Religion
The majority of residents are Roman Catholic, but there are Jewish and Protestants as well (mostly in Argentina and Chile). Religions include Islam, Anglican, Lutheran, Eastern Orthodox, Buddhism and Dao. Jewish communities have thrived in Argentina and Uruguay. A large proportion of the Argentine Jewish community emigrated to Israel in the aftermath of the Argentine economic crisis at the beginning of the 21st century.
While the Southern Cone has been conservative in some aspects of religion, it has had a tradition of social reform. Uruguay, where agnosticism and atheism is common, has a strong church and state separation policy. It is one of the most secular countries in the Americas. Uruguay, Argentina and Chile, in that order, are the least religious countries in South America. According to a Gallup poll, 51% of Uruguayans, 56% of Argentines, and 60% of Chileans think of religion as something important in their lives, contrasting with the higher values given by the residents of countries such as Brazil (87%), Bolivia (89%) and Paraguay (92%). The following percentages of residents in Uruguay (69%), Argentina (58%) and Chile (52%) think their countries are good places for gay or lesbian people to live. By contrast, lower percentages in the following countries agree with this: Bolivia (24%), Ecuador (31%) and Peru (32%).
Read more about this topic: Southern Cone
Famous quotes containing the word religion:
“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)
“But is it not the fact that religion emanates from the nature, from the moral state of the individual? Is it not therefore true that unless the nature be completely exercised, the moral state harmonised, the religion cannot be healthy?”
—Harriet Martineau (1802–1876)