It was only a few months ago when a survey released by ScotCen Social Research in Scotland found that the “Nones” made up a whopping 58% of the country.

But a new survey puts that result to shame.

Commissioned by the Humanist Society Scotland, a Survation poll of more than 1,000 Scottish adults found that 72.4% of them were not religious.

Gordon MacRae, chief executive of the Humanist Society Scotland, said: “These new findings raise concerns about the official statistics on the adherence to religion in Scotland. “We know that many people identify with a particular religious community, usually due to family ties, but are not themselves practising that religion. “These latest findings would suggest there could be as much as a 15% difference between ‘official statistics’ and the reality of religion’s place in the Scottish public daily lives.

So what explains the discrepancy between the two results? The methodologies aren’t exactly clear for either survey, but the ScotCen one asked people, “Do you regard yourself as belonging to any particular religion?” It’s possible people said they were, for example, Roman Catholic, even if they never attended church.

The Survation one asked simply, “Are you religious?” It was more of a yes or no question, so a lot of those “culturally” Christian people may have said no this time around.

Either way, the trend is very clearly moving away from religion. People are discovering ways to celebrate life, find inspiration, and enjoy community outside the confines of faith, and they’re far better off without religious dogma infesting their minds.

(via The Freethinker. Image via Shutterstock)

