And that 43% is the proportion of people on surveys/censuses who are prepared to put down "atheist" or "without faith". Approximately 10% or less of the population is actually church going, so there will be a decent proportion of people who do what I used to do when I was a kid and just ticked "Church of England" for ease (I'm more self-confident and principled now).
(This analysis doesn't take into account people of other faiths, so the figures won't be as stark as that, but according to Google, 5.2% of the UK population is Muslim, 1.5% Hindu, 0.7% Sikh and 0.43% Jewish - so I reckon that people who are genuinely without faith are likely to exceed the 50% mark in reality).
All that said, Country churches are usually quite pretty, and a church bell on a warm summer evening is a nice sound. Just so long as they leave me alone, and let me get on in peace with sampling a local ale in the pub garden.
Could there be any greater conceit, than for someone to believe that the universe has to be simple enough for them to be able to understand it ?
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