Wow, this was extremely frustrating to watch. Denial, denial, denial.

I remember religious spokespersons talking about how young people will come to religion as they get older when I was in my twenties. I am now in my sixties and I don't know any of my friends who were non religious in our twenties who have become religious since.

The force is no longer there, you are no longer forced to converting by the force of a sword or blood magic.

Half the speakers should have come from the humanists, atheists, freethinking community to have the necessary balance - the religious speakers were over represented. Well done Andrew.

A script used to parody religion for comedic purposes would need very little modification from the transcript of this discussion. Between the schadenfruede of the Muslim, the mania of the Pentecostal, the mincing words of the Church of England woman and the rabbi, and the frankness of the humanist, all in the face of the interviewers trying to spin the topic...

Born an anglican, renounced it nearly 38 years ago and a happier more fulfilled person since.

All religions are a bit silly aren't they?

So frustrating to watch. People aren't leaving religion because religions aren't cool and hip for young people. People are leaving religion because of the internet. When you have all the knowledge in the world at your fingertips, why on earth would you give a shit about a 2000+ year old book?

What I love about these people is they are determined to try and convert people esp. Pentecostal guy. Then the LGBT community are condemned by evangelicals saying they are trying to force their opinions on society. Utter hypocrisy.

53% non religious, and 1 non religious guest with 4 religious professionals. Against stupidity, the gods themselves contend in vane. Schiller.

I love watching Copson debate, so gracious and informed whilst silently thinking ‘fuck sake’ every time someone opens their mouth.

Knowledge is killing religion through the internet.

let us hope so - with any luck public displays of religion will die out completely

Religion should be taught in school, but only as an academic subject.

I don't care what you believe... Just give me that money ;)

As the female Rabbi stated, look how diversified we are on this seat. And I add, all claiming to be the one and only true faith. Whereas only Copson pointing out that they can't all be right. And we should be glad that people are not blindly following myths and legends as though they were true. The more you teach people about more religions the less religious they become.

Religion is like a super market brand Selling empty product At the competitive price of your credulity

Let’s face it, religion is marketed as strength in numbers.

Peoples excuses as to why the stats don’t apply to them is really interesting

More unbalanced content from the (once great) BBC! Where was the atheist on the panel? (See above: "53% of British people have no religion") - and oviously no voice in this discussion...

You might as well have a Tooth Fairyist, a Santa Clausist, an Easter Bunnyist, and a Great Pumpkinist battling it out, each claiming that their group is growing the fastest, when all the stats are saying that beliefs in such things is dropping! Extraordinary.

Why is there a decline in religion? Why does no one ever state the obvious answer in these discussions? Surely it because people simply don't believe in the existence of a god these days. Tell me if I'm wrong.

They all want a bigger piece of the pie.

Excellent from the man on the left and to the man on the right, faith does not provide answers it provides sedation.

Once upon a time it was believed that the function of the brain was to cool the heart. We no longer believe that. We do not complain that people no longer believe something that is not true? A secular education that one commentator complained is about learning about all beliefs including Humanism not just one belief exlusively.

Copson is always the rational one in the room, surrounded by complete dolts.

Thanks Andrew for some sanity among the God squad.

Faith=gullibility

I'm actually glad Religion seems to be dying out. I feel like Religion has had way too much influence for way too long

Five against one. Not what I'd call unbiased.

Quick, numbers are dropping... let’s rewrite the book we wrote years ago and get some young blood in and spread are ideology so they feel loved!

The former merchant banker who started his own pentecostal church. A good career choice!

I learned about Jesus Christ in My country England!! So this saddens me

"We don't class ourselves as a religion." If you believe in god and Jesus, then how can you not be a religion? *religion - noun* *the belief in and worship of a superhuman controlling power, especially a personal God or gods*

Science provides clarity, books are books. Spirituality is knowing oneself and reality around us. Christianity leads to beliefs and faith which is personal findings, not universal. Modernization and Science rules fellas.

I am concerned with what is TRUE. When all of you religious bobos can agree on ONE system, then I will take a second look. You can not all be correct but you can all be wrong.

What a shame. Your great grandfather / grandmother spent so much money to built Churches and now young Britain not belive in Jesus Chirst.

Is religion dying out in Britain ? With Christianity -yes , with Islam ,No.

I am not represented here. I am from the church of the flying spaghetti monster.

For the Record 17:30 John Lenon said >> "People always got the image I was an anti-Christ or antireligion. I'm not. I'm a most religious fellow. I was brought up a Christian and I only now understand some of the things that Christ was saying in those parables."

What young People need to see are wonders, but the faith to do this is zero

This is what the WEF would like , church leaders are the problem . Youngsters not really aware of Jesus due to lack of parental guidance and Christian teachings

Five to one non believer, nothing unusual there with the BBC, it'd be breath takingly unusual to see vica versa on the BBC.

Led a taxi driver the Christ in 10 minutes? I doubt that happened. Taxi driver probably just wanted his money 😁

Drive to any village on a Sunday, walk in the church, if it's open, there will be only a handfull of parishioners, most of them elderly. The simple reason why people are becoming less religous, is that they think that what they teach is nonsense. Noah's Ark, Virgin birth, the God of the Old Testament, the list is endless. Science can never answer the question is there a God? But it has started to explain the reality of the physical universe we are a part of. But that said, religion will always be with us until we overcome the fear of death.

Pentecostals are growing in the U.K.

Mr Copson didn't call out this Katie Harrison person for appealing to Deism. The question being discussed was "is religion dying out" as in established, organized religion. She cited people who still have beliefs in the immaterial/universe which is a long way from modern monotheism. Deists are only a few steps away from reaching Atheism.

" Human beings are born hard wired to believe in god"...IS A LOAD OF CRAP!

The church doesn't speak to us young people. Their messages seem mostly of hate and control along with their history of abuse of children its hard for us to have faith.

Andrew Copson's wrap up was brilliant

Too many voices and opinions in not enough time. It could have been better formatted.

They're trying to hold on with their dear lives lol I'm so ecstatic that religion is in a decline. It's heaven sent lol let's put an end to ignorance

Faith is the deliberate rejection of reality. We obtain our morality from experience, empathy, reality and reason. Morality is situational and not set in stone.

Most English state funded schools are CofE, I can’t afford to send my daughter further afield for a non denominational school, and feel they are brain washing her into religion, as she is getting older she is becoming more suspicious with honest conversations around the table. When she was about 6 she called me a liar for saying I don’t believe there is a god. I had to explain it is my opinion from science and just a general feeling, but what quite affronted when she first said this to me.

I believe religious doctrine should never be taught in schools. However, I think they should teach about all the religiouns that are currently out there in the world, and about all the dead historical religions that have been, from an achedemic standpoint in order for people to understand what religious beliefe systems are and were about. Give people the tools to make up their own mind and see whare things naturaly go, don't give them insubstantiated doctrine.

No matter what you believe, if a bus hits you head on at 40 mph, the result is the same.

After having en-kindled the fire of Anglican faith in the nook and corner of the globe, The Britons are losing the faith!

How about interviewing people under the age of 30 for their perspectives? Religion is dying because of hypocrisy, corruption, abuse, shame, and guilt inflicted by religious zealots and relentless attacks on Women, LGBTQ+, and on every other marginalized community by religious extremism.

me stupid, me need religion to guide me not take bad decision in life...Me sad, religion help me find a way into happiness so boss can pay me little but me happy cause jesus.

I think there’s a misunderstanding here- you can believe in a higher power and be non-religious. That’s called agnosticism and is a form of atheism

IF CORONAVIRUS DOES NOT STOP MANKIND BELIEVING IN A NICE KIND LOVING GOD AND STOP GOING TO PLACES OF WORSHIP I DON'T KNOW WHAT WILL!

17:21 Change "uncool" to "stupid" and Cathrine has a good point.

actuly ppl leave cherestianity bcz its FAKE sorry but thats the true , If the priest does not have convincing and logical answers to human questions, how can they trust him and this religion!!

One of my granddaughter's used to attend a Catholic school but left because her teacher's never touched on GOD or the Catholic Church. Go figure.

Yes Yes the fairytale is almost over hahaha

Is there no atheist here?

God: the longest game of hide and seek in the history of time. Delusions: evil apple trees, talking snakes, woman made from the rib of a man, woman is responsible for the downfall of man because she ate an apple, talking burning bush, sex with an angel and a virgin giving birth, walking on water, turning wine into blood ... . This would be considered insanity and witch craft if so many did not believe it. Get therapy!

spot the black hole guys.... I'll give you a clue, it first appears at 1.08 :P

"People are hardwired to believe in God", what a load of absolute tosh!

Is that guy kidding saying he's not taking religion?

2 Timothy Godlessness in the Last Days 3 But understand this, that in the last days there will come times of difficulty. 2 For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, 3 heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not loving good, 4 treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, 5 having the appearance of godliness, but denying its power. Avoid such people. 6 For among them are those who creep into households and capture weak women, burdened with sins and led astray by various passions, 7 always learning and never able to arrive at a knowledge of the truth.

Christians need to WAKE UP!!

They've totally overlooked 'pagan' related religions. There's a lot of young people into that now. More so than 20 years ago. I'd say it's more popular than C of E. Doesn't seem to be on the media's radar. And of course there's no category besides 'other' for that on official forms.

why is it that people of faith always begin these fora with 'definitions'.?.. to quote" it depends what you mean by xxxxxx".... I think everyone knows what is meant by religion in a colloquial sense.... like santa claus, christianity /god is a myth and as people grow up and see the ineffectiveness of prayer, the more they will drift from organized religion..... it is no coincidence that the younger generation with unprecedented access to information and education ( except the USA who rank 14th on the educational scale of developed countries ) rather than the selctive mutterings of clergy and aplogists are less inclined towards blind faith.... hebrews 11.1 .. 'faith is the substance for things hoped for .. the evidence for things unseen"... substance and evidence are usually tangible .. ridiculous gaggle of words...btw.. a new galaxy has just been identified at 16.5 million light years across ( our milky way is less than 200,000 ).. a light year is 6 TRILLION kms.. and god has a personal relationship with this miniscule speck in the cosmos?....give it some thought

what a load of bollocks, "the people who ticked no religion actually have some religion" a bit of a pointless survey then, The reason religion is dying out is simply down to better education and better critical thinking not just accepting what your parent tell you and their parents told them. Any growth in religion in the UK comes through immigration from more religious countries and cultures

We are saved by faith. We do not need any religion.

05:10 Look at the facial expression and body language of the black priest when the Islamic preacher to his left talks about how Islam is the fastest growing religion in the world. He says: 'I'm not so sure about that' then looks over to him as if it is a competition! Which of course it is. A competition of who has the most subscribers lol. Absolutely ridiculous how ignorant people can be. Atheism or 'non belief' is the fastest growing as people have access to more knowledge and evidence than ever before so it's funny watching these fools fall behind without realising 😄

the dishonesty from the religious lot is sickening

It's amazing the lengths we go to as kids to please our parents in thought word and deeds . Honour your mother and father . Does that mean to be influenced all our lives from our parents point of view ? NO ! I honour them. ...but as I've grown mentally and physically and through understanding science and the world around me I've developed my own point of view of the religeous and political concepts and ideas . Ive learned to question and answer through using the tools of reasoning and common sense to arrive at conclusions that satisfy me to my entire satisfaction that religion is not for me . I Honour my parents on a human level but not their politics or religion . Yes.....I'm a humanist .

"The teachings of Jesus are not very palatable" so tell me about the life of Mohammed?

I don't think we are ever going to have a real fair result concerning the growth or decline of religion, there are in fairness the non religious who are not really without a belief completely, and ovbcourse like Andrew said it not every Christian is a Christian believer, so for me who is not hear nor there about religion feel that the subject is a complete stalemate due to everyone not being completely honest.

Poisonous fairy tales.....

They're relying on intellectual arrogance!

why is it that these people need an off the shelf opinion,spirituality is a personal journey and you can only find clues in books,noone has got it right yet,although buddism isn`t far off being a good guide,which is what jesus was anyway(or at least his version of..)

religion is losing its following, a hard pill to follow for the religious people.

One minute in and the religious lady admits it's depressing not enough people believe in her god. The other religionists are in denial. They should be honest and admit they want power to control peoples minds. The problem is of course that believing in gods and magic is a bad argument.

Jacob 1:27 WMB Pure religion and undefiled before our God and Father is this: to visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained by the world. if religion is not important read the verse above

Y'shua bar Joseph went to Kashmir during the missing years to study dharma and died there as Musa or Moses. He was buried in Rozabal shrine Srinagar

Praise Jeebus. About damn time now how do we implement this here America? Rabbi Laura sure wtf not

Well fought Andrew!

Gods are simply obsolete, like the buggy whip.

I'm sure the comments will be quite civil

Faith is believing what you know ain't so.

The "its not a religion its a relationship" argument is inherently dishonest and a little cowardly. I mean, thats what the followers of pretty much every religion say as they go on to present their religious beliefs. Sorry but its a religion. If someone cant be honest upfront with me then why should I listen?

More than Christian countries in Islamic countries especially in middle east atheism is growing rapidly

The Holy Bible King James Version states crystal clear that befor the return of Jesus that there woulf be a great falling away...all that would be shaken away would.This only proves that we are living in that time...the next great event will be the angel of light( NOT but satan) whom will decieve the whole world by the miricales(not miricales but the power of the angles is mind blowing to mere humans.)

Excuse my language but what really pisses me off about the science and religion debate is that I think it is a non-issue in MY opinion. I'm an orthodox Roman Catholic lay minister, foreign missionary and a former lecturer at a planetarium. Last year I published a book about wormhole travel, warp drive, intelligent AI's, transhumanism and extraterrestrials. Life in my opinion embraces all of the above. Art, mathematics, science, technology, religion, evangelism are all good each in it's own way. To denigrate any of the above is both foolish and counterproductive. THE HUMAN EXPERIENCE EMBRACES ALL.

Lol😂😂😂😂😂

Is 'living in denial' regarded as sinful?

Being indian am feeling sad about this situation Christianity brought so many revolutions in india .PLZ DO NOT FORGET BIBLE