in the past decade; they’re now 13.3 per cent of the population. But the trajectory of the present trend is interesting. Sara Parvis, a lecturer in Church history at the University of Edinburgh, who analysed the census, observed: ‘A couple of things to note, and one is really staggering, at least to me. First, it’s only Scottish men who are majority non-religious – a majority of Scottish women (albeit only 51 per cent) did say they have a religion, whether or not they practise it. But secondly, if you look at the detail of the census broken down by age, sex and religion – and this I find astonishing – the majority religion among under-45s of both sexes in Scotland is now Catholicism.’

Most popular

Jim Lawley

There’s one place in Spain that hasn’t turned against tourists

Pavis also predicts: ‘The C of S will remain the brokers of intellectual Christianity in Scotland for some ten to 20 years. They have just [at the General Assembly last month] reaffirmed their commitment to -theological training at degree level.’ So, Church of Scotland ministers will continue to have a formal religious formation, which is good, but the Presbyterian population itself is in freefall.

It’s not to say Scots are necessarily done with God. ‘It’s worth noting,’ she says, ‘that the Scottish census only asked “What religion, religious denomination or body do you belong to?”, which doesn’t preclude beliefs of all sorts – it was a question about belonging to a religious organisation.’

And that’s what the sociologist of religion Professor Stephen Bullivant at St Mary’s Twickenham has noted. He studies British ‘nones’ – people of no religion. ‘All kinds of nones believe all kinds of stuff,’ he says. Or as G.K. Chesterton may have put it: ‘When men stop believing in God they don’t believe in nothing; they believe in anything.’ Prof Bullivant’s report on nones ten years ago is still valid. It showed that 43 per cent of British nones described themselves as ‘not at all religious’, which means a little over half are, at least a bit. Three-quarters never attend a religious service; 76 per cent never pray. Which means about a quarter do pray and do sometimes go to church.

My priest friend says the same thing. ‘I think if the polls were to ask, “Do you ever pray?” or “Have you ever prayed?” then you’d get a high positive response. Generally, people who say that they are agnostic mean they don’t belong to any organised religious group, not that they don’t believe in or have ruled out “what all men call God”. Most people believe in or at least want to believe in some form of afterlife… With the young men in the prison, I find that many of them do pray. Well, it is hardly surprising if you are facing a judge and possible or even certain conviction and sentencing. Quite a number have the capacity to practise a religion at some level, but most have not been catechised. Quite often I have to teach them to bless themselves.’

Pity they don’t go to church. Because religious observance is good for us – which is not quite the same as religious belief. A raft of academic studies shows it makes you less prone to depression, more receptive to treatment, happier. According to Patricia Casey, professor of psychiatry at University College Dublin, the mental health benefits of practising a religion are significant, over and above what you’d expect from social activity generally. The Pew Research Centre suggested five years ago that Americans who go to church tend to live longer. Lord Rees, the Astronomer Royal, last week said he doesn’t believe in Christianity but likes going to church. He’s on to something.