by Peter Stanford, Telegraph
The professor of science and religion on why Richard Dawkins’s atheism is ‘on its way out’ and Gen Z’s increased interest in the Church
Last year, a survey for the Bible Society, carried out by YouGov, made headlines. The number of Gen Z Britons attending church services, it declared, had soared by 16 per cent between 2018 and 2024. The news led to discussions in Parliament, and Church conferences trumpeting this “quiet revival”.
What made the claims so believable was a parallel narrative, more anecdotal but also more widespread, about young people embracing religion. You heard it everywhere, in opinion pieces, features and online chatter. It was the subject of entire books, such as Don’t Forget We’re Here Forever: A New Generation’s Search for Religion by the award-winning young writer Lamorna Ash.
Yet, even as interest in Christianity became more vocal, the statistics came into question. The Bible Society report was contested, and eventually withdrawn; the British Social Attitudes Survey then reported, over exactly the same period, a 9 per cent fall in 18 to 34-year-olds who described themselves as “religious”. Given the level of claim and counter-claim, this has become ground where angels fear to tread.
Alister McGrath is well aware. A former professor of divinity, now emeritus professor in science and religion at the University of Oxford, he is today, alongside the likes of former Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams and John Lennox, one of Britain’s best known and most respected Christian intellectuals. This mild-mannered 73-year-old chooses his words with great care in his north Oxford flat as we try to sort out what is and isn’t happening.