Britain is a country where old men have a 'greying church' to themselves

A research by a team at St Andrews University and the University of East Anglia have just published a report entitled :
The Greying Church : The Impact of Life Expectancy on Religiosity.

It was led by Dr Papyrakis and by applying some of the principles of economics to the 'psychology of churchgoing' has shown that :

* increased life expectancy is to blame for dwindling church attendances because longer lifespans bring with them the temptation to put off making peace with one’s maker.

* cost-benefit analysis leads to the conclusion that as living conditions improve and lives get longer, young people simply have too much to lose by going to church year after year.

* this could explain why old people make up such a large proportion of many church congregations with over-65s accounting for more than a quarter of regular churchgoers.

Dr Elissaios Papyrakis said:
‘We show that higher life expectancy discounts expected benefits in the afterlife and is therefore likely to lead to postponement of religiosity, without necessarily jeopardising benefits in the afterlife."

In Britain, only 15 per cent of people go to church at least once a month.


The Report :
http://www.uea.ac.uk/polopoly_fs/1.149400!WP21%20Final%20version.pdf