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[Dacke]

That's a 70% membership in the (former) state church. Up until 1951 you couldn’t terminate your membership. Up until 1996 everyone was automatically joined into the church. Today people are automatically joined into the church when baptised as infants. Many people like the church buildings and ritual, and feel that baptising their children is the only way to get access to that.

You can't get out of the church until you come of age. Most people are non-religious and non-political and can't be bothered to terminate their membership. You have to fill in a form and send it by physical mail to your local parish (where most people have never been). This means that many non-religious and even anti-religious people are members of the church. They simply can't be bothered to deal with the bureaucracy required to get out.

If you ask people about their actual beliefs, most people in Sweden are in fact not Christian.

According to the most recent Eurobarometer Poll 2005,
    * 23% of Swedish citizens responded that "they believe there is a god".
    * 53% answered that "they believe there is some sort of spirit or life force".
    * 23% answered that "they do not believe there is any sort of spirit, god, or life force".

[mcc]

*stares* Is that... Guyana they have marked as Hindu?

How did Guyana come to have a significant Hindu population?

[ஒழுக்கின்மை]

ah, didn't know those things; seems reasonable to put them as non-religious, but it's probably that most of them are still officially members of the church that they're colored that way on the map. i can see them reasonably being listed either way.

also, side note, but "53% answered that "they believe there is some sort of spirit or life force"" still sounds iffy to me, since it implies they aren't naturalists, they don't believe the natural world of their senses is all that exists; i wouldn't call someone who doesn't believe in god but who believes in some type of universal spirit / life force instead an atheist or totally non-religious

[ஒழுக்கின்மை]

*stares* Is that... Guyana they have marked as Hindu?

How did Guyana come to have a significant Hindu population?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Religion_in_Guyana

hindu isn't the majority but, if you break up christian into subgroups like that article does, it is the plurality: 28% hindu, which is larger than any other group there

that's probably why it's red, but i would have colored it christian (since if you add up all the christian groups they're larger than 28%)

[mcc]

Well I think I was just curious how a large group of Indian immigrants happened to wind up in that one part of South America.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indo-Guyanese

Looking, apparently in 1833 Britain outlawed slavery, but still had these huge sugar plantations in their territories in Guyana, so they imported huge numbers of workers from British-controlled India to fill the gap. The anti-slavery movement of the time seemed to be of the opinion that the indenture was not altogether voluntary or was basically slavery by another name...

[Dacke]

also, side note, but "53% answered that "they believe there is some sort of spirit or life force"" still sounds iffy to me, since it implies they aren't naturalists, they don't believe the natural world of their senses is all that exists; i wouldn't call someone who doesn't believe in god but who believes in some type of universal spirit / life force instead an atheist or totally non-religious

It is iffy indeed. In many ways, New Age is becoming a bigger problem than organized religion here. But my experience is that most spirit/lifeforce people don't actually believe in supernatural things. Saying that you believe that "there may be a higher power out there" is often seen as a sort of semi-agnostic, non-provocative, super-vague statement over here. Most people haven't made a real effort to sort out what they actually believe in; they know that they don't believe in a god but are unwilling take a clear stance. I think it may be a symptom of people being non-religious enough to not be bothered to even think about it properly.

But I still consider it to be a problem and am active about educating people about the philosophy of science. Explaining that it's a bad thing to believe in things that are unprovable.

[gmx0]

I am part of the independent Baptist movement. It has many parallels to independent game development movement.

___________

What if you convert? Many people convert religions all the time. Maybe you should modify the poll so you can change your vote?

[moi]

There is a giant wizard living in a castle in the sky, he told me to kill you and all your family and to steal your land

[phubans]

In many ways, New Age is becoming a bigger problem than organized religion here.

Yeah, we totally need to watch out for those incense-burning, crystal-healing yogis that are killing people by the thousands to impose their spiritual doctrine.

 

[---]

I wonder how many of those Christians are practicing Christians and not just those who grew up Christians yet disregard their religion.

[Jared C]

Yeah, I mean, I AM Jewish but I do not believe in a higher power. Should I have checked off Atheism?

[paste]

some graph

according to that graph, everyone in the US is Christian?

@Jared C: the way i see it, there's a jewish ethnicity and religion.  just because you're jewish ethnically doesn't mean you subscribe to the religion of judaism.

[mcc]

I wonder how many of those Christians are practicing Christians and not just those who grew up Christians yet disregard their religion.

It would be interesting, along side the "what religion do you identify with?" graph, to see a map of the results of a survey question like "how religious do you consider yourself?" , or map showing % who said "very religious" / % who are nontheists.

[theweirdn8]

The true worshipers will gather together and worship the Lord in the name of Christ Jesus.

[Dacke]

In many ways, New Age is becoming a bigger problem than organized religion here.

Yeah, we totally need to watch out for those incense-burning, crystal-healing yogis that are killing people by the thousands to impose their spiritual doctrine.

 

Yes, we do need to watch out for them. We especially need to look out for people promoting "alternative medicine" like homoeopathy, crystal healing, herbal medicine and so on. They prevent people from getting real treatments, indirectly hurting or even killing people by the thousands.

We also need to watch out for movements that reject science as the primary way to acquire knowledge. When anecdotal evidence, personal opinions and lies are trusted as much as science, people become susceptible to scams, lies and manipulative people.

[Dacke]

Yeah, I mean, I AM Jewish but I do not believe in a higher power. Should I have checked off Atheism?

Yup . Depending on the context, "Jew" can mean that you belong to the Jewish religion or that you belong to the Jewish ethnic/cultural group. In this case the question is about the religion, making you an atheist (and not a Jew) in this context.

[:)]

Blah, blah blahg, Blahblahblh.. Blah. Blahblah?

Blahhhhh. Blhhagahmmblah, blah ha. 

Blah blah blah blah, blah blah blah.

Blah, blablabah blah blahah; blah blah. Blah blah blahlahlhah.
Blalalah?  

Blahb bahbahblah balhahlaghh, blah blahaha.  

[ஒழுக்கின்மை]

some graph

according to that graph, everyone in the US is Christian?

i'm not sure why you would say that. what leads you to believe that?

[C.A. Silbereisen]

The problem with the graph is that it only measures how many people are nominally part of a religious group, not how many actually believe in it and follow its doctrines. There seems to be a whole lot of Christians (for instance) who get baptized out of tradition but rarely actually pray or go to church or even believe in God.

[paste]

some graph

according to that graph, everyone in the US is Christian?

i'm not sure why you would say that. what leads you to believe that?

because the graph showed the entirety of the US as purple, i.e. Christian.