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Question: Question about religion in Eastern Europe!?
The percentage of people who identify as Christian is very high(over 80%) in all Eastern European countries except for The Czech Republic(just 29!.3% Christian) and Estonia(just 24% christian) which are the countries with the most non-religious people in the world!. Why is that!? What caused this huge difference between the two and the rest of Eastern Europe!? Could it be be because of Estonia's proximity to very liberal Scandinavia and Czech Republic's proximity to liberal GermanyWww@QuestionHome@Com


Best Answer - Chosen by Asker:
Probably not the influence of Germany, as this is more religous than the countries you note!.!.!.41% profess belief in God, the majority belong to a church!.
http://www!.christianitytoday!.com/ct/2008!.!.!.

More likely that the COmmunist experience - which not only discouraged Christianity but went further to encourage atheism - had much more to do with this!.

Such discouragement in the long-gone Communist world ranged from putting up barriers to worship (eg!., churches open only on Sunday), to scheduling fun events for youth, to ridiculing religion!. (eg!., the now-defunct Museum of Atheism, Moscow, which showed priests/nuns doing disgusting things!.)

NB The data you provided is very interesting, could you please provide a link to it!?Www@QuestionHome@Com

Possibly, but it is more likely a gap between Orthodox christianity (prevalent further east) and Catholicism (prevalent to the west)!. The Catholic nations seem a lot less religious than the Orthodox ones, though your proximity theory might play a role there as well!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

It is a good question and requires thorough search!. To facilitate your seach / research I am providing you link to the web page citing many references!.Good Luck!!Www@QuestionHome@Com

Communism was more liberal when it came to Christians then any of the other religions!.Www@QuestionHome@Com