I live in Israel, typed it just for fun. I think the issue here is what is "religious." With so many very strictly observant Jews, Muslims and Christians, anyone who is not very observant probably defines themselves as "not religious" though nearly everyone observes the holidays and traditions and probably most of them believe in God. In the U.S. most of those people would be more likely to say they are religious, because they are comparing themselves to atheists. .. . .. the sliding scale.
Reminds me of an old joke about a first-year University of Chicago student who goes home for the holidays. His mother asks, "how are you son?" He replies, "relative to what?"
Flawed quiz. There's no way Sweden can be in second place, when Norway is not even mentioned. Such small (population) and neighboring countries are usually not THAT different, and I am Norwegian, so I know. I know for sure, that not ~50% is Christian or religious. That percent is much lower, and irreligious percent is much higher!
These polls must be a joke or something. Finland and Norway not at least 80% irreligious? Yeah right.
And no, it's not about "boo hoo that's what the people answered" - if you've lived in these countries you know that believers are very, very rare. Walking on the streets you're probably more likely to run into a convicted murderer than a religious person. It's a shame that people behind these polls decided to take a shortcut and just make up numbers out of their heads.
It is possible that people just took the question to mean something different to what you took it to mean. Whether someone is "a religious person" is a very subjective question. For some people it is clear, but not for others.
22% of people in Norway believe in God. Yet over 50% is religious? I agree, that sounds weird.
I'm wondering whether they even did that poll in Norway.
The only reason I can think of, with not having Norway up there, is if the survey was not done in every country. Being from Norway, and being interested in religion, I know there are no surveys done where over 50% of the population said they were religious. That would be insane.
I'm very surprised that Israel made the list considering that they are supposed to be a Jewish country and that it is in the Middle East making the rest of the population likely to be Muslim.
Juche has many aspects of a religion. In my mind, it reaches past a political ideology. In any case, they North Koreans didn't take this poll and aren't included in the source. How many Koreans in the North genuinely believe in Juche is an unknowable question, but I imagine most of them would say they have absolute faith in Great Leader
What? Everyone in Vatican is an immigrant. There are no people born in Vatican at all. The people living in Vatican are clergymen, monks, nuns and such who should not be into babymaking. There has been a few babies born in Vatican though during the WW2 when pregnant jewish women were hiding in Vatican., but those kids for sure did not get a Vatican citizenship.
Yeah, as a Finn myself, I'm totally questioning Finland's absence on this list. We're not religious, I'd know that. Approx. 71% of Finns belong to Evangelical Lutheran Church, yet ≤10% of them are active church goers. The reason for this is that were born as members of the church (as our parents most likely were members) and then we're just too lazy to leave/resign/whateververbissupposedtobecorrect the church.
I expected Finland, Norway, Iceland to be on the list.
But not necessarily Russia, Belgium, Cuba - I'd expect to find Uruguay and Taiwan above those.
Norway has about 22% who believes in God, so how over 50% can be religious is a mystery. My only guess is that the survey this quiz was based on, was not conducted in all countries. Norway and Finland's absent might just have been due to them not being surveyed. Anything else makes little sense to me. As a Norwegian interested in religion, I would have know if there were any survey's where the majority of Norwegian identify as religious.
I think it would be high on the list, but getting good stats out of North Korea is futile. They have largely replaced religion with a cult of personality for the Kim dynasty. According to Wikipedia, about 64% of the citizens might be considered irreligious, but that has to be mostly speculation.
Religion is truly the "Opiate of the masses", as they struggle to survive and strive to purchase eternity in heaven while their leaders bleed them dry so that THEY might live a life of luxury here on earth. I am not being "casually offensive", I am being a realist.
That's hardly realist, it's just as delusional and reductionist as the beliefs you think religious people have. Marx also said, "Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the heart of a heartless world, and the soul of soulless conditions."
Well, a decrease in religiousness does cause an increase in intellectuality and education. Which in their turn benefit factors like wealth, economical stability, freedom, etc.
No, read the above comment again. A decrease in religiosity does not cause increase in education and it has almost nothing to do with whatever the heck "intellectuality" is. The causal chain moves the other direction.
Of all the former Soviet SSRs, apart from Estonia, Azerbaijan is the one I'd expect to show up here the least. Interesting. Is that new following the update? [edit: looking at the stats apparently I've taken this twice before, and I've missed Azerbaijan every time while usually getting all the others. Maybe it will finally sink in this time.]
I got it this time. and now I find it curious that I would make this statement in late 2018 which was after I had visited Moldova, Georgia, and Armenia all of which are extremely religious. ..hmm... oh well at least it finally sank in.
I feel like it’s a tossup on whether a post-communist nation is very religious (Poland, Romania, Armenia) or very atheist (Estonia, Czechia, Azerbaijan). I would love to see an explanation why.
Yeah, I honestly expected more former Communist Bloc countries to be on here, but I've also heard that some Eastern European countries, like Poland and Hungary, are quite conservative. Not sure why there's such a discrepancy. As it turns out according to the source, Slovenia and Latvia are very near misses, and Ukraine and Lithuania aren't very far off either.
Very interesting quiz: What actually is 'Religion'?..... it means different things to different people. Some people are religious because they truly believe that their God is somehow aware of everything and is capable of deciding the fate of the world and all within. Many others say they are 'Religious' because their parents say they are and everyone they know says they are, they don't want to be a troublemaker and the rituals and ceremonies keep them playing along with the crowd. Some people are fence-sitters, they have no real faith or belief in any deity, but when asked about religion answer one that they choose, much like the way some people say they support football teams although they know nothing about them and don't watch them. Then there are those that say they are religious out of fear, fear of being ostracised for not believing, fear of being the odd-one-out, fear of upsetting the status quo or fear of giving offence to all the others that are the same: Which are you?
Poland is one of the most Catholic countries in Europe, and among the most religious and conservative. I think they only get beat out by Romania, Moldova, and maybe the Vatican.
I know the feeling, I guessed Kazakhstan out of boredom (not suprised it wasn't listed)...when I saw Azerbaijan I was like 'ah man, closer than I thought I would!'. :P
Isn't it that the remaining religous parts are like hyper-orthodox or something? From what i've learned a good part is more into 'cultural judaism' (taking part out of tradition and bonding, not out of belief in any supernatural). If this is indeed correct, than Israel seems a bit bipolar to me. :P
Always tricky how it is determined, the Netherlands is according to its own central bureau for statistics only 51% or 52% irreligious, per 2019. It considers this as not being in a deity (mainly focussing on christianity, judaism and islam), quite a bit around here are spiritual though.
Given what i've understood about irreligiousity I thought Iceland would have been in the list, but apparently not.
I've noticed that many people in Protestan countries believe that Catholic countries are very religious. Probably true for Poland but not Spain, France or Ireland. I've never met a religious person in Spain who was born after the 70's
I feel like guessing formerly (or currently) authoritarian countries and guessing European (especially primarily Protestant) countries is a good rule of thumb for this quiz
Hmm. Something seems off with this quiz. I'm especially not buying that Israel is an irreligious country. Some people must have a WAY different definition of "irreligious" than me, idk.
Extremely surprised by Azerbaijan, every Azeri I know is very religious, and the country’s history is super rooted in its Shia Islamic heritage, I’m thinking the numbers might not be accurate
And no, it's not about "boo hoo that's what the people answered" - if you've lived in these countries you know that believers are very, very rare. Walking on the streets you're probably more likely to run into a convicted murderer than a religious person. It's a shame that people behind these polls decided to take a shortcut and just make up numbers out of their heads.
I'm wondering whether they even did that poll in Norway.
The only reason I can think of, with not having Norway up there, is if the survey was not done in every country. Being from Norway, and being interested in religion, I know there are no surveys done where over 50% of the population said they were religious. That would be insane.
It's Called Vatican City :)
I expected Finland, Norway, Iceland to be on the list.
But not necessarily Russia, Belgium, Cuba - I'd expect to find Uruguay and Taiwan above those.
Norway has about 22% who believes in God, so how over 50% can be religious is a mystery. My only guess is that the survey this quiz was based on, was not conducted in all countries. Norway and Finland's absent might just have been due to them not being surveyed. Anything else makes little sense to me. As a Norwegian interested in religion, I would have know if there were any survey's where the majority of Norwegian identify as religious.
Religious countries are obviously still lacking in most of these factors.
the most arch religious of all
Surprinsingly didn't work.
Given what i've understood about irreligiousity I thought Iceland would have been in the list, but apparently not.
Also forgot Azerbaijan :(