Exactly what percentage of the population is "christian"?

More surveys
This time from 2013 so more up to date then any of the 2010/2011 data if you believe it

http://www.todayfm.com/thirtysomethings

12% of 30 somethings in Ireland go to mass weekly, 6% go monthly and 50% go occasionally (births, deaths, marriages and the like), this is despite the fact that more then half (looks to be maybe 55-60% claim to be catholic.

Given this is more recent data and doesn't include 60 year old plus people. I'd see it as far more relevant to the future of the catholic faith in Ireland....it does not paint a pretty picture

Again, sticking with 2013 data. If we go younger then 30 and go to college students we can see that again 60% consider themselves catholic with the next biggest group being atheists at 20%

http://www.irishtimes.com/news/social-affairs/religion-and-beliefs/major-disconnect-between-irish-students-and-catholic-church-a-random-poll-has-found-1.1497605

It also found that while 61.5 per cent of Catholic students took Communion, just 32.2 per cent of them believed it to be the body and blood of Christ. Of those students who did follow a religion, 45.2 per cent did so because of their parents’ influence.

However, 40 per cent of respondents didn’t want their children to follow the same religion they were brought up with. Only 13.7 per cent followed a religion due to a strong faith.

So out of 60% of Catholics only 13.7% actually had a strong faith (I suppose we can assume atleast some of them might went to mass? :pac:).

45% of the Catholics only are Catholics because their parents made them be, however it looks like thats where it'll end for almost half of the catholic students because 40% of the Catholics don't want their children to follow the catholic faith.

Oh and a whopping 83.5% of the students want abortion in Ireland, so overall a massive disconnect between younger people and the RCC in Ireland in respect of religious teachings (eating Jebus) and church views on abortion.

Overall it paints a very bad future for the catholic church in Ireland, the numbers will only continue to drop as the years go by.

Now of course there will be those that may dispute this because they feel threatened, but the numbers speak for themselves...they have consistently dropped since the 1970's (the RCC own mass attendance numbers back this fully) and they are not showing any sign of stopping yet.

Some users on this forum may for some very weird reason champion the high census numbers for people that apparently tick the catholic box. However, they have to ask themselves what good is this to the catholic church if nobody goes to mass anymore or believes in the eating jebus stuff? What exactly are you so proud of?

Its worth feck all to the church as the numbers continue to drop as they'll get less money into their pockets and churchs will continue to close around the country. So you can claim you have Catholics but you won't have anywhere for them to meet or worship their god anymore (even if they wanted to go :pac:)

Remember, if you said in the 70's that churchs would close around Ireland due to lack of numbers the priests etc would have laughed at you...but yet here we are. The hard facts of the situation.

Brown Bomber wrote: »

I wouldn't get too excited if I were you. If decades of Soviet rule couldn't kill off religion and murderous atheists like Elias Calles couldn't literally kill off religious people I don't think a literally "random survey" carried out by a polling company I've never heard of is going to change the world.

Why don't you just godwin yourself and get it over and done with?
:rolleyes:

Ireland doesn't have some government trying to change people's views and tell people what to do.

People have become better educated and have realised the con, its natural progression and people have done it all by themselves. People used their free will.

If you want to make a far more appropriate comparison then I suggest you look at the catholic faith in the Netherlands. The catholic faith represented 40% of the population in the country in the 1970's making it the largest religion by far.

It has since dropped to 29% in 2011 and is still dropping, even though it has 29% only 1.2% attend mass each week. This is next to useless for the RCC and the catholic church is in crisis mode over it.

The closure of church's and the drop of religion in the Netherlands is such a issue that they even bring it up during the boat tours in Amsterdam as they talk about converting the church's to other uses.

So while you can claim this and that about Ireland, its more likely Ireland will go the way of the Netherlands (and in some respects already has) then go the way of some dictatorship run country.,

weisses wrote: »

With so much focus on percentage points and conclusions drawn from it, What do people think about the definition that over 90% of Irish people is religious ... Just in a broader sense ?

http://atheism.about.com/od/religiondefinition/a/definition.htm

I think perhaps that percentage have some sort of belief, god or gods, an afterlife, having their dead relatives look after them etc.

However do they believe a religion occupy's an important place in their life?. We know from previous surveys that 42% of people answered no to this very question.

We also know although people may believe in a god and claim to be part of a religion that a majority have little interest in practicing it on a weekly basis.

Bottom line is if people believe rocks are inhabited by spirits, fairy's or whatever and that gets them through life then whatever works for them, are the religious, no....are they spiritual. yes.

I've no problem with anyone believing the above, as long as they don't expect their beliefs to dictate what rights other people have and how people are educated, treated medically in this country or others etc.