Why Christianity?

Improbable

Hello everyone.

I was recently watching a debate between two parties about religion in a general context and one of the speakers commented that it is an oddity of religions that they are quite localised things. I assume he meant that on the geographical scale. He had quite an interesting image:



As is somewhat obvious from that, there are areas where different faiths intermingle, but also vast areas where a single faith is predominant. That got me to thinking about the following question:

Given that a particular religion happens to be a sort of by-product (That's a really bad word for what I'm trying to express but I can't really think of anything else) of a particular area in some cases, could it not be said that people born in say Spain are only Roman Catholic because of the locale in which they were born? Whereas if they were born in India, they would be Hindu.

So if this is the case, and an individuals religion in these areas are determined by geographical location, what is it that makes an individuals choice to be part of that religion relevant?

Edit: Argh, sorry the picture is so big, gonna try and shrink it

Seaneh

That map seems to confuse a lot of the Caucasus. For some reason it shows buddhism being popular in Degastan, Stavropol and Rostov when in reality it's only real presence in the area is Kalmykia.
This is completely besides the point of course.

Also, picture size is perfect, worry not.


As for the rest.
You're right, and you're wrong.
People born in western Europe are more likely to be culturally Roman Catholic but in reality it's a minority who are practicing or have any idea or interest in what Christianity actually is. Like in Ireland, ask 100 people on the street what religion they are and the majority of them will say Catholic, ask the same 100 people if they believe in God, the number of yes's will be less than the number of Catholics, ask them if they believe that Jesus actually existed, the number of yes's will again fall, ask them if they believe they can have a personal relationship with god, the number falls again, ask them if they believe Jesus died for their sins, again the number falls, ask if Jesus was God, number falls again, and so on. I'd imagine it's the same in India for most "hindu's" it's just something they identify themselves as, it's more cultural than actual faith and in reality the number of Catholics (or Christian's at all) in Europe is a lot lower than the ammount of people who identify themselves as Catholic.

I hope this makes sense?

Also, the map is kind of misleading.
Add North and South America, Oceania, The majority of southern Africa etc to the Christianity side, add about half of asia to the islam side, split India between about 4 religions (although admittidly, majority Hindu), etc.

PDN

Undoubtedly where you're born has an influence, but then you need to consider why different religions predominate in certain places. Usually it is for one of two historical reasons:
a) Their ancestors made a decision to believe something.
b) A decision was forced upon their ancestors by those who believed something.

Interestingly, much of the growth in religion today worldwide is among those who are freely choosing to abandon the form of religion they were taught as children. So, for example, you have growing interest in Buddhism in the Western world, Protestant Christianity is growing dramatically in Latin America, and all forms of Christianity are seeing their primary growth in Asia and the global South.

(in the interests of fairness - I disclose that I too abandoned my childhood faith of atheism )

Another interesting point is that converts tend to be more passionate about their faith than those who are 3rd generation believers and beyond.

Zombrex

Improbable wrote: »

So if this is the case, and an individuals religion in these areas are determined by geographical location, what is it that makes an individuals choice to be part of that religion relevant?

This interesting chart is some what relevant to this discussion.

It shows religion of parent and religion of child in Britain. You can see that most people religious people remain the religion of their parents.

This would be a factor in looking at geographical reasons for religion since most people remain in the geographical region of their parents.

philologos

The UK is only a limited example. In other regions of the world, such as the United States, nearly 50% of the population will change their denomination / belief system in their lifetime. Hinging onto particular countries as if it is the case globally is inaccurate.

Zombrex

Jakkass wrote: »

The UK is only a limited example. In other regions of the world, such as the United States, nearly 50% of the population will change their denomination / belief system in their lifetime. Hinging onto particular countries as if it is the case globally is inaccurate.

+1

that is a great website, the one the study is from. lots of interesting statistics.

The majority of those who have changed did simply go to another Protestant denomination (15%). How different a change that is I guess depends on how you view Protestant faiths.

http://pewforum.org/Faith-in-Flux.aspx

philologos

Dare I say, in a culture like Britain's which had an Established church in varying provinces, and still does in Britain there is a tendency to link church to the established church. The US is a free market of churches as the State doesn't endorse any. Although Ireland on paper doesn't have an established church, the same could be said of it with the RCC as could be said of the CofE in the UK.

The choice in Ireland and the UK can seem a lot like church (RCC / CofE) or no church, rather than a variety of churches or none.

As for the difference between Protestant churches, it depends, I mean I would imagine a liberal Anglican (Episcopal) / Lutheran / Methodist (commonly referred to as mainline Protestants) church would be very different than a conservative Evangelical / Baptist church for example, or indeed their own conservative counterparts.

Zombrex

Jakkass wrote: »

Dare I say, in a culture like Britain's which had an Established church in varying provinces, and still does in Britain there is a tendency to link church to the established church. The US is a free market of churches as the State doesn't endorse any. Although Ireland on paper doesn't have an established church, the same could be said of it with the RCC as could be said of the CofE in the UK.

The choice in Ireland and the UK can seem a lot like church (RCC / CofE) or no church, rather than a variety of churches or none.

As for the difference between Protestant churches, it depends, I mean I would imagine a liberal Anglican (Episcopal) / Lutheran / Methodist (commonly referred to as mainline Protestants) church would be very different than a conservative Evangelical / Baptist church for example, or indeed their own conservative counterparts.

True, I remember a few weeks ago one of the Catholics complaining about the Pope was asked why they didn't just leave the Catholic church. Her response was "Where would I go". It is like it hasn't even occurred to some that there are other religions out there. Where as, as you say, in American there is much more exposure to different Protestant faiths and emphasis on personal choice.

Another interesting statistic from that site is how many Americans regularly visit religious services of other Christian denominations, including Catholics, and how much Christians in America identify with non-Christian supernatural beliefs such as ghosts personal angels astrology etc.

America seems to not just be a melting pop of races and cultures but religions as well.

PDN

Wicknight wrote: »

The majority of those who have changed did simply go to another Protestant denomination (15%). How different a change that is I guess depends on how you view Protestant faiths.

When certain atheists are in their 'let's just make up stuff and ignore the facts' mode then those Protestant denominations are each described as separate versions of Christianity that each claim they are the only true way. :pac:

Zombrex

PDN wrote: »

When certain atheists are in their 'let's just make up stuff and ignore the facts' mode then those Protestant denominations are each described as separate versions of Christianity that each claim they are the only true way. :pac:

what?