ScotCen researcher Ian Montagu said: “The decline in religious identity in Scotland has been most keenly felt by the Kirk as fewer and fewer people choose to describe themselves as Church of Scotland by default.
“As each generation coming through is consistently less religious than the last, it is hard to imagine this trend coming to a halt in the near future.”
He added: “However, if the Kirk is able to push through liberalising measures such as allowing ministers to oversee same-sex marriage ceremonies, it is possible that its appeal may broaden somewhat to younger, more socially liberal Scots.”
The Reverend Norman Smith, the convener of the Church of Scotland’s Mission and Discipleship Council, said: “This survey contains no surprises for us a Church, however for us it is only part of the story.
“Other surveys such as that reported recently in the Daily Telegraph show that Christianity continues to have an impact on people’s lives.
“The challenge for us then as Church is to find ways that connect people’s everyday life to faith. We recognise the Church needs to develop new ways of communicating a faith that we believe is still relevant to life in the 21st century.”
The survey found the proportion of Roman Catholics (10%), other Christian affiliations (11%) and those of non-Christian faiths (2%) have remained stable within the Scottish population.
The Scottish Social Attitudes Survey was based on a sample of 1,237 people interviewed between July 2016 and December 2016.
Blogging Theology 
It is an interesting contrast that the Christian church has to liberalize and water down its teachings in order to broaden its appeal, remain relevant, and connect to the lives of people’s everyday life, — while Islam does the very same by remaining true to its core teachings, and standing firm in its traditional conservatism, and is arguably more successful at attracting new converts and adherents.
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