Most religious non-Islamic/non-African countries

[jtur88]

Originally Posted by GeoGeeks

Religion in the US doesn't seem to have much influence on government and policies. Maybe in some local areas/states, but even then, things like teaching evolution haven't been taken seriously since the 1930s or something. The Catholic church holds a lot more political power in the Philippines, Latin America or even say Italy which isn't that religious anymore. How does religion in the US have much power? Sure, politicians might appeal to it, but they don't actually do a lot. There's technically supposed to be a separation of church and state, to a greater degree than indeed most European countries. And religion in the US tends to be a more personal/community rather than government/political matter.

But the OP does not address "government and policies", but rather the extent who which religion drives social and cultural value systems. In America, even the atheists exert shrill influence on the exercise of quasi-religious imagery in public view.

[PerseusVeil]

Originally Posted by GeoGeeks

True, the USSR did have a 'moderating' impact there, as it did on Islam in say Uzbekistan or Kazakhstan, but I have heard religion is making a resurgence in Russia and some Soviet republics.

The diaspora is a different matter to Armenia itself. This is about how religious a country is.

Parts of it, yes, but not all of it. Some of the newer immigrants are from Armenia proper, after all.

I also went ahead and decided to Google it, and 98% of the people of Armenia consider themselves Christians, but only 8% attend services weekly.

Originally Posted by irish_bob

what religon do most Armenians adhere to ? ,is it eastern orthodox ?

The Armenian Apostolic Church would fall under the Oriental Orthodox umbrella.

[Fabio SBA]

Originally Posted by Danny Buckhead

Just curious here. I'm Christian and practicing but not a zealot by any means, my belief in regards to religion and the bible is that the spirit is more important than the letter of the book (just like the law) except for when things are plainly laid out (y'all know which verses I am talking about but I don't want to debate) needless to say nobody is perfect and whilst there are some great translations out there all of them are done by humans and all humans have an agenda whether intentional or not. Also sometimes the nuances of language get lost in translation and words have double meanings (random example - that angle is obtuse; stop being obtuse) but y'all get what I mean. Didn't mean to get off topic but I wanted to preface this so that it isn't seeming like I am some zealot looking to get away from Babylon and relocate to some righteous place that doesn't exist.

Anyhow...

We all know the most Islamic religious country would either be Saudi Arabia or Iran depending on the branch of Islam (Sunnite or Shiite), the most Hindu Country would be the only majority Hindu country India, the most Buddhist country (though correct me if I am wrong but Buddhists aren't religious in the Abrahamic sense) would be somewhere like Thailand where it is the majority and official religion and there are lots of monastery's, Tibet as well but it's not a country at this time.

If speaking about Christianity, it would likely be somewhere in Africa like Uganda. But Africa is a place of extremes, extreme Christians in Uganda, extreme Moslems in Nigeria like Boko Haram, extreme wealth from resources like oil and diamonds and also corruption but also extreme poverty and disparity in places like South Africa where you have lovely rich cities like Cape Town but also slums where the majority population has HIV and lives on pennies per day, So to avoid this extreme I am saying besides sub Saharan Africa.


So what's the most religious Christian country? Don't say the USA because that's not so, the majority of folks are Christian but most are only Christmas and Easter Christians outside of the Southeast. Utah is majority Mormon as is one small Polynesian Island that I forgot the name of.

So what's the most religious Christian nation? Philippines? Malta? Somewhere in Latin America? Vatican City has no population that isn't employed by the Church it's not a country where people live and work etc.

Sorry for my grammar I am typing this from a phone. I promise I am not so illiterate!

Thoughts? Nothing inflammatory or offensive to any religion or faith, they are all precious to someone no need to be rude

Thanks!

I can made statements for Brazil.

What I can say is that we acknowledge that our society is one of the most religious of the world, but living in Brazil we note that the religiosity, and particularly the Christianity, is very deceiving.

The Catholic Church in Brazil gave birth to the Liberation Theology, which is a form of catholicism with some tastes of marxism. One of the authors of this theology, Leonardo Boff, was condamned to remain silent by Cardinal Ratzinger (later Pope Benedict XVI). Indeed, catholics in Brazil are in general open-minded and tolerant.

However, the same cannot be said for the neopentecostal churches, which grow increasingly each year. About 20% of the brazilian population is adherent to these churches. But many of them is ruled by inescrupulous priesters, who persuade the most vulnerable people to give them all their money in order to receive some 'grace' of God, while some priesters are ranked in Forbes amongst the billionaries. They procclaim the name of Christ, they use crucifixes, but they can be called by every name, except 'christian'. This is not Christianism, in no way.

Unhappily, a lot of these priesters are achieving a lot of power. There is a very influent parliamentary group of priesters and adherents (the 'evangelical party', although they are not an official party) and rule many - if not most - of the TV channels. And even the TV stations not ruled by them, with exception of four (Globo - perhaps the most famous brazilian station, plus SBT and the state-owned TV Cultura and TV Brasil), sell much of their programming schedule, including the primetime, to these churches. Televangelism occupies most of the programming grid.