Most religious country
Posted by anime498@reddit | AskBalkans | View on Reddit | 45 comments
Which country in the Balkans is the most religious? Ie has the most active adherants?
Posted by anime498@reddit | AskBalkans | View on Reddit | 45 comments
Which country in the Balkans is the most religious? Ie has the most active adherants?
Careful-Evening-5187@reddit
Greece has one of the highest rated of church attendance in Europe.
alexceltare2@reddit
Step aside, buddy
Substratas@reddit
Really? š«¢
shqiptarski1444@reddit
Itās also the only Balkan country to have a state religion and one of the only in Europe
shqipshqippp@reddit
in terms of believing in some god to any degree, probably kosovo surprisingly, but in terms of impact on daily life, greece
Taliskerhu@reddit
How do you surmise this?
shqipshqippp@reddit
i think kosovo not having islam as state religion, while greece recognizing the greek orthodox church as the āprevaling religionā in the country impacts the way both states go about their relationships with religion there, for starters, and it doesnāt take greek residency to know that
Taliskerhu@reddit
Yeah that's just a factoid, but how does it impact daily life more? Pretty sure you must have lived in Greece long enough to have come to the conclusion.
shqipshqippp@reddit
the āprevailing religionā part is literally the first line of section II, article 3 of the greek constitution lol, so not a factoid, but if you want an example, religious education courses are required for orthodox students in greece from grades 3 to secondary school there. naturally, the more religion and the understanding of it is seeped into such ubiquitous aspects of daily life in greece, the more religious a society becomes as a result. contrast that to a society like communist albania that outlawed religion entirely, and society 2-3 generations removed is made up of people who for the most part, donāt know/care enough about religion to believe in a god, or practice a religion with much devotion as in other places.
Taliskerhu@reddit
Why stop there with your lecture of me, comprised of some googling you just did? Lol
Yes, Greek pupils are taught a course on religion(s). Incidentally my 15 year old was studying yesterday for a test on exactly this, the subject was Islam, its prophet, his story, the customs, Sunny/Shia etc. It's a boring course students snooze through (that makes them as religious as the one on "sociology" makes them sociologists)
It's a factoid, meaning a constitutional remnant of older times, because what do you think it means in practice?
Greece has a state religion, therefore what?
Pretty strange to be so religious, even have a state religion, but be the only Balkan country t have voted for LGBTQ marriage.
Albania ranks last on the list so that's a poor comparison. Not so much a result of enlightened choice maybe though but rather Xoxhaist tyranny ;)
FantasticQuartet@reddit
In practice, it means that the state pays the salaries of priests. Your taxes as a Greek citizen, literally fund the church, it doesn't matter if you're a Muslim, an Induist, an Atheist ect.
Not to mention the government organizing a plane to fly to Jerusalem for the holy light every Easter. Or Mount Athos, an entire land area that is larger than many Greek islands, being a monastic community where female Greek citizens are not allowed to even enter.
Yes, it's true that many Greeks are irreligious and they hardly ever visit church. Yes, we have passed some very progressive policies like the LGBT marriage. But let's not pretend that religion has no impact on the country at all. We still have a long way to go if we want a secular country.
Substratas@reddit
THE MORNING WHAT?!?!?!?!
FantasticQuartet@reddit
Lol yeah. It's been nearly a decade since I last went to school in my small Greek town, so I don't know if anything's changed. But every morning before class started, the teachers would gather us outside the school and one student would recite the morning prayer "ĻάĻĪµĻ Ī·Ī¼Ļν". Once the prayer was done, the school day would start.
We would also have priests coming at the start of every new school year, to perform a small ceremony and give blessings to the class. There were even times where the teachers would organize small field trips to a church, so the class can participate in the liturgy.
Back then, I used to think these things were normal, because that's all I ever knew. But learning about the school systems of other countries as an adult, I realized how banana republic Greece is in this specific regard.
FuelTheRadiance@reddit
Sounds cool to me.
Taliskerhu@reddit
That's so, but I'm asking a bunch of redditors who are parroting the point because they've seen it mentioned on Reddit, what it means in practice.
They don't know.
You know, because you're Greek. But unlike them, you also know the kind of relationship Greeks have with church. No one pretends it has no impact, the question was who's the most religious.
shqipshqippp@reddit
maybe i am getting on the wrong foot, because a factoid is a false statement repeated so often it becomes fact, which i assumed you insinuated as you outright denying a link between church and state in greece, but the matter iām explaining is how religion is tied to ethnicity between balkan nations.
for a country like greece or serbia for instance, āgreekā or āserbianā identity has unquestionably been tied to religious affiliation for centuries, expanding to even many aspects of modern day society when addressing immigrant/minority groups in the respective countries (i.e. to be truly Greek, is to be a Greek Orthodox), whereas for Albanians in places including Kosovo, identity and nationality is tied to linguistics and culture, religion itself being a byproduct of family legacy more than all else. i am roman catholic, and i would describe myself as still being albanian first, as do the wide majority of kosovar albanians, which is why i consider them to not be religious when coming down to daily affairs, as my religious background wouldnāt change anything about my status in an interaction iād have with someone from kosovo. thereās a reason why the saying from poet Pashko Vasa āthe only religion of Albanians is Albanianismā is quoted as such
Taliskerhu@reddit
Holy molly...
What makes you think it's any different for Greeks and that a Greek Protestant wouldn't describe himself as Greek first or be immediately understood as just another Greek? We don't follow people around until we can confirm what church they go to, if they do.
I happened to have a Greek Jewish classmate - she was exempt from the course mentioned above, and that was how we found out she was Jewish, we shrugged, and everyone moved on. She was as Greek as any of us indistinguishable.
But we can't keep doodling like this. You said it impacts daily life more than all other Balkans, okay bold, I ask how so, you brought up the religions course, which is pretty standard, now it's about "centuries".
cevapi-rakija-repeat@reddit
As an outsider who was present in both Albania and Kosovo for Ramadan, there was definitely a clear difference. It seemed to be an afterthought in Tirana but many more people were adhering to it in Prishtina.
Barbak86@reddit
Prizren is highly religiously performative even for Kosovo standards (together with Mitrovica and Vushtrri/VuƧitƫrna). On other towns you can find alcohol. Even in Prizren you could find Alcohol, you just need to know which bars are owned by the Fan people (Catholic Albanians)
Barbak86@reddit
It's a hard question if we don't define what "religious" means.
From my understanding, I would argue that Bosnia is the most religious one, since religious affiliation dictates Ethnicity, political views etc. Does it mean they pray and attend services more than others? Not really, but Religion defines everything in Bosnia, no matter if you believe or not.
lelebato@reddit
I mean thatās true but itās not a religion itself (in a spiritual way) but the only major divisive factor between the three peoples of Bosnia is religion (and in most cases it defines ethnicity as well).
But that wouldnāt count as being religious since theyāre simply not, Serbs and Croats might even be slightly more religious there than in Serbia and Croatia but overall they donāt care about religion much
jogurtdukat@reddit
Religion isn't the main and certainly isn't the only divising factor. The main divisive factor is the assumption that the other two peoples want to destroy the third (you can pick any permutation of the people's for the roles and it would be true). And the recent (or a bit less recent) attempts of exactly that.
Barbak86@reddit
Totally agree with you. That's why I started pointing out the problematic of defining "religious".
What do we mean by a religious country or people? Performative religiousness among the people? Nominal identification with a Religion? Political weight of religious institutions? Religion defining ethnic identity?
Kosovo scores extremely high on "people declaring themselves as part of a religion", but religion has a very weak influence on politics. Real Religious people don't even have the political muscle to push primary and secondary schools to let girls wear a hijab, in a country that's nominally +90% Muslim. The idea of having religious classes on school is ridiculed on national tv by people who probably declare themselves as part of a religious community.
So is Kosovo religious? Depends on how you define "Religious". If declaring yourself as part of a religion in the National Census is our parameter, then Kosovo is very very religious. But if we look at the political influence that organized religion has over the countries, Serbia would be much more religious compared to Kosovo.
PasicT@reddit
Ethnicity moreso than religion.
PasicT@reddit
Hard to say, sometimes it's not a country per se but rather an ethnic group or ethnic minority within a country.
Elmalukat@reddit
GreeceĀ
BosniaĀ
TurkeyĀ
Romania
SerbiaĀ
driftstyle28@reddit
Serbia? Not really.
Substratas@reddit
Serbia religious?!?!
https://i.redd.it/c2knt02pmvwg1.gif
NidzoMadjija@reddit
Why's that a surprise?
Beneficial-War-1429@reddit
From my experience,many people(1/3) say they're christians while in reality they're most likely agnostics or just culturally christians(celebrate patroon days,holidays and have icons). Also there are people who are openly atheists
rintzscar@reddit
I'm extremely glad we're not part of this conversation.
EbbPlane1749@reddit
greece
GoHardLive@reddit
No way Greece is more religious than Kosovo lmao
Self-Bitter@reddit
Greece is institutionally the least secular country in the Balkans. But, the cultural influence of Orthodoxy is not different from that in other major Orthodox countries here. At a personal and societal level, Greece however tends to be more liberal.
albo_kapedani@reddit
Romania. By far.
Ill_Chicken550@reddit
Greece, Bosnia, and Romania
Old-Cardiologist2853@reddit
Greece and Bosnia i think.
Organic_Contract_172@reddit
Greece hasnāt even separated the church and state
Substratas@reddit
Neither has Denmark.
Taliskerhu@reddit
https://balkaninsight.com/2018/01/15/religion-remains-powerful-in-balkans-survey-shows-01-15-2018/bi/all-balkan-countries/
Gallup International poll for The Telegraph from 2018.
Surprise surprise, Kosovo wins
Substratas@reddit
https://i.redd.it/ob7oh92igvwg1.gif
Taliskerhu@reddit
shqiptarski1444@reddit
Probably grease or turkey if it counts
chizid@reddit
Definitely grease
Exotic_Flan_2196@reddit
ı am from bosnia take me to america