For a bunch of people who want to save our souls, the Church of England is remarkably happy to commit sins against statistics.
The Church has released a press release claiming that:
Four out of five British adults believe in the power of prayer, according to a new ICM survey in the run-up to Easter… Asked what it would be for if they were to pray, 31 per cent of respondents cited peace in the world, followed by an end to poverty in the world (27 per cent), a family member (26 per cent) and healing for another (22 per cent). While 5 per cent said they did not know what they would pray for, 14 per cent said they would never pray.
Which isn’t really true. Lower down, the press release reveals the actual question:
Irrespective of whether you currently pray or not, if you were to pray for something at the moment, what would it be for?
So four out of five British adults do not “believe in the power of prayer”; four out of five British adults are polite enough to answer a direct question. And 14 per cent of British adults are so sceptical of the power of prayer, that even when they are asked a question which specifically instructs them to ignore whether they pray, they still refuse to answer.
Amazingly, the Telegraph not only wrote up the “research”, but strengthened the conclusion, adding in the 5 per cent who “said they did not know what they would pray for” to come to the conclusion that:
Six out of seven people still believe that prayers can be answered despite a dramatic drop in formal religious observance, a study has found.
It’s almost as though the CofE relishes the idea of a war between religion and science almost as much as Dawkins does.
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