Religion
Religion in Estonia (2001)
No religion (70.8%) Lutheranism (13.6%) Eastern Orthodoxy (12.8%) Other religions (2.8%)According to the most recent Eurobarometer Poll 2005, 16% of Estonian citizens responded that "they believe there is a God", whereas 54% answered that "they believe there is some sort of spirit or life force" and 26% that "they do not believe there is any sort of spirit, god, or life force". This, according to the survey, would have made Estonians the most non-religious people in the then 25-member European Union. A survey conducted in 2006–2008 by Gallup showed that 14% of Estonians answered positively to the question: "Is religion an important part of your daily life?", which was the lowest among 143 countries polled.
Less than a third of the population define themselves as believers; of those, the majority are Lutheran, whereas the Russian minority is Eastern Orthodox. Ancient equinoctial traditions (like St John's Day) are held in high regard. In 2000, according to the census, 29.2% of the population considered themselves to be related to any religion, thereof:
- 13.6% Lutheran Christians
- 12.8% Orthodox Christians
- 6,009 Baptists
- 5,745 Roman Catholics
- 4,254 Jehovah's Witnesses
- 2,648 Pentecostals
- 2,515 Old Believers (Schismatic Orthodox Christians)
- 1,561 Adventists
- 1,455 Methodists
- 1,387 Muslims
- 5,008 followers of other religions
There are also a number of smaller Protestant, Jewish, and Buddhist groups. The organisation Maavalla Koda unites adherents of animist traditional religions.
Read more about this topic: Demographics Of Estonia
Famous quotes containing the word religion:
“Never has any one been less a priest than Jesus, never a greater enemy of forms, which stifle religion under the pretext of protecting it. By this we are all his disciples and his successors; by this he has laid the eternal foundation-stone of true religion; and if religion is essential to humanity, he has by this deserved the Divine rank the world has accorded him.”
—Ernest Renan (1823–1892)
“We think of religion as the symbolic expression of our highest moral ideals; we think of magic as a crude aggregate of superstitions. Religious belief seems to become mere superstitious credulity if we admit any relationship with magic. On the other hand our anthropological and ethnographical material makes it extremely difficult to separate the two fields.”
—Ernst Cassirer (1874–1945)
“... it was religion that saved me. Our ugly church and parochial school provided me with my only aesthetic outlet, in the words of the Mass and the litanies and the old Latin hymns, in the Easter lilies around the altar, rosaries, ornamented prayer books, votive lamps, holy cards stamped in gold and decorated with flower wreaths and a saint’s picture.”
—Mary McCarthy (1912–1989)