More bad news for British, militant atheists: Anglicanism, Evangelical Christianity,charismatic/pentecostal Christianity and Islam are growing in the UK. Non-religious portion of the UK sees a decline

According to a 2016 BBC documentary, pentecostal Christianity is the fastest growing form of Christianity in the UK. In 2016, there were 500,000 pentecostal Christians in the UK according to the documentary.

In 2010, the American sociologist Peter L. Berger said of pentecostalism :  "One can say with some confidence that modern Pentecostalism must be the fastest growing religion in human history."

In 2016, Christianity Today declared:

Christianity in Britain is seeing a "seismic shift" as more aging churches are closing down and giving way to new and vibrant Pentecostal and charismatic churches that are drawing more and more people of various ages and races.
Assessing the state of Christianity in Britain, a recent Religion News Service report pointed out that in the past six years, 168 Church of England churches have closed, along with 500 Methodist and 100 Roman Catholic churches. 

But even as aging Church of England congregations decline, charismatic churches are sprouting and welcoming new members into their fold.
According to an analysis by The Times of London, for every Anglican church that has closed over the past six years, more than three Pentecostal or charismatic churches have taken their place. 

Unlike the old churches, the Pentecostal and charismatic churches are drawing people of all ages and races, including black, Asian and mixed-race people.
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In fact the Pentecostal church is considered as one of the fastest growing Christian churches in the world, with an estimated 500 million followers, the report said. 

The Pentecostal church is reportedly bringing renewed hope to many people in Britain as attested by its growing membership. 

"I am optimistic that we will see this nation come back to God," said Pastor Agu Irukwu of the Redeemed Christian Church of God. The Pentecostal group, founded in Nigeria, now has 600 congregations across England. 

"A century ago the face of European Christianity could have been labeled as white, but now it is increasingly becoming multicoloured," Israel Olofinjana, a Nigerian-born minister in London, told the Times.

In 2014, First Things published an article on the growing movement of charismatic Christianity/pentocostalism in the Church of England.

Conatus News reported today:

Church of England worshippers increase 0.8 per cent since 2009. The number of non-religious people falls from 50.65% to 48.6% 

Rise in Church of England worshippers likely due to resurgence in patriotism and pride in Christianity, a report has found 

According to a new report, for every person brought up in a non-religious household who becomes a churchgoer, 26 people raised as Christians now identify as non-believers. 

The study, which is based on an analysis of the British Social Attitudes Survey and the European Social Survey, reported that the proportion of non-religious in the UK hit a high of 50.6 per cent in 2009. However, it has been decreasing ever since and hit 48.6 per cent in 2015. 

However, the proportion of those who identify as Church of England worshippers has seen a slight increased from 16.3 per cent in 2009 to 17.1 per cent in 2015.

A 2012 report shows that evangelicalism is rising in the UK (see: UK: The rise of evangelicalism is shaking up the established church ).

In April of 2011, Thomas Seymat reports in an article entitled Immigrants strengthen Christianity in the UK that half of the new immigrants to the UK that 50% of recent immigrants to the UK are Christian.

Thomas Seymat declares:

...African Pentecostals are the fastest-growing denominations. “In Lewisham, there are 65 Pentecostal churches serving the Nigerian community, and others serving the Congolese, Ghanian and Ivorian communities,” says the report. It adds, “perhaps the most significant change has been the growth of Pentecostal and charismatic Christianity within migrant populations, particularly those from Africa and Latin America.”

This trend of increasing Christian migrants has not gone unnoticed by religious observers. Dr Joe Aldred, secretary of the Minority Ethnic Christian Affairs section of the Churches Together in England (CTE) tweeted on @joealdred : “At national Church Planting Consultation. Didn’t know so much going on planting new churches. Christianity making a come back in Britain?”

In the past, the new atheist Richard Dawkins referred to Bible believing/evangelical Christianity as a type of "muscular Christianity".  Given its growth in the UK, this type of Christianity appears to be kicking quite a bit of proverbial sand in the faces of UK militant atheists at the beach. And globally, atheism is losing its market share in terms its percentage of the world population.

Militant atheists, you have no proof and evidence that atheism is valid. And there is plenty of evidence that Christianity is true (see: See: Evidence for Christianity vs. evidence for atheism)  Militant atheists, isn't it time you abandoned your scrawny and dying atheism?

In addition, as can by one of the videos below, Islam is growing fast in the UK.

The British journalist and author Peter Hitchens (the Christian brother of the late Christopher Hitchens who was a prominent atheist) said that the new atheist Richard Dawkins has no real influence on British Muslims and that they could care less about what he says.

Specifically, Peter Hitchens said in February of 2017:

I don't think the Muslim are particularly worried about Richard Dawkins... They don't care what he says. They are not impressed. Their beliefs are unaffected by this sort of thing. 

Related article

UK hits peak secular. Northern Europe and France previously hit peak secular

Life and Death the Pentecostal Way Full BBC Documentary 2016




Muslims Are Growing In The UK Rapidly, Published on Nov 5, 2016



Muslims in the UK

The barrage of anti-atheism material upon Britain is working. British atheism is crumbling. British Evangelical Christianity is on the rise!

 In June 2012, the UK based Dorset Humanists wrote:

There’s been a forceful backlash against the ‘new atheism’ of writers like Richard Dawkins and the late Christopher Hitchens, inspiring a new wave of Christian apologists. This group includes: Alister McGrath, Professor of Theology at King’s College London, Keith Ward, former Professor of Divinity at Oxford, and John Lennox, Professor of Mathematics at the University of Oxford. Many atheists make the mistake of assuming religion is wholly irrational, relying on faith alone but, in a series of interviews recorded for DVD, the apologetics heavyweights from the list above demonstrate their ability to challenge us with reasoned arguments

The fall of Berlin marked an important turning point of WWII.  In addition, the fall of the Berlin wall was a turning point in the godless communism vs. Western capitalism ideological struggle.

So what is the "Berlin" of English speaking atheism?  Given British anti-theists' promotion of New Atheism (namely Richard Dawkins and the ex-Brit turned American Christopher Hitchens) and the higher degree of irrreligion in Britain compared to the United States, I would argue that Britian is the capital of English speaking atheism. One could further add that Britain is the birthplace of Darwinism.  And evolution is the secular creation myth of atheism/agnosticism and liberal theology.

The New Atheism, a rhetorically militant atheism,  has declined considerably and is now essentially dead.

Are there other signs that British atheism is crumbling?

Yes, there are!

Consider this report from the website Premier:

The decline in the number of people calling themselves Christians has halted, new figures suggest.

A small increase in the percentage of Brits who classify themselves as followers of Christ has been found in the British Social Attitudes Survey.

The report, which is published every year, has not been official released but the Sunday Telegraph has reported some of its findings.

The amount of Brits who say they are Christian has increase in the past year from 42 per cent to 43 per cent, it says.

Such a small change is within the margin of error in surveys but if it is to be believed it shows a decade long decline in Christianity has levelled off.

On December 14th, 2009, the British newspaper The Telegraph reported:

According to the Mail Evangelical Christianity is on the rise.
Some 4.5million of the UK's foreign-born population claim to have a religious affiliation. Of these, around a quarter are Muslim while more than half are Christian – with Polish Catholics and African Pentecostals among the fastest-growing groups.

While traditional churchgoing is on the decline in the UK over the past decade, the latest immigrants mean Christianity is becoming more charismatic and fundamentalist.

'Perhaps the most significant change has been the growth of Pentecostal and charismatic Christianity within migrant populations, particularly those from Africa and Latin America,' the report found.

'In Lewisham, there are 65 Pentecostal churches serving the Nigerian community, and others serving the Congolese, Ghanaian and Ivorian communities.'

Professor Mike Kenny of IPPR said: 'The research shows that recent waves of inward migration have given a boost to some of the UK's established faith communities at a time when Britain's society and culture are generally more secular, and smaller numbers of the indigenous population are regularly attending churches.

'Recent migration trends are altering the faith map of the UK. Their biggest impact is being felt in some of our largest cities: London above all, where a rich mosaic of different faith communities has come into being.'

Evangelical Christianity might be heavily African-influenced but it’s also spreading among the natives as well

Concerning the future of religion/secularism in Europe, professor Eric Kaufmann wrote:

We have performed these unprecedented analyses on several cases. Austria offers us a window into what the future holds. Its census question on religious affiliation permits us to perform cohort component projections, which show the secular population plateauing by 2050, or as early as 2021 if secularism fails to attract lapsed Christians and new Muslim immigrants at the same rate as it has in the past. (Goujon, Skirbekk et al. 2006).

This task will arguably become far more difficult as the supply of nominal Christians dries up while more secularisation-resistant Muslims and committed rump Christians comprise an increasing share of the population.

In August 19, 2011, Fox News declared:

American Evangelical theologian William Lane Craig is ready to debate the rationality of faith during his U.K tour this fall, but it appears that some atheist philosophers are running shy of the challenge.

This month president of the British Humanist Association, Polly Toynbee, pulled out of an agreed debate at London’s Westminster Central Hall in October, saying she “hadn’t realized the nature of Mr. Lane Craig’s debating style.”

Lane Craig, who is a professor of philosophy at Talbot School of Theology in La Mirada, Calif., and author of 30 books and hundreds of scholarly articles, is no stranger to the art of debate and has taken on some of the great orators, such as famous atheists Christopher Hitchens and Sam Harris. Harris once described Craig as “the one Christian apologist who has put the fear of God into many of my fellow atheists”.

Responding to Toynbee’s cancellation, Lane Craig commented: "These folks (atheists) can be very brave when they are alone at the podium and there's no one there to challenge them. But one of the great things about these debates is that, it allows both sides to be heard on a level playing field, and for the students in the audience to make up their own minds about where they think the truth lies."

On August 19, 2011, the leading British Anglican weekly newspaper the Church Times wrote

 The director of Professor Craig’s tour, Peter May, said: “If Craig is ‘wrong about everything else in the universe’ and his arguments for the existence of God are so easy to refute, it is hard to see why the leading atheist voices in the country are running shy of having a debate with him. “Rather than hurling ad hom­inem attacks on Craig from their bunkers, it would be good to see these figures come forward to rationally defend the atheism they publicly espouse.

Oh, British, militant atheists! Your promulgation of atheism tanks are being lit aflame in Britain.  And you are unable to pierce the ideological tank armor of the evangelical Christians and other committed Christians. And evangelical Christianity if growing in your country. . All is lost   Surrender now!

Given the fact that British atheism is faltering and intellectually dead, it is only a matter of time when British atheism declines and American atheism, Australian atheism and New Zealand atheism decline also.  Atheists, are you looking forward to the 21st century global decline of atheism?

 On July 24, 2013, CNS News indicated

Atheism is in decline worldwide, with the number of atheists falling from 4.5% of the world’s population in 1970 to 2.0% in 2010 and projected to drop to 1.8% by 2020, according to a new report by the Center for the Study of Global Christianity at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary in South Hamilton, Mass."

Eric Kaufmann told a secular audience in Australia: "The trends that are happening worldwide inevitably in an age of globalization are going to affect us."

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Eric Kaufmann: Shall the Religious Inherit the Earth? from Australian Broadcasting Corporation on FORA.tv