By Slugsie, on April 29th, 2009Browsing through Google News I cam across this story talking about the appointment of a new Head of Religion and Ethics. Now I’ve never heard of Ekklesia, but they claim to be a Think-tank that promotes transformative theological ideas in public life, so I wasn’t expecting much. I have to admit I was pleasantly surprised.
The author does manage to present what to me was a fair and balanced view, and they’re almost calling for a non Christian to fill the post to inject some new vigour into the system.
However, there was one statistic near the end that I just couldn’t ignore:
…and that almost 50 per cent of Christians in the UK are not white.
Huh? That’s excellent news. But not for the reasons the author probably intended.
So I went off and quickly found this article on the BBC that discusses the last UK census (2001) and how it breaks down by ethnicity. The figures show that England is just over 91% white, with only 3 other groups managing to get over 1% (4.4% South Asian, 2.2% Black, and 1.4% mixed race).
Let’s quickly do the maths. If 50% of Christians are not white, then the maximum that that 50% can be as a proportion of the whole English population is just under 9% (i.e. all non whites are Christians, which is patently false). Which means that at most the total percentage of Christians in England is under 18%. Less than 1 in 5! Better put them on the endangered species list. 
More likely though is that the authors source is a bit suspect – but given that they didn’t mention the source it’s hard to judge.
Ah well, the day-dream was nice whilst it lasted.
N.B. In case you think that by just focussing on England rather than Great Britain (which includes Scotland, Northern Ireland, and Wales for those that don’t know the difference), the figures for Scotland and Northern Ireland show even higher percentages of whites (98% and 99% respectively), so using England was a ‘best case’ scenario.
April 29th, 2009 | 
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“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”
If you want to go to hell by not accepting the free gift of salvation, it is your choice.
If you want to live your life in ignorance following a lie, then that too is your choice.
Personally I’ll believe in stuff that I can actually touch and demonstrate and then take my chances.
Jennifer,
I do not particularly think that a threat of eternal punishment will convince non-believers of God’s “eternal love”. Shouldn’t a belief be born of some sort of reasoning as Slugsie speaks of (although some might argue that as a divine body God is beyond human empirical reasoning) rather than a basically violent and hateful threat of punishment and pain which has been used throughout history to subdue people to the whims of leaders who abuse religion? Quoting scripture is hardly convincing especially when it is so underdeveloped by yourself and was written by fallible men who, because of their time were woefully ignorant of the world they lived in and only convinced by the God speaking to them in their head. I think it is great that you are so convinced of Christianity but one of the parts of this faith you subscribe to is to “spread the word of the Lord” rather than threaten people with it.
you dont see the wind but you believe its there because of the effects.
We may not see the wind, but we can feel it, and demonstrate how and why it works with empirical evidence. We can recreate the wind on a small scale quite easily. Thus we have not need to invoke a divine deity to explain any of it.
Iam 54 yearss old, but when I was 16-17 I was going agnostic/atheist but teachings about the Jewish people and the nation of Isreal was a major factor that kept me from going atheist. If the Bible is a fairy tale, then what is the history of the Jewish people in their first 2000 years if Not only that Jesus did not excist but I have had atheist tell me that Abraham&Moses did not excist. Also the Jews had a royalty for 4-500 years of their ancient history, a total of 42 kings from 1050-586 B.C Now we know that royalty excisted in many European, Asian and other peoples throughout the world. No one would disagree on for instance the history of royalty in England or other countries, but would atheist beleive in the 42 kings in the history of the Jewish people? What about the origin of the Hebrew language, did it not come out of the ancient Chaldean language just like French came out of Latin and English from the Anglo-Saxon&11th century Norman French? If the Bible is not part of the history of the Jewish people can any atheist tell me what is their ancient history because I want to know.
I’m not sure I completely understand what you’re saying. Are you suggesting that without the Bible the Jews wouldn’t have a history, and thus not exist? The history of a people is not dependent on being written down in a book. It just is. Additionally, the fact that some people base their lives on the writings of a book does not make that book any more (or less) true/valid.
You entire point seems to be a complete non-sequitur. If you would care to demonstrate how if the Bible hadn’t been written then the Jews wouldn’t have a history then I might be able to address your point. Until then I’m left scratching my head a little.
“Yee Shall Know the Truth and the Truth shall make you Free” (John 8:32)
what is the danger of beleiving it a Greater Being?
Science is soo full of theories especailly when they talk about space.if an atom is soo tiny, then how did they know that it exist and has a nuclues and soo on???
it takes the same faith to beleive in what the soo called sceintists say and to beleive in God.
OK, the abysmal spelling and grammar apart… are you serious?
Pick up a science book. Please.
It takes no faith to believe what the scientists say, because they show their working. You can look at it, see how they came to their conclusions, and thus see if it hangs together. It may not be easy to do, and you might have to spend a few years getting a degree (or higher) to understand the complexities and subtleties. For most of us this is impractical so we have to rely on the expertise of those that have.
Does your God show his working? Has he made his notebook available for peer review? And no, the Bible isn’t his notebook.
What is the danger of believing in a Greater Being? How about the fact that it blinds you to the truth, and leads you to live a life based on a lie? Seems like a crap deal to me.