Questions of the day: Is Belief in Government,Is Statism, a Religion?

Before deciding your answer; you must consider. During the 16th and 17th centuries, nearly all the monarchs and resulting governments of Scotland, Ireland, and England were defined by religion.

Henry VIII was the first monarch to introduce a new state religion to the English. In 1534, he wanted to divorce his wife, Catherine of Aragon. When Pope Clement VII refused to consent to the divorce, Henry VIII decided to separate the entire country of England from the Roman Catholic Church. The Pope had no more authority over the people of England. This parting of ways opened the door for Protestantism to enter the country.

Protestantism is still the most popular religion practiced in the United Kingdom.

For centuries, it has played a primary role in shaping political and religious life throughout the region. Although a German, Martin Luther, was responsible for the beginnings of the Protestant Reformation in the early 16th century, the United Kingdom, and especially England, developed the Reformation further and produced many of its most notable figures. Protestantism influenced many of England's monarchs in the 16th and 17th centuries, including Henry VIII, Edward VI, Elizabeth I, and James I. Violence was commonplace, and persecution was largely dependent on whether the monarch was Catholic or Protestant. Reformers and early church leaders were greatly persecuted in the first centuries of the Reformation, but the non-conformist movement survived. As a result of the Reformation, Protestantism is the most widely practiced religion in the modern United Kingdom, although participation in the church has weakened in recent years.

Before Protestantism reached England, the Roman Catholic Church was the established state church. Wales and Ireland were also closely tied to Roman Catholicism, but Scotland had been dominated by many pagan religions that the Celts practiced.

The British Isles have experienced a long history of migration from across Europe. The ancient migrations have mainly come via two routes: along the Atlantic coast and from Germany–Scandinavia. The first settlements came in the Palaeolithic and Mesolithic periods. The earliest evidence of human presence in Ireland is dated at 10,500 BC.

 Research into this prehistoric settlement is controversial, with differences of opinion from many academic disciplines. There have been disputes over the sizes of the various immigrations, as well as to whether they were peacefully integrated.

Further information: Prehistoric Britain and Prehistoric Ireland

The British Isles have experienced a long history of migration from across Europe. The ancient migrations have mainly come via two routes: along the Atlantic coast and from Germany–Scandinavia. The first settlements came in the Palaeolithic and Mesolithic periods. The earliest evidence of human presence in Ireland is dated at 10,500 BC

In May 2013 fossilized human footprints were found in newly uncovered sediment on a beach in Happisburgh, Norfolk. These Happisburgh footprints were dated to at least 800,000 years ago, the early Pleistocene. Thirty-two worked flints found in April 2003 at Pakefield on the Suffolk coast are evidence of the settlement of hominini in Britain from about 700,000 BC. A shinbone belonging to "Boxgrove Man", a member of the species Homo heidelbergensis found at Boxgrove Quarry, West Sussex, is the oldest human bone found in Britain, and has been dated at c. 480,000 BC. Evidence of Neanderthal occupation has been found at La Cotte de St Brelade in the island of Jersey dated to c. 250,000 BC. Neanderthals are thought to have appeared in the rest of Britain around 130,000 BC and become the dominant species until their disappearance from the archaeological record c. 30,000 BC. A skull found in Swanscombe in Kent and teeth found at Pontnewydd Cave in Denbighshire are examples of remains found with distinct Neanderthal features.

Cro-Magnons (the first anatomically modern humans) are believed to have arrived in Europe about 40,000 years ago. They are known to have had a presence in the geographical region that was to become Great Britain by 33,000 years before present (BP) due to the discovery of the skeletal remains of the "Red Lady of Paviland. This is actually the skeleton (lacking the skull) of a young man of the Aurignacian culture, and may be the oldest modern human remains yet discovered in Great Britain and Ireland.

A chapter in The Ancient Human Occupation of Britain states that the Last Glacial Maximum "saw an almost complete depopulation of England, Germany and the northern half of France, starting around 23,000 years ago, with the possible exception of rare ephemeral incursions into the southern half of Germany.  Humans probably returned to the region of the British/Irish peninsula about 14,700 years ago as the Ice Age started to end.

 EIGHTY PERCENT OF THE DNA OF MOST BRITONS, ACCORDING TO MODERN RESEARCH, HAS BEEN PASSED DOWN FROM A FEW THOUSAND INDIVIDUALS WHO HUNTED IN THIS REGION AFTER THE LAST ICE AGE. COMPARED TO THIS, SUBSEQUENT MIGRATIONS FROM MAINLAND EUROPE HAD LESS GENETIC IMPACT ON THE BRITISH.

While I am 100% Canadian, nothing else, obviously 100% of my DNA can be traced back to before Cro-Magnons in the area now known as Britain, or, the United Kingdom. Just as obviously, just like everyone else alive in the world today I am a Mongrel, hybrid. My ancestors were pagan, never Satanists. Before someone decided that one version of a BIBLE, GOD, and POLITICAL RELIGION might be a “good” idea “Satanism” did not exist.  

Both Questions answered.