Culture of Europe - Religion

Religion

The Eurobarometer Poll 2005 found that, on average, 52% of the citizens of EU member states state that they "believe in God", 27% believe there is some sort of spirit or life force while 18% do not believe there is any sort of spirit, God or life force. 3% declined to answer.

Christianity has been the dominant religion shaping European culture for at least the last 1700 years. Modern philosophical thought has very much been influenced by Christian philosophers such as St Thomas Aquinas and Erasmus.

The most popular religions of Europe are the following (by dominant religion):

  • Christianity
    • Catholicism: Countrieswith significant Catholic populations are Portugal, Spain, Poland, France, Luxembourg, Belgium, Ireland, Scotland (UK), Northern Ireland (UK), Italy, Malta, Austria, Hungary, Slovenia, Croatia, Slovakia and Lithuania.

There are significant Catholic minorities in the Netherlands, southern Germany, Switzerland, the Czech Republic, western and central Belarus, western Ukraine, Hungarian-speaking Romania, parts of Russia, the Latgale region of Latvia, Croatian-speaking Bosnia and Herzegovina, England (UK) and Wales (UK), and indeed small minorities in most of the other European countries.

    • Eastern Orthodoxy: The countries with significant Orthodox populations are Albania, Belarus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Georgia, Greece, Lithuania, Macedonia, Moldova, Montenegro, Romania, Russia, Serbia, Ukraine.
    • Protestantism: Countries with significant Protestant populations are Norway, Iceland, Sweden, Finland, Estonia, Latvia, the United Kingdom, Denmark, the Netherlands, Germany and Switzerland. There are significant minorities in France, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Austria, Hungary, and indeed small minorities in most European countries.
  • Islam: Countries with significant Muslim population are Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Turkey, Kosovo in Serbia, several republics of Russia and Crimea in Ukraine. There are significant minorities in Cyprus, Macedonia, Montenegro and Serbia. as of 2010, about 7-8% of European citizens identified themselves as Muslims, with many of them living in Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, France, Georgia, Germany, the Netherlands, Sweden and Switzerland. PEW Research Centre

Other religions have long existed in Europe, but do not consist of a majority of the population of any country:

  • Judaism, mainly in France, United Kingdom, and Russia; it has been more extensive in Europe, with many Jews living in Poland and Germany in the past, but there was a genocide against Jewish people in the 1940s.
  • Indigenous European pagan traditions and beliefs, many countries.

Some religions are relatively new or sparse in Europe:

  • Hinduism, mainly among Indian immigrants in the United Kingdom.
  • Buddhism, thinly spread throughout Europe, yet it is in Kalmykia in Russia.
  • Rastafari, communities in the United Kingdom, France, Spain, Portugal, Italy and elsewhere.
  • Sikhism and Jainism, both mainly among Indian immigrants in the United Kingdom.
  • West African Vodun and Haitian Vodou (Voodoo), mainly among West African and black Caribbean immigrants in the United Kingdom and France.
  • Traditional African Religions (including Muti), mainly in the United Kingdom and France.

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Famous quotes containing the word religion:

    “In the latter part of the seventeenth century, according to the historian of Dunstable, “Towns were directed to erect ‘a cage’ near the meeting-house, and in this all offenders against the sanctity of the Sabbath were confined.” Society has relaxed a little from its strictness, one would say, but I presume that there is not less religion than formerly. If the ligature is found to be loosened in one part, it is only drawn the tighter in another.”
    —Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)

    “As for Hitler, his professed religion unhesitatingly juxtaposed the God-Providence and Valhalla. Actually his god was an argument at a political meeting and a manner of reaching an impressive climax at the end of speeches.”
    —Albert Camus (1913–1960)

    “Those to whom God has imparted religion by feeling of the heart are very fortunate and are rightly convinced. But to those who do not have it, we can give it only by reasoning, waiting for God to give it by feeling of the heart—without which faith is only human and useless for salvation.”
    —Blaise Pascal (1623–1662)