Âé¶¹´«Ã½

Life

Where do atheists come from?

By Lois Lee and Stephen Bullivant

3 March 2010

Âé¶¹´«Ã½. Science news and long reads from expert journalists, covering developments in science, technology, health and the environment on the website and the magazine.

Perhaps the capacity to believe in a supernatural agency is simply non-existent in atheists

(Image: Jonathan Hordle/Rex Features)

Editorial: Time to accept that atheism, not god, is odd

HERE’s a fact to flatter the unbelievers among you: the bright young things at the University of Oxford are among the most godless groups ever studied in the UK. Of 728 students surveyed in 2007, 48.9 per cent claimed not to believe in any god, with 49.6 per cent claiming no religious affiliation. And while a very small number of Britons typically label themselves as “atheist” or “agnostic” (most surveys put it at about 5 per cent), an astonishing 57.3 per cent of the…

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