Religion

Exactly half of all Urban Lifers said they did not belong to any religion. A fifth of those claimed they were just not sure whether there is a god (agnostics), as opposed to being atheists. Among the other half, whether actively practising or not, there are slightly higher numbers of you from the Church of England / Scotland (35%) than from the Catholic faith (28%).

Other faiths were held by much lower numbers but included, 4% Baptist, 4% Evangelical, 3% Muslim, 3% Jewish, 3% Hindu, 2% Buddhist and 2% Methodist.

We decided not to include 'Jedi' in the options on the questionnaire, which has become a formal religion since huge numbers of people wrote it on the 2001 census as a joke. Nevertheless, 2% of you volunteered it, without prompting, as the organised religion to which you now belong! May the Force be with you!

In April, Joseph Ratzinger was named as the 265th Pope and successor to Pope John Paul II. His appointment is seen as a blessing for those who support the traditional values of the church. He is, for example, firmly opposed to abortion, euthanasia and homosexuality, as well as a supporter of celibacy of the priesthood. We wanted to know whether Urban Life members, regardless of your own faith, thought the Catholic Church should continue to adopt this orthodox line or whether reform was needed:

Despite 13% of you saying you did not care what those of the Catholics faith did, overall the majority thought change was needed. A third said 'some sort of reform' is needed in the Catholic Church, but a further 35% thought it required a radical overhaul. When questioned on the series of conservative views upheld by the new Pope, anti contraception was the subject most vehemently disagreed with by Urban Lifers, followed by his anti-female priests and anti-homosexual stance.

Guilty until proven innocent! (Well, this time anyway!)

Click on the image to enlarge it.

At the time that our survey took place (from May 17th), it was going to take an excellent defence to convince you Urbanites that Michael Jackson was innocent of all he was accused - despite many very likely having been fans of his in his earlier years.

A crucial 39% of you however were sitting on the fence when we asked if you thought he was guilty or not. The jury was obviously much less uncertain, clearing Michael Jackson on all ten counts. But are we convinced yet?!