Women more likely to believe than men

A HUGE DISPARITY in the proportion of men and women who believe in God, a higher number of doubters among Catholics than in other denominations, and the fact that only one in four Britons thinks religion is a force for good are among the revelations of research released this week.

One of the most significant studies came from the Institute of Education (IOE), which found that 60 per cent of women, but only 35 per cent of men, believe in life after death. It canvassed 9,000 British people in their forties, and found that more than half (54 per cent) of men surveyed said they were atheists or agnostics, compared with only a third (34 per cent) of women.

Among believers women were much more likely to be definite than men, and among non-believers, men were much more likely to be definite than women.

The survey involved members of the 1970s British Cohort Study, whose lives are being followed by the IOE’s Centre for Longitudinal Studies. It also found that only 33 per cent of those who identified as Catholics had no doubts, compared with 71 per cent of Evangelicals and 88 per cent of Muslims. For the “mainline” Christian denominations – Anglican, Methodist, Presbyterian and United Reformed Church – the figure was even smaller, at 16 per cent. Professor David Voas, who analysed the survey responses, said some theologies were clearly more accepting of doubts than others. “I think it’s perhaps the case that many Catholics have a sophisticated or tolerant theology that makes doubts acceptable,” he said.

A separate poll for ITV News found only one in four (24 per cent) of Britons believe religion is a force for good in the world, although this rises to 39 per cent for those who believe Christianity is a force for good.