Numbers, Facts and Trends Shaping Your World
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5. Attitudes toward spirituality and religion
Religiously unaffiliated Europeans have predominantly negative view of religion
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- 5. Attitudes toward spirituality and religion
- People who say they are ‘spiritual but not religious’ largely reject biblical God, but believe in higher power of some kind
- ‘Spiritual but not religious’ label most common among ‘nones’ who say they believe in God or a higher power
- Majorities in most Western Europeans countries believe they have a soul
- Religious and/or spiritual people say they have a soul
- In Western Europe, no consensus about spiritual concepts
- Religiously unaffiliated Europeans who believe in a higher power are more likely to embrace other spiritual ideas
- On balance, fewer than half express positive or negative sentiments about religion
- People who say they are not religious do not necessarily view religion as harmful
- Half of Swedes view religion more negatively than positively
- Religiously unaffiliated Europeans have predominantly negative view of religion
- Substantial minorities across Western Europe hold Eastern, New Age or folk beliefs
- ‘Spiritual but not religious’ Europeans more likely to believe in astrology, meditate
- Religiously unaffiliated Europeans who believe in God or a higher power are more likely than other ‘nones’ to engage in alternative beliefs and practices
- Western Europeans tend to see themselves as neither religious nor spiritual
- Identifying as ‘religious’ or ‘spiritual’ is common in Portugal, but less so elsewhere in the region
- Few people across Western Europe show high levels of engagement with alternative beliefs and practices