Not even half of the British people who identify themselves as Christians say they believe in a Creator while 18 percent say they do not have such a belief, according to a new survey.
YouGov spoke with nearly 12,000 British "Christians" and a control group of 39,000 people representative of the whole population and found that only 41 percent of them say they definitely believe in a Creator. Eighteen percent do not.
The same survey also indicated that self-identified Christians are more likely to believe in aliens than the devil, and more likely to believe in fate than in heaven.
Thirty-six percent of the British people said they believe in fate and 30 percent of them think that alien life is far more thrilling.
"There is a tendency to believe in the friendlier parts of faith than those which are difficult to contemplate," the study said.
Net belief in a Creator and in heaven are both now at 21 percent, which implies that they are more widely disbelieved in than ghost (-9) or karma (-11).
According to The Conversion, "Christianity has declined in England throughout the last several decades, with only 1 of 5 people born since 1975 believing in God.''
"Belief in a 'higher power' has indeed gone up, but this vague spirituality comes at the expense of more religious theism. Nearly half of younger adults in Britain qualify as atheists or agnostics, even if they would not use those terms themselves,'' the report said.
Also, self-identifying Christians have reportedly displayed a preference for the more than positive aspects of a faith open to broad interpretation. Forty-four percent of British Christians believe in heaven but only 27 percent believe in hell.
Thirty-five percent believed in angels compared to 24 percent who believe in the devil.
Last year, YouGov found only 55 percent of self-identified Christians in Britain believe there is a God. The year before, YouGov found only 23 percent of the total British population say they are very (3 percent) or fairly (20 percent) religious.
A Pew Research study among Americans earlier said that 18 percent believe they have seen a ghost.
