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AngryLiberal
A-cute schizophrenic
Joined: 04 Nov 2006
Posts: 1465
Location: Tenerife, Canary Islands
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 Posted: Sun Apr 08, 2007 10:46 pm Post subject: Only 1 in 10 attend church regularly. |
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| Quote: | One in 10 people in the UK attends church every week and one in seven goes once a month, according to research.
Christian charity Tearfund's survey of 7,000 people puts the UK among Europe's four least observant countries.
Two-thirds of those polled had not been to church in the last year, except for baptisms, weddings or funerals - but 53% identified themselves as Christian.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/6520463.stm |
Evidence indeed that Britain is growing increasingly secular:
| Tearfund Report: Churchgoing in the UK wrote: | Christianity is still the predominant faith in the UK with over half (53%) or 26.2 million adults
claiming to be Christian; while other faiths account for 6%. So, three out of five people in the
population are affiliated with faith and the remainder claim to have no religion (39%).
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/shared/bsp/hi/pdfs/03_04_07_tearfundchurch.pdf
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Whilst a little over half of people in the UK claim to be Christian. Almost 40% of people in the UK claim to have no religion! This compared to 75% who claimed to be Christian in the last census during 2001.
Thoughts???
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David
This post is dedicated to those who lost their lives in the Star Wars films: Darth Vader, Darth Maul, Padme, Obi Wan, Yoda, Stormtrooper #5, Qui Gon, Dak, Biggs, Stormtrooper #22, Palpatine. Everyone on the Death Stars and sadly not Jar Jar Binks. |
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Goodbrit
Inmate of the Asylum
Joined: 05 Nov 2006
Posts: 859
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| Posted: Mon Apr 09, 2007 2:38 pm Post subject: |
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its hardly new information-such `doom and gloom` predictions for the church arise all the time, generally to be followed by surveys which prove something very different: besides, i prefer the census records, which actually survey millions rather than surveys carried out by exceptionally small numbers of people-7000 ppl? out of 61 million.........the only relevant surveys are those which survey millions(ie, census records), not surveys which question slightly less than 0.1 percent of the population.
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Manchester, when death isnt enougth |
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AngryLiberal
A-cute schizophrenic
Joined: 04 Nov 2006
Posts: 1465
Location: Tenerife, Canary Islands
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| Posted: Mon Apr 09, 2007 9:00 pm Post subject: |
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| Goodbrit wrote: | | its hardly new information-such `doom and gloom` predictions for the church arise all the time, generally to be followed by surveys which prove something very different: besides, i prefer the census records, which actually survey millions rather than surveys carried out by exceptionally small numbers of people-7000 ppl? out of 61 million.........the only relevant surveys are those which survey millions(ie, census records), not surveys which question slightly less than 0.1 percent of the population. |
You'd be hard pressed to find anyone who believes a random sample of 7,000 people is not representative. The findings are accurate within +/-1.2% of the stated figures. That would be the logical confidence interval attached to the survey.
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David
This post is dedicated to those who lost their lives in the Star Wars films: Darth Vader, Darth Maul, Padme, Obi Wan, Yoda, Stormtrooper #5, Qui Gon, Dak, Biggs, Stormtrooper #22, Palpatine. Everyone on the Death Stars and sadly not Jar Jar Binks. |
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Goodbrit
Inmate of the Asylum
Joined: 05 Nov 2006
Posts: 859
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| Posted: Mon Apr 09, 2007 10:04 pm Post subject: |
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| AngryLiberal wrote: | | Goodbrit wrote: | | its hardly new information-such `doom and gloom` predictions for the church arise all the time, generally to be followed by surveys which prove something very different: besides, i prefer the census records, which actually survey millions rather than surveys carried out by exceptionally small numbers of people-7000 ppl? out of 61 million.........the only relevant surveys are those which survey millions(ie, census records), not surveys which question slightly less than 0.1 percent of the population. |
You'd be hard pressed to find anyone who believes a random sample of 7,000 people is not representative. The findings are accurate within +/-1.2% of the stated figures. That would be the logical confidence interval attached to the survey. |
i just dont see how a survey of just over 0.1 percent of the populace reveals the beliefs of soety at large-for example where and when was the survey carried out-its obvious that at certain tmes of year, ppl will feel more or less spiritual or religious, or at times when certain events have occured, peoples beliefs are different-thats one of the problems with faith-people struggle,and ppls intensity of faith waver and fluctuate.
Its also the case that people of certain economic, educational and socail conditions have different levels of faith born out of experience-now the chruch attendence figures are hard to dispute-im a christian and i dont go to church, but the other issues i would dispute.
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Manchester, when death isnt enougth |
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AngryLiberal
A-cute schizophrenic
Joined: 04 Nov 2006
Posts: 1465
Location: Tenerife, Canary Islands
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| Posted: Mon Apr 09, 2007 10:16 pm Post subject: |
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| GoodBrit wrote: | | i just dont see how a survey of just over 0.1 percent of the populace reveals the beliefs of soety at large |
Go away study statistics then you might understand.
You are falling into the tap of Diamond Lil style of unsubstantiated argument.
Personal Ignorance is not a solid basis for an argument. Just because you don't understand how something is so doesn't make it wrong!
I would also point out that these statistics were the findings of a Christian Group!
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David
This post is dedicated to those who lost their lives in the Star Wars films: Darth Vader, Darth Maul, Padme, Obi Wan, Yoda, Stormtrooper #5, Qui Gon, Dak, Biggs, Stormtrooper #22, Palpatine. Everyone on the Death Stars and sadly not Jar Jar Binks. |
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Goodbrit
Inmate of the Asylum
Joined: 05 Nov 2006
Posts: 859
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| Posted: Mon Apr 09, 2007 10:22 pm Post subject: |
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| AngryLiberal wrote: | | GoodBrit wrote: | | i just dont see how a survey of just over 0.1 percent of the populace reveals the beliefs of soety at large |
Go away study statistics then you might understand.
You are falling into the tap of Diamond Lil style of unsubstantiated argument.
Personal Ignorance is not a solid basis for an argument. Just because you don't understand how something is so doesn't make it wrong! |
ouch, that Lil thing hurt,but seriously, as i cant openthe link you provided (if icould i mayhave my answers)-but i ask again-HOW can 7000 people, the location etc of which i dont know(it could be mentioned in the link you posted, but its not working), represent over 60 million people:
And anyway, jsut because you know how something works doesnt make it 100 percent right-i dont dispute that the process of statistical analysis, bieng long established is broadly a right and proper way to gague opinions, but on this count i seriously doubt that the results indicate the opinions of an entire society.
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Manchester, when death isnt enougth |
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AngryLiberal
A-cute schizophrenic
Joined: 04 Nov 2006
Posts: 1465
Location: Tenerife, Canary Islands
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| Posted: Tue Apr 10, 2007 11:04 am Post subject: |
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| Goodbrit wrote: | | AngryLiberal wrote: | | GoodBrit wrote: | | i just dont see how a survey of just over 0.1 percent of the populace reveals the beliefs of soety at large |
Go away study statistics then you might understand.
You are falling into the tap of Diamond Lil style of unsubstantiated argument.
Personal Ignorance is not a solid basis for an argument. Just because you don't understand how something is so doesn't make it wrong! |
ouch, that Lil thing hurt,but seriously, as i cant openthe link you provided (if icould i mayhave my answers)-but i ask again-HOW can 7000 people, the location etc of which i dont know(it could be mentioned in the link you posted, but its not working), represent over 60 million people:
And anyway, jsut because you know how something works doesnt make it 100 percent right-i dont dispute that the process of statistical analysis, bieng long established is broadly a right and proper way to gague opinions, but on this count i seriously doubt that the results indicate the opinions of an entire society. |
OK firstly to open the second link you will need Acrobat Reader installed on your PC as it is a link to a PDF document:
Download Acrobat Reader
To understand more about [url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sampling_(statistics)]Statistical Sampling[/url].
General Premise: A representative random sample never reflects the views of the wider population with 100% accuracy, it always has a margin of error. The margin of error gets smaller the larger your sample.
In simple terms the margin of error is +/- 1/sqrt[n] Where n is the sample size.
So a random sample of 7000 individuals is accurate within +/- 1.2%. So in other words the sample gave the result that 39% of people interviewed claimed to have no religion.
Applying this simple confidence interval this would mean the actual proportion in the general population who have no religion is between 37.8% and 40.2%. And the real number of Christians is between 51.8% and 54.2%. This is significantly different than the 2001 census findings which reported 75% claimed to be Christian.
Provided the sampling method is fair and unbiased and includes a fair cross section of society, a sample of 7000 will accurately reflect the views of a larger population with a +/-1.2 confidence interval.
_________________
David
This post is dedicated to those who lost their lives in the Star Wars films: Darth Vader, Darth Maul, Padme, Obi Wan, Yoda, Stormtrooper #5, Qui Gon, Dak, Biggs, Stormtrooper #22, Palpatine. Everyone on the Death Stars and sadly not Jar Jar Binks. |
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