The Humanist Campaign telling people what to tick on the 2011 Census Form is misconceived and unnecessary, claims Theos, the public theology think tank.

The campaign, launched today, tells people to tick ‘no religion’ on the Census form later this month. It is based on atheists’ frustration that so many people (37 million in England and Wales) said they were Christian in the last census in 2001. The response of the British Humanist Association (BHA) was to claim the question was phrased incorrectly, and to ask the Office of National Statistics (ONS) to change it.

When the ONS refused, today’s campaign was launched. The campaign, however, fails to acknowledge two crucial facts. As with the previous Census:

1.    the religious question is the only optional question on the form, and

2.    ‘No religion’ is the first option available to respondents in the list.

This means that people have ample opportunity to deny religious affiliation should they wish to and that humanist claims that they are “funnelled… into giving a religious response” are simply untrue.

Commenting on the campaign, Paul Bickley, Senior Researcher at Theos said:

“The humanists do a good job of keeping religion in the news, such as with their much-publicised atheist buses, to which we contributed money.

“However, this campaign is clearly a mistake.

“The campaign grossly exaggerates the extent to which the religious affiliation results of the 2001 census have shaped government policy or influenced spending decisions.

“In any case, the British people are quite capable of judging for themselves what box they should tick. They don’t need to be told.

“If the Archbishop of Canterbury were to launch a campaign pleading for people to tick the Christian box, it would be rightly ridiculed as a sign of desperation. I suspect that this is what may happen with this campaign, too."