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We all know that in terms of faith in God and religious practice, Europe is a "dying" continent. Christianity is the traditional religion of the United States, and also most of Europe; however, regular church attendance rates are much higher in the United States (at about 40-50%, though some sources claim lower) than in Europe (between <5 and 15% for most countries) and more importantly, a MUCH higher percentage of Americans still believe in key tenets of the Christian faith (the existence of God, spirits, angels, heaven, hell, Jesus's divinity, etc.) then most European countries polled. The figures for church attendance and beliefs become even more bleak when the survey is limited to younger, native people. In fact, some countries in Europe - if not most in Western Europe - cannot even be called "Christian" any more, because most of their population does not even believe in the essential regiments of Christianity.
Yet there are still places in Europe, isolated as though they may be, where there is much greater devotion and faith than the rest of the country. Some may be associated with various sects and movements, some with the traditional religion of the country, just more preserved.
What are the most religious areas of individual countries in Europe? You can choose your own country, or other countries. I'm especially wondering about Spain and Italy.
Christianity is a dying religion, full stop.. in the UK, christianity dropped significantly relative to the number of atheists (which is now around 25%).. christianity is weakening at an alarming rate.. i have 6 churches within 1 mile of where i live, only 1 is eever used, the others are used for religious education trips for school children. i think turkey/bosnia/kosovo/albania.. all with significant muslim populations.. actually, anywhere with a strong jewish/muslim community, you'll see strong connection to religion, as in, regular visits to the mosque/synagogue. christianity is weakening at an alarming rate, and its not only in europe.
as for italy, the situation is bad there too. 93% of the population is christian, only 30% actually go to church or ACTUALLY practice it.
Spain is not much different. 20% are atheists. 15% actually go to church or practice it.
Religion and nationalism should not mix because the religion suffers. The mission of the church becomes corrupted by politics.
What is the mission of the church? And your church is? Orthodox, Catholic, Protestant, Reformed, Sunni, Shiite, Buddhist, Confucianist, Shintoist... Did nationalism suffer because of the Reformation? Wait a moment, nationalism wasn't even invented when the reformation spread out.
There's not many things I can predict, but one is certain. The belief in god is one of those. We don't need scientific proof to prove that.
As people are more aware of the surrounding world, it will become impossible to justify that their god is the right one. How can you convince other people to think otherwise?
Luckily, rational people don't anymore need a god, they just realize that's a fairytale from 2000 years ago and it ain't a good guideline for their lives. We live in different times.
In some parts of the US and a part in the Arabian peninsula it may take some time, as many people want to keep with this illusion, and grasp onto this god-thing, but that will change. Isn't that a bit ironic? American fundamentalists are at the same line as the jihad-morons.
More and more educated citizens from evert part of the world define the world as they see it, and more and more people realize, that there isn't a god. It's just impossible to exist, as all scripts contradicts each other varying on what suits whom.
During communism, younger generations knew little to nothing about religion because nowhere were books or something else and to churches only old people were going. After 1989, people rediscovered the Orthodox religion and many became religious. This doesn't have to do with the heads of the Orthodox church. As for its collaboration, I'd say it wasn't really such bad, in fact they only applied some 2000 yo principles (Give back to Caesar what is Caesar's and to God what is God's) that the church always applied (to respect the political rulers and pray for them). Thousands of priests were political detainees (together with priests of other denominations). The only really ugly thing they did is that after the supression of Romanian Greek - Catholic Church (created by Vatican around 1700 for the Transylvanian Romanians and having practically Orthodox rituals, the only difference being that its head is the Pope), the Romanian Orthodox church took the churches (buildings) of the former and claimed it was a legitimate act. Meanwhile, the Greek-Catholic priests were the most persecuted.
one glaring error in that map is that northern Ireland is lumped in with the rest of the uk , northern Ireland is probabley more religious than the republic of Ireland and the most religious people there are those who identify as british
And to answer thread's question, Turkey, Romania and Poland are the most religious countries:
But I want to say that most Romanians have not any idea about church's doctrines and teachings, it was a tv reportage and some people believed the bible was written by a Romanian poet. Also, Romania is on the first place at abortions and Romanians are the nastiest people in Europe (maybe only Roma and Muslims are nastier) among themselves.
one glaring error in that map is that northern Ireland is lumped in with the rest of the uk , northern Ireland is probabley more religious than the republic of Ireland and the most religious people there are those who identify as british
I'm sure there are discrepancies in all European countries. It's like saying Scotland should be separate on life expectancy maps because it has the lowest life expectancy and brings the overall UK figure down.
A lot of Czechs believe that we are the most atheist country in the world and they are proud of that. It´s a little weird cause our neighbours are considered to be very religious. On the other hand a lot of locals believe that there is "something" above us and they don´t need to "label" that. There is a huge animosity against Roman Catholicism in the Czech Republic even though a lot people are baptized, especially in eastern part of the Czech Republic called Moravia. I was baptized and it means nothing to me. It doesn´t make me better/worse than my friends.
Personally I don´t understand how an adult, who lives in a rich country and has an access to modern technology, can believe in "key tenets of the Christian faith". Don´t get me wrong I don´t consider myself to be an atheist. I am one of those who believe that there is "something" above us, but I don´t believe in angels, hell or heaven. I think I should be nice to people because it is a good thing to do regardless of religion. Amen :-)
In Portugal, more than half of the people in church are old, between the ages of 60-80 yr. olds. They should also try to put more joyful songs because the songs are all so slow and boring, it makes younger people feel sleepy.
In Spain, I guess you can see them more ( younger people ) practicing their faith every Semana Santa ( Holy Week ).
Semana Santa is FIESTA, not religion. Since all Spanish FIESTAS have a religious origin, and need a priest as "oficiante", foreigners think that Spanish are religious.
Christianity is a dying religion, full stop.. in the UK, christianity dropped significantly relative to the number of atheists (which is now around 25%).. christianity is weakening at an alarming rate.. i have 6 churches within 1 mile of where i live, only 1 is eever used, the others are used for religious education trips for school children. i think turkey/bosnia/kosovo/albania.. all with significant muslim populations.. actually, anywhere with a strong jewish/muslim community, you'll see strong connection to religion, as in, regular visits to the mosque/synagogue. christianity is weakening at an alarming rate, and its not only in europe.
as for italy, the situation is bad there too. 93% of the population is christian, only 30% actually go to church or ACTUALLY practice it.
Spain is not much different. 20% are atheists. 15% actually go to church or practice it.
The biggest fall in church numbers in the UK is the Church of England, and other traditional Protestant as well as Catholics. Yet the only type of churches that are increasing in numbers is the Pentecostal types. New age religions such as Wicca and Paganism is increasing rapidly. The Jewish religion is not really increasing. There are many Jews that are not really religious.
Islam, Buddhism and Hinduism are increasing to the growth of immigrant populations.
There's not many things I can predict, but one is certain. The belief in god is one of those. We don't need scientific proof to prove that.
As people are more aware of the surrounding world, it will become impossible to justify that their god is the right one. How can you convince other people to think otherwise?
Luckily, rational people don't anymore need a god, they just realize that's a fairytale from 2000 years ago and it ain't a good guideline for their lives. We live in different times.
In some parts of the US and a part in the Arabian peninsula it may take some time, as many people want to keep with this illusion, and grasp onto this god-thing, but that will change. Isn't that a bit ironic? American fundamentalists are at the same line as the jihad-morons.
More and more educated citizens from evert part of the world define the world as they see it, and more and more people realize, that there isn't a god. It's just impossible to exist, as all scripts contradicts each other varying on what suits whom.
I think it is a bit too far stretched to say American fundamentalist are at the same line as Jihad-morons. With what is going in Iraq and Syria today where Shia and Sunni groups are at war with each other it is a big difference than America. Yet within Christianity there was a time in the 16th and 17th Century where Catholics and Protestants were at war with each other.
Besides Christianity is in a slow decline in America and all the polls state that. Yet Europeans have much higher number of people that have no religion.
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