Ireland losing its faith at an alarming rate suggests new poll

An atheist is only saying they do not believe in the trinity story (three make one God). All religions have a different story, a language to express what they feel is the real answer to life and and how it startd etc,usually handed down to them. To me the answer should be none of us know. This does not mean we have given up the idea there is a superior being.I say, when i die whatever is there i accept. If horses had a god it would be a horse,so humans say God must be a man. As humans we do not have the mental capacity to know the answer.

"Alarming"? I would have thought "encouraging" was a more appropriate word.

I'm glad the Apostles didn't lose their faith because of Judas Iscariot, or we all might be praying to Buddha or living under Talmudic or Shar'iah Law today.

TO HERMIT TALKER: There's no proof of denial or a cover up???? You've got to be kidding! Of course there was a cover up. They're STILL covering it up....or hiding behind the Statute of Limitations. Keep your head in the sand & you'll stay a good Catholic. Ratzinger was covering this up before he was Pope! The scandal starts at the top & trickles down. Have you followed the Philadelphia case at all?

Alarming is a strange word for something as positive as loss of faith.

Well said Murph!! Yes Warlocks, but I'm too old to stray, an usher for the last 25 yrs and I love what I do. S F Warlocks!!

They may be dropping away from the institutional Church, but they'll never turn their backs on the Blessed Mother, nor she on them.

the Catholic church has no one to blame but themselves they covered up their lies & Criminal Priests & Bishops for over a thousand years. who in their right mind would trust their children with any catholic priest.the Church has been on a Downward trend long before the general public has known Pedophiles in the church when christ founded his religion before it was the Roman Catholic Church Jesus & his Mother along with his Apostles othodox Jews and never Roman Catholic .

When plastic religion dies, true faith begins

Portia, I have read and heard a lot about how we won or lost in Vietnam. But never have I heard any of this laid at the feet of the Jesuits. Tell me more aobut those bastards and how I can get even with them. -- Mark

Wow, thank you, hybernia, for that quote by Albert Einstein. I have always believed in God and it makes more rational sense than believing there is no God because of the arguments put forward by Thomas Aquinas. There must be a "first mover" or else there is no cogent explanation for this physical universe. St. Thomas, I now see, has to be mistaken because Albert the Great is god. He knows all. So, I am glad that he and you, hybernia, have finally gotten me to see the light (or, maybe it is the darkness). Think about it, hybernia. Maybe you are not as secure in your supposed unbelief as you think.

"The word God is for me nothing more than the expression and product of human weakness, the Bible a collection of honorable, but still purely primitive, legends which are nevertheless pretty childish. No interpretation no matter how subtle can change this." Albert Einstein.

My Belief is that The Most should graduate church as You do school and We all ought to know are tenets of fAith. After all, Saint Patrick would have died in vain if fAith was dried up in our Irish culture , North and South. All of us ought to Be able to stand as Men and Women who have Right Counsel and a formidable knowledge Of fAith and thus make one and each Independent and an asset to the the community, and not that of the church. An empty church is a prosperous church, duly that it has performed its task and will continue to Be a learning centre and edification Of The People. The Question to one and all...can We stand alone in Our fAith, is Our fAith strong enough if the church disappeared tomorrow?...and if so, You are now The ChurCh.

Perhaps the "check the boxes" choices in the census are too limiting. If people are turning away from the organized religion of the Roman Catholic Church, the only alternative seems to be "atheist" I would not be surprized however that people are reluctant to use that option as people may still consider themsleves Christian.

We are all familiar with "cultural" religion, and its use by politicians for their purposes and family "honour" which is a bond that is severed when the dissenter is not in the home village to be scrutinised. Then we had the poll in 2011 which showed that most of the Irish people thought that 35 % of the clergy were child abusers, which the actual number was less than 5% and boundary violations, kissing or bum slapping was equated to sodomy and rape. Then there is the ongoing non-story of Vatican cover-up, there is absolutely no evidence, there was lots of confusion about the rights of the accused and privacy of tthe accusers in Canon, Church, law and civil law but that was all cleared up by Cdl Ratziner in the CDF when he took over that role for minors under JP 11 and then as Pope. Moving clergy around was before the sciences and psychology and psychiatry helped show the emotional factors in abuse as AA did decades earlier for alcololism when the only "cure" was to take the pledge or go on retreat to the Cistercians/Trappists. The more advanced approach to Religious Formation is to take it from brain to heart and try to re-evangelise earlier generations who had mostly law, rule, hell and punishment instead of an invitation into Jesus# Heart to experience Love and share it. I feel so sad for the negative IC posters who see only evil and miss the beauty. Same happened to Jesus Himself, a devil possessed or GOD IS LOVE in the Flesh.