As indigenous religions have spread, they have blended with traditions encountered en route or at their destination. Other traditions have been revived to create new identities or strengthen old ones.
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The reasons why people profess to have no religious affiliation can be diverse, and include lack of interest, a commitment to free-thinking, agnosticism (being undecided), or simply not wishing to be labelled with any mainstream religion. Most tend not to be anti-religious; they are just not pro-religious. The number of professed atheists – those who deny the existence of God – is very small, except in a few countries, primarily the former or currently communist countries, where decades of atheist education has made an impact. Countries where humanist or ethical societies exist often have a strong tradition of opposing the role and power of religion within their culture, although they are not necessarily against religion as such. This is especially a feature of Western countries, due in part to the Enlightenment movement in the 18th century, and its struggle with religious hegemony. There is great interest in such organizations in India, arising from the drive to maintain a secular culture within which all religions can play a part, with no single religion dominating.
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Non-Believers
Over 10% of people claim no allegiance to a religion. Many of these are undecided, but some are atheists, who deny the existence of God.
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Part Three
STRUCTURES
All successful religions survive through the structures they have created over time. The original founder may provide the energy and vision, but it takes the next few generations to ensure the survival of the teachings. The Buddha, for example, was one teacher among hundreds, but his message survived because he created what are known as the Three Jewels: the Buddha, the Dharma (teachings and the true path) and the Sangha (the community of monks and nuns to preserve and pass on the teachings). Strong structures are especially important in the case of the major missionary faiths: the financing of Christian activities by the faithful, and the structure of Islamic Law are two examples. The apparatus involved in spreading the message plays a major role. Faiths have for a long time funded the publication of core texts, but increasing emphasis is being placed on media such as TV, radio and the internet as a means of structuring people’s encounter with core teachings. The relationship between State and religion can be controversial. For many people, the idea that a state should support a specific religion – through either funds or state-provided single-faith religious education – is anathema. The 18th-century insistence on the separation of Church and State, first espoused by the fledgling USA and taken up by France in its revolution, has now become a core tenet of secularism. Yet in Islamic countries such a notion is itself anathema, and almost all are Islamic in law, practice and politics. In Europe, the old Protestant ideal that the religion of the people should be reflected in a State Church and with a religious monarch has begun to diminish, but still is the norm for many countries in Northern Europe, while the Catholic countries of the South of Europe hold on to their position as officially Catholic. Elsewhere, most states that have emerged over the last 100 years, including Australia, Canada, Turkey, India and Angola, have opted for secular constitutions, in which all faiths are recognized and protected, but none is chosen as The Faith. It is through religious education that one can sometimes catch a glimpse of this complex relationship. For example, of the countries that emerged from the collapse of the Soviet Union and its satellites, most have opted for the secular approach. Kyrgyzstan, however, will not permit the teaching of religion or atheism in its state schools, while Afghanistan has opted for Islamic education.
Muslim female pilgrims visiting the citadel of Bam, Iran, prior to the earthquake that destroyed much of this ancient citadel in December 2003
The separation between Church and State only emerged in the late 18th century, as a result of the American Revolution. Many people had fled or migrated to America to escape coercion into a religion that was not theirs, and the idea of a State Church was anathema. Since then, a state independent of, and unaffiliated to, any particular religion has become the norm. Countries that emerged from colonialism during the 20th century have largely opted to be secular states. Within the Muslim world, however, such a divide between religion and State is almost unknown. Islam is a way of life that encompasses legal systems and administration, as well as prayer, instruction and morality. Islam is also recovering ground previously lost to secularism. For example, Iran and Afghanistan have both turned their backs on secular philosophies and reverted to Islamic states. Europe is in a state of transition. Northern Europe tends to be Lutheran or Anglican – traditions that helped create the notion of a distinct nation during the Reformation of the 16th century – but in recent years the Church–State partnership has weakened, exemplified by Sweden, which disestablished its Church in 2000. Southern Europe is Catholic; the Catholic Church held on to these areas in the face of the rise of the Protestant threat. It is the Holy See that negotiates the Church–State relationships in these countries, as with all majority Catholic
countries, leading to a very different relationship from that between Protestants and the State. Elsewhere in the world, religious ties are once again being developed or proposed. In India, one of the major parties overtly campaigns for Hinduism to be the state religion. In Burma and Sri Lanka, Buddhism is used as a rallying point for nationalism in the struggle between the majority culture and minorities.
State Attitudes to Religion
Nearly a quarter of the world’s states have formal links with a religion. Some have links with more than one. A few actively discriminate against all religions.
Christians make up a third of the world’s population, but receive more than half the world’s total annual income. This is because they are concentrated in the industrialized world, and their average annual income, at around $8,000, is well above the world average. This figure disguises an unequal distribution, however. While half of all Christians live in affluence, and over a third are comparatively well off, 13 percent live in poverty. Affiliated church members give over $270 billion to Christian causes. While 40 percent goes towards the running of their denominations and their local church, 60 percent is for agencies founded by Christian groups and run by Christians to support welfare programmes, health and education facilities, religious programmes, aid and development projects, and other charities or foundations. The finances of these parachurch agencies are independent of the Churches. Christians are also heavily involved in financial support of social and development programmes beyond or outside the boundaries of their Church, giving $27.1 billion to secular charities that provide, for example, famine relief, hospitals and medical research. While North Americans and Europeans make the largest individual financial contribution to their Churches, Christians in Africa, Asia and Latin America make a substantial contribution of their time and skills.
Christian Finance
The world’s 2.1 billion Christians donate more than $297 billion a year to support Christian and non-Christian causes.
Until the 1960s, attitudes towards religious education were largely polarized. In many countries it was not offered at all, either because of the separation of Church and State (as in France and the USA), or for ideological reasons
