Christianity in Ireland on decline

By DAN WOODING

Levels of religious knowledge throughout Ireland are decreasing significantly, and in Northern Ireland are even lower than in the Republic according to a new poll, says the www.ekklesia.co.uk website.

≥The poll, believed to be the first ever conducted on the subject in Northern Ireland, is the follow-up to a religious knowledge poll conducted in the Republic of Ireland on behalf of The Iona Institute and the Evangelical Alliance Ireland (EAI) which was released in April,≤ said the Ekklesia story.

≥This found low levels of basic religious knowledge in the population, especially among young people.

≥The latest poll allows a comparison between levels of religious knowledge in the North and South, and between Northern Catholics and Northern Protestants. Those organizing the poll conclude that, contrary to popular belief, Northern Ireland is less religious than the South.≤

The Ekklesia story went on to say that it was already known that church attendance figures in the North were lower than in the South.

≥The poll found that levels of religious knowledge among Northern and Southern Catholics were roughly the same,≤ it continued. ≥However, in general, levels of religious knowledge among Northern Protestants were lower than among Northern Catholics.

≥The one question where Protestants were more likely to know the answer was when asked what the first book of the Bible was — 68% of Protestants knew it was Genesis, compared to only 54% of Catholic.

≥However, only 42% of respondents in the North knew there were four Gospels and 39% of Catholics knew the first of the 10 Commandments, compared to 26% of Protestants.≤

– ASSIST News Service