81% of Britons believe that religious extremists, not the religion to blame for the violence
47 % of Britons agree that “the world would be a more peaceful place if nobody was religious,” and 70 % believe that “most wars in history were caused by religions.”
However, more than four out of five (81%) Britons believe that religious extremists, not the religion to blame for the violence. This is evidenced by a new survey of companies “ComRes” and “Theos”.
61 % believe that “the teachings of religions being peaceful”.
Commenting on the report, an adjunct Professor for the study of religion at SOAS Ian Linden argues that although there is much talk about religious extremism, the secular violence of authoritarian and extremist nationalist ideologies are much more dangerous.
Director of research company “Theos” Nick Spencer, who wrote the Foreword to the report, said: “Many people associate religion and violence, while many more believed that religious teaching is essentially peacefully and religious violence is the extremists, not the religion itself”.
Earlier, British scientists have found that believers are happier than atheists.