The notion, irritating to humanists, that faith leads to greater civic participation turns out not to be true, says Andrew Copson, citing a new government survey. What the figures show – you have to download a spreadsheet and squint for a while at Table 6 to work this out – is that those who participated in "civic engagement and formal volunteering at least once in the past year" are as likely to be of no faith as to profess one.

Whatever "participation in civic...