19% Believe in God
On the plane heading back for Mara's wedding, we picked up a copy of the Prague Post (they give it out free on Czech Airlines). After flipping past the articles about Prague's booming porn industry (fortunately no photos of that or the trade exposition on such held here recently), I found a very interesting article about the state of Christianity in the Czech Republic.
The Czech Church: Not Dead Yet
http://www.praguepost.com/P03/2005/Art/1006/opin1.php
The European Union recently conducted a study of religion in the Czech Republic. It turns out that 19% of Czechs actually believe in God. The 2001 census put the number of professed atheists at 60%, up from 40% in 1991. It's not that Czechs are of some other religious persuasion, they are mostly of none at all.
However, most of the article was actually about the growth of the evangelical church in the Czech Republic. While the established churches (Roman Catholic, Czech Brethren, and Hussites) have been losing members, the evangelical churches are about the only ones growing. Of course, only about 1% of the population is in those churches, so . . .
All this is not to say that Czechs have no spiritual dimension, the same survey that showed that only 19% believe in God also showed that about half believe in "some sort of spirit or life force." According to the article this is called něcismus or somethingism. Hmmm. This is the world in which we live.
The Czech Church: Not Dead Yet
http://www.praguepost.com/P03/2005/Art/1006/opin1.php
The European Union recently conducted a study of religion in the Czech Republic. It turns out that 19% of Czechs actually believe in God. The 2001 census put the number of professed atheists at 60%, up from 40% in 1991. It's not that Czechs are of some other religious persuasion, they are mostly of none at all.
However, most of the article was actually about the growth of the evangelical church in the Czech Republic. While the established churches (Roman Catholic, Czech Brethren, and Hussites) have been losing members, the evangelical churches are about the only ones growing. Of course, only about 1% of the population is in those churches, so . . .
All this is not to say that Czechs have no spiritual dimension, the same survey that showed that only 19% believe in God also showed that about half believe in "some sort of spirit or life force." According to the article this is called něcismus or somethingism. Hmmm. This is the world in which we live.
posted by Matt | 9:51 PM
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