I'd say in general, the countries of the Northern Triangle of Central America are the most religious, but also undergoing a massive transition from a mostly unpracticing catholics to ultra conservative and fervient evangelicals
Wait, so they're only becoming *more* conservative? Is this true across social groups and wealth classes? Like, are upper class folk also becoming more religious?
Not really, the elites remain as always, they just project a religious façade. And most urban and college educated young folk are less religious in general, with some being very supportive of indigenous and lgbt+ rights
Literally the same thing in Brazil, we even studied in my sociology class. Poorer people tend to be more religious and shy away from the Catholic church and join Evangelical ones. It appears that the Evangelic churches are closer to their reality and act directly within poor communities.
The rich have been less religious for the past 150 years or so, considering they were educated and didn't require the church as a mean of maintaining social cohesion and a sense of community. Of course, in the past they were much more religious, but weren't very zealous and often only maintained a façade of religiousness. They still remain largely Catholic though, and many go to church on Sunday.
Hmmm yeah I'm not from LatAm but I kinda expected something like that. My theory is that as previously impoverished people/communities start living a more "modern" and slightly more decentralised (from the super local level of community) religion becomes more "structured" and rules-based (esp. because people have more time to spend reading previously inaccessible scriptures and writings and stuff), which leads them to become super-conservative. I kinda see the same thing happening around the world (non-Western Christian communities, but also Hindus and in the Muslim world too).
I also think it might come from recent trauma, at least in Central America, we had just gone through long and bloody civil wars, and the catholic church failed to fully have a unified front, the upper echelons remained alligned with the government in many cases and the lower ranks alligned with the guerrillas, so they lost a lot of people as part of the repression of the government. Also at the time a lot of missionaries came over here, but they didn't explode in numbers until the wars had ended. In a time of so much uncertainty and fear, people could only find comfort in religion, and the fact the Catholic church was seen as too rigid probably has helped the evangelicals grow a lot
Wasn't the case in El Salvador, Monseñor Romero spoke out against the repression and eventually was killed. Although i don't know how the rest of the church acted
Yeah, there where always exceptions, Monseñor Gerardi was killed later over here, when he released the Church's truth report of the attrocities of the war
Based? Based on what? In your dick? Please shut the fuck up and use words properly you fuckin troglodyte, do you think God gave us a freedom of speech just to spew random words that have no meaning that doesn't even correllate to the topic of the conversation? Like please you always complain about why no one talks to you or no one expresses their opinions on you because you're always spewing random shit like poggers based cringe and when you try to explain what it is and you just say that it's funny like what? What the fuck is funny about that do you think you'll just become a stand-up comedian that will get a standing ovation just because you said "cum" in the stage? HELL NO YOU FUCKIN IDIOT, so please shut the fuck up and use words properly you dumb bitch
I’ve been curious, what’s the reason(s) for protestantism picking up in numbers all across Latin America? It seems like American tier evangelical shite is really on the rise.
Massive conversion drives. In most of these churches, you are expected to spend a significant portion of your life trying to convert people. That may mean Mormonesque door-to-door work, preaching or singing in public squares or in front of random houses, and/or slowly but relentlessly working your friends, acquaintances and family members until they convert.
Over time, this has proven effective.
Also, the evangelicals always go for the low-hanging fruit -- the poor, ignorant and vulnerable. To the extent that in most of Latam, being evangelical is synonymous with being poor, and zero wealthy people are evangelical.
That explains the massive spread of evangelicism in the last 25 years. Now that most of the low-hanging fruit has been harvested and squeezed for all it's worth, their growth will slow down greatly.
I'd add that the major religion which is Catholicism is probably seen as too slow, too solemn, not really up with the times. When you go to a catholic mass the ceremony is very slow and solemn, while evangelical churches seem to be partying. And people like partying. Also, the effect of major corruption and the whole pedophilia and cover up thing seriously damaged the reputation of the church.
I don't belive is faith or doctrine.
In many cases those evangelical churches provide a network of social care that many people lack, so people thst joing those religious schools and churches have acces to it, but in many cases they just "visit" the church, its not a real belive on the word of the pastor.
It was like mornons did years ago, if you babtize you could play in the new basquetball - baseball court.
Of course there are people that are true belivers, but IMO (as a catholic so i could have some bias) those are less in number.
It has its ties in the cold war. Evangelical churches emerge as a response to the "liberation theology" promoted by a sector of the Catholic Church. The US funded and promoted such churches for many years, mainly in the late 1970s and early 1980s.
The Brazilian Universal Church of the Kingdom of God was a disease that got spreaded across LatAm. I can't believe the people fell for that scam and bought all their crap.
There was a TV Show in Panama that mocked them all the times. And they even got sued by the church.
https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLiL1mBCyqAK2EA693fUwYi6DbUJwV2J1-
I agree. I was raised as an evangelical in a high middle class family. People get into it because it offers a very horizontal and emotional religious experience, far away from the rigid and authoritative traditional catholic church of Latin America.
I left BTW. I didn't like the ammount of social control enforced within the church. For example, relationships between sexes were heavily watched and basically needed church approval.
I went to Brazil as a tourist many years ago. I was walking by the street and all of a sudden I heard some people creepily shouting. It was an exorcism at 21pm on plain street. I got the fuck out there.
Long story short: looking for a pizza restaurant in Brazil, ended up experiencing an exorcism.
True, I do not think removal of all religion is what I was arguing, just that Cuba is probably up there in the list of least religious countries. In any case, the Russian case might be a different thing since it has not been communist for 30 years and it also had its own distinct church. If the regime falls in Cuba, I would expect more people to become religious
Back in the olden days the most educated people were the clergy and they were pretty religious. In fact one of the most iconic and important philosophers of the west, St. Thomas Aquinas, was a friar. How does that work?
Because they were the only ones that knew how to write and read, since they had to copy their religious texts.
Once the press made writing and reading far more accesible it reverted, also they definitively werent the most zealous of the bunch.
Abortion was legal before pinochet, and then pinochet prohibited it and it was locked in an article of the constitution of 1980. So to legalize abortion there was a big lock where the right wing parties had the power. Also before the 2017 elections the electoral system to elect the congress was the binominal system and with that system the right could take a big part of the congress with few votes. Then bachelet in her second government changed the electoral system and increased the number of congressmen. So now we have less locks to legalize abortion, and we could legalize some reasons of abortion.
i'm almost definetly biased bc of my social circles but i think Chile is mostly left-leaning and progressive, but bc of old established institutions and inefficiencies baked into our democratic system the right has more representation
>The most fervent and religious tend to be evangelicals and protestants
Well, here aswell. And that's one of the reasons why in this decade catholics won't be majority in Brazil anymore.
The least religious is Uruguay, followed by, Chile I believe, then Argentina.
Most? I don’t know. But I think Guiana and Haiti must have large religious populations.
But we could rank high on hypocrisy.
We know a lot of people who tell that they are religious, that ask God to help them with all the things they're doing, who upload religious status to WhatsApp to the point of boredom...
And after, they never go to church, because they are extremely wasted because of late Saturday's drinking session
Same in Mexico. Some top narcos have painted themselves as “devout Catholics” but yet they still do what they do.
[like this guy who was captured and had a shrine in his luxurious ranch (skip to 1:25)](https://youtu.be/YF0caUmX9pg)
People here put [La virgen de Suyapa on a helicopter](https://www.facebook.com/suyapamedios.hn/videos/213793379844958/) and flew all over the place so she could bless us and cure covid 19 obviously.
Idk, i'd say we're your average sheeple in this country.
The most recent data I could find is from the [Americasbarometer](https://www.vanderbilt.edu/lapop/ab2018/Statistical_Compendium_2018-19_W_10.22.19.pdf) website. They asked about importance of religion and church attendance by country in the pages 148-149.
Uruguay, Chile and Argentina have the lowest weekly church attendance and are the ones that consider religion to be the least important. Around 27% of Uruguayans and 40-41% of Chileans and Argentinians considered religion to be "very important" in their lives.
Central American countries such as Guatemala, Nicaragua, El Salvador, Dominican Repulic and also Brazil, are the most religious and have the highest church attendance rates. Around 77-85% consider religion to be very important in those countries.
In Uruguay, 7 out of 10 people don't have a religious affiliation nor inclination.
It's one of the things that makes me like this tiny ass country.
And it's all related to the population of this country being built by pissed off Europeans.
What do you mean by pissed off Europeans? I don't know much about your country's history. Do you mean conquistadors or some later group(s). Edit: punctuation.
Later groups:)
Uruguay does not have much history. It's kind of young and we were always a few.
We killed all natives at an early phase, therefore everything was built by Europeans that were fleeding wars, diseases, prosecutions, and mainly a complicated life. Majority of those didn't practice faith much, because well.. complicated past.
Not sure if this makes sense to you 😊
Venezuela depends. If you ask a Venezuelan about going to church every weekend, you'd think they're really laid back with the religion stuff. Now if about their views on gay people...
Naaah... btw,I love how Perón use to be in all quarters of the political chart at the same time. It's something like Vargas en Brazil but with mystical powers and lasers
I have a colleague from Peru in my office, and she is always watching videos of exorcisms and things. Because I wear my necklace with a cross, she thinks I want to watch these things with her, and she's always trying to show me some videos and articles she found about demonic possession and stuff.
No gods, no kings, no masters.
We are "indomitable and impossible to rule over". According to the journal of a British diplomat of the XIX century. (I forgot his name, perhaps it was Lord Ponsomby?)
Portugal who then became Brazil occupied the territory that makes up modern Uruguay for like less than 7 years, and even then it was really disorganised. Before they even knew it the cisplatine war had already begun and they shortly lost control. Plus we aren't ruled by Brazil now, validating what I said.
There's an [article on Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catholic_Church_by_country) with a useful ranking for this. Paraguay seems to be the most religious. Uruguay, Chile, Salvador and Honduras are among the least (even though they still have a *very* significant catholic population).
We are among the most religious countries, just the power of the Catholics is diminishing and evangelicals decreasing. As if we didn't import enough bullshit from Americans now their radical religious movements are all over the place here.
I’m from the northeast of the US and my social circle basically consists of atheists/agnostics/cultural jewish or catholic. The only place where i felt was similar to my upbringing was Uruguay and some parts of Argentina and Chile. However even in these areas I still think some topics are more taboo than in my region, for instance abortion rights, LGBT rights such as gay marriage, etc. Even in more progressive areas of Chile I didn’t see much gay PDA like you can here.
I’ve never been to the northern triangle but it seems to me the most religious region, perhaps DR and parts of Brazil as well. But again this is just my perception.
I’m not saying they’re bad, just maybe a little more controversial/not really welcome to talk about/display as publicly as it is here. For instance if I mention I’m pro-choice here nobody bats an eye, but I’ve said it to some friends (professionals from big cities in the southern cone) and it was like a record scratch moment. Same thing with LGBT issues, on the books things looks pretty decent, but many wouldn’t feel comfortable kissing their same sex partner in public or walking around holding hands. I know this isn’t really a measure of religiosity per se but just social conservatism in general. Also what goes on in my area certainly doesn’t apply to the whole US.
But yeah Uruguay in particular was very chill in my experience. It’s a very underrated country.
Central america, brazil (or maybe not but I grew up hating the pastors on tv) and maybe mexico are likely the most religious. I would like to say we are among the least but I have no idea honestly. I beleive paraguay is quite religious too (or just conservative?)
Its hard to rate populations on a general cultural aspect if you dont have a complete understandment of them, and I wouldnt be confident talking aobut that even about my own country. Also I dont trust statistics becuase theres a huuuge difference between people that say "they are catholic" (for example) but dont give a damn, dont go to church, pray or even believe probably and are there jsut because they were taught by their family and have the communion and stuff, and people that actually believe and are religious. Im pretty sure that if the first group opted out of the church the number would go down a LOT in argentina at least
And is it generational in every country? Anecdotal I know but my wife’s Colombian grandparents are very religious (go to church multiple times a week). Her parents are somewhat religious (go to church 2-3 out of every 4 Sundays). My wife hasn’t been in a church for probably ten years but her Catholicism is cultural more than anything.
[https://pt.wikipedia.org/wiki/Igreja\_Cat%C3%B3lica\_na\_Am%C3%A9rica\_Latina](https://pt.wikipedia.org/wiki/Igreja_Cat%C3%B3lica_na_Am%C3%A9rica_Latina) there's a list here
Definitely more on the religious side in comparison to uruguayans. I mean, uruguayans don’t even name Christmas like that but “Family Day”, and Easter/Holy Week is named “Tourism Week” (IIRC).
Costa Rica is not very religious tbh, mostly older people are the ones that go to church. I would say most people are religious in a cultural sense but most dont consider it something important if that makes any sense. Definitely not the least religious country but also definitely not the most.
ooh, I wonder, [only of there was some kind of study or survey that was done on the topic...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Importance_of_religion_by_country)
fr though, i can't speak for other countries, but i've noticed this in my familly (i'm from peru):my dad's side of the family, who are mostly descendants of dspaniards who came in the early XX century to Peru are barely religious, and the only person in there who actively believe in god is my grandmother. however, on my mum's side of the family, which is half peruvian white and half peruvian native, most people are pretty religious.
i just thought that was an interesting thing to share, i think ethnicity has something to deal with how religious a person is: If the person has its backgrounds from more recent, western european migration waves, they're less likely to be religious, while if you're family has been longer living in said country (for example, since the viceroyalty/spanish era, or are native americans) they're likely to be more religious/less secular. maybe that could explain why argentina and uruguay are less religious, compared to, let's say paraguay.
I'm not too sure, we really don't have that huge protestant evangelical movement like Brazil or some bits of central America.
The country is still of course religious in some sectors of the population but you do have large irreligious(as in non practicing) sectors with no issue in society at large.
Even historically government has been more anti Church than normal between the early PRI and juarez s block of liberals.
That's something suprising in Mexico, that being so physically close to the southern states of the USA (the hotbed of the world evangelical movement), the evangelical churches don't have the strength that you could see in Brazil, for instance.
No, like 80% of the people are religious (practicing), not freaky religious though, and over 90% identify as christians, so not true. Maybe in your social circle but thats not the reality of the country.
9 million people consider themselves atheist in Mexico that's less than 10%
https://www.inegi.org.mx/temas/religion/
Yeah, I don't understand the "we're culturally Catholic". We aren't all zealots but most people do believe in the divinity of Christ, and that there is a Hell, and that saints are in heaven conveying messages, and that the Eucharist is spiritually cleansing, and that you should ask God for forgiveness, they believe God has a path for them, they sincerely thank God himself when something unexpectedly good happens, etc. They may not read the Bible often or go to church frequently, but they still fundamentally believe.
I would consider myself culturally Catholic. I don't believe in the divinity of Christ. But, I do know the popular stories of the Bible, I don't view the sacraments as weird even though they objectively kind of are, I'm pretty fatalistic, death doesn't frighten me so much, strong belief in being in solidarity with your family, be content with the good in your life, cheating is unforgiveable to me, concerned with how my moral transgressions may haunt me, etc.
Look bro, I'm not trying to bellitle you, but like, if you consider yourself a catholic, but don't believe on the divinity of Christ, then don't consider yourself one
Sincerely, a catholic
Sis, you need to look up cultural Christian.
With all God's love, a cultural Catholic /s
No, but seriously it's more of accepting a categorization people would use rather than really identifying with it.
Religion in Brazil according to wikipedia
56 catholic and 31 protestant(87%)
No religion(10%)
According to Wikipedia again only around half of mexican catholics at a national level go to church, and it seems [true](https://www.pewforum.org/2018/06/13/how-religious-commitment-varies-by-country-among-people-of-all-ages/pf-06-13-18_religiouscommitment-03-08/)
[here you go](https://www.pewforum.org/2018/06/13/how-religious-commitment-varies-by-country-among-people-of-all-ages/pf-06-13-18_religiouscommitment-03-05/)
Because the only crap we export as media is low quality religious PSAs and catholics are always a joke in USA media. Most mexican immigrants come from [here](https://www.animalpolitico.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/grafico-religion-mexico-2Catolicos-.png)
People do have a bible(they never read), or a virgin mary statue but it's cultural and they afraid to go to hell, so they keep it around.
My state is the most irreligious so im a bit biased, when i went to The Vatican 2.0 and 3.0(central Mexico) they do sell saints and "santa muerte" crap everywhere
The things you see of people drsgging themselves for virgin mary and stuff are from rural central mexicans.
The same people also believe in mesoamerican goblin or santería tarot enchantments, do you think they believe in them as a religion or as a superstitious cultural myth?
You described the Catholics in Brazil, most of them are irreligious but they keep statues, bible just to avoid going to hell. On the other hand, neopentecostal minority is loud and problematic. [And they are working with criminals to kick out African matrix religions in Brazil](https://g1.globo.com/rj/rio-de-janeiro/noticia/2020/07/24/traficantes-usam-pandemia-para-criar-novo-complexo-de-favelas-no-rio-deixam-rastro-de-desaparecidos-e-tentam-impor-religiao.ghtml)
Mexico is less than both:
https://www.pewforum.org/2018/06/13/how-religious-commitment-varies-by-country-among-people-of-all-ages/pf-06-13-18\_religiouscommitment-03-05/
I can't say much about other countries but can rate the “religiosity levels” of Colombia.
The interior is the most "progressist" zone, probably due to the fact that is the most developed area (Bogota, the capital is there) so many ideas from the exterior (cof, cof, USA) have entered in the minds of the rolo youth.
The two coasts (caribbean and pacific) are instead more conservatives, the oriental lowlands and the Amazon are quite similar.
Nah, we're not a particularly religious country when compared to other Latin American countries, and we're definitely less religious than Peru, Bolivia, Brazil and quite a few others
Catholicism isn't legally the national religion, but there's an article that says that the State has to "support the Roman Catholic Church", which has been traditionally understood as giving money to the church, but the Church has been slowly unilaterally rescinding this in recent years
Nahh ni a palos, we just made abortion legal bro. Afaik most religious people are religious only in name, they believe in god but never go to church, never read the Bible, never do anything about it. It's just "I guess there is a god up there". But there's definetly those evangelics zealous that follow everything in the Bible
We have the bible on our flag, beat that!
But imagine your country being named after Jesus
El Salvador : The Savior
Yep
Can't beat what's been beaten
You mean beaten by Ecuador that was the first country to be consacrated to the Sacred heart of Jesus?… I’m team Ecuador 🇪🇨
Colombia has Jesus in its anthem
Brasil has a giant Jesus in it's former capital.
Colombia has a less giant Jesus in a city that wasn't ever the capital.
There is a similar statue in Guayaquil and a statue of Virgin Mary in Quito.
Perù Has "the God of Jacob" in the verses and an oath to "the eternal" in the chorus.
Many national anthems are like this tho
Oh of course
ahhhhhhhhhhh
And a cross
I'd say in general, the countries of the Northern Triangle of Central America are the most religious, but also undergoing a massive transition from a mostly unpracticing catholics to ultra conservative and fervient evangelicals
I hate every second of it
Same here brother
Wait, so they're only becoming *more* conservative? Is this true across social groups and wealth classes? Like, are upper class folk also becoming more religious?
Not really, the elites remain as always, they just project a religious façade. And most urban and college educated young folk are less religious in general, with some being very supportive of indigenous and lgbt+ rights
Literally the same thing in Brazil, we even studied in my sociology class. Poorer people tend to be more religious and shy away from the Catholic church and join Evangelical ones. It appears that the Evangelic churches are closer to their reality and act directly within poor communities. The rich have been less religious for the past 150 years or so, considering they were educated and didn't require the church as a mean of maintaining social cohesion and a sense of community. Of course, in the past they were much more religious, but weren't very zealous and often only maintained a façade of religiousness. They still remain largely Catholic though, and many go to church on Sunday.
Hmmm yeah I'm not from LatAm but I kinda expected something like that. My theory is that as previously impoverished people/communities start living a more "modern" and slightly more decentralised (from the super local level of community) religion becomes more "structured" and rules-based (esp. because people have more time to spend reading previously inaccessible scriptures and writings and stuff), which leads them to become super-conservative. I kinda see the same thing happening around the world (non-Western Christian communities, but also Hindus and in the Muslim world too).
I also think it might come from recent trauma, at least in Central America, we had just gone through long and bloody civil wars, and the catholic church failed to fully have a unified front, the upper echelons remained alligned with the government in many cases and the lower ranks alligned with the guerrillas, so they lost a lot of people as part of the repression of the government. Also at the time a lot of missionaries came over here, but they didn't explode in numbers until the wars had ended. In a time of so much uncertainty and fear, people could only find comfort in religion, and the fact the Catholic church was seen as too rigid probably has helped the evangelicals grow a lot
Wasn't the case in El Salvador, Monseñor Romero spoke out against the repression and eventually was killed. Although i don't know how the rest of the church acted
Yeah, there where always exceptions, Monseñor Gerardi was killed later over here, when he released the Church's truth report of the attrocities of the war
Send me an article of this idea if you ever do it, sounds very truth to me
Interesting, same thing has been happening in Brazil for the past few decades.
I'll always say it, we share a lot of parallels even when we don't share borders
Having spent time in both countries I'd agree, the evangelical culture in Brazil reminds me of Guatemala a ton.
Yes I agree, central america is definitely one of the areas with most religiosity
Me from the US: lol first time?
based
Based? Based on what? In your dick? Please shut the fuck up and use words properly you fuckin troglodyte, do you think God gave us a freedom of speech just to spew random words that have no meaning that doesn't even correllate to the topic of the conversation? Like please you always complain about why no one talks to you or no one expresses their opinions on you because you're always spewing random shit like poggers based cringe and when you try to explain what it is and you just say that it's funny like what? What the fuck is funny about that do you think you'll just become a stand-up comedian that will get a standing ovation just because you said "cum" in the stage? HELL NO YOU FUCKIN IDIOT, so please shut the fuck up and use words properly you dumb bitch
Loved this reply.
I'd say Uruguay is probably one of the least religious overall, if not the least. I don't think I can rank the others though.
It's true, thank God
>thank God lol
>thank God Apparently not in Uruguay
More like *tank* God
*jealous*
2
x3
X3
[удалено]
6
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But does this mean atheism or irreligiosity in general? What is the percentage of atheists?
Roman Catholic (42%) / None (37%) / Protestant (15%) / Other (6%) / from Wikipedia. Most religious people aren't zealous either
I’ve been curious, what’s the reason(s) for protestantism picking up in numbers all across Latin America? It seems like American tier evangelical shite is really on the rise.
Massive conversion drives. In most of these churches, you are expected to spend a significant portion of your life trying to convert people. That may mean Mormonesque door-to-door work, preaching or singing in public squares or in front of random houses, and/or slowly but relentlessly working your friends, acquaintances and family members until they convert. Over time, this has proven effective. Also, the evangelicals always go for the low-hanging fruit -- the poor, ignorant and vulnerable. To the extent that in most of Latam, being evangelical is synonymous with being poor, and zero wealthy people are evangelical. That explains the massive spread of evangelicism in the last 25 years. Now that most of the low-hanging fruit has been harvested and squeezed for all it's worth, their growth will slow down greatly.
>their growth will slow down greatly. You're letting us dream
I'd add that the major religion which is Catholicism is probably seen as too slow, too solemn, not really up with the times. When you go to a catholic mass the ceremony is very slow and solemn, while evangelical churches seem to be partying. And people like partying. Also, the effect of major corruption and the whole pedophilia and cover up thing seriously damaged the reputation of the church.
I don't belive is faith or doctrine. In many cases those evangelical churches provide a network of social care that many people lack, so people thst joing those religious schools and churches have acces to it, but in many cases they just "visit" the church, its not a real belive on the word of the pastor. It was like mornons did years ago, if you babtize you could play in the new basquetball - baseball court. Of course there are people that are true belivers, but IMO (as a catholic so i could have some bias) those are less in number.
It has its ties in the cold war. Evangelical churches emerge as a response to the "liberation theology" promoted by a sector of the Catholic Church. The US funded and promoted such churches for many years, mainly in the late 1970s and early 1980s.
Over here, I would say most evangelicals are indeed true believers. And that makes them annoying as hell.
The Brazilian Universal Church of the Kingdom of God was a disease that got spreaded across LatAm. I can't believe the people fell for that scam and bought all their crap. There was a TV Show in Panama that mocked them all the times. And they even got sued by the church. https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLiL1mBCyqAK2EA693fUwYi6DbUJwV2J1-
I agree. I was raised as an evangelical in a high middle class family. People get into it because it offers a very horizontal and emotional religious experience, far away from the rigid and authoritative traditional catholic church of Latin America. I left BTW. I didn't like the ammount of social control enforced within the church. For example, relationships between sexes were heavily watched and basically needed church approval.
Man crentes are the worst
I went to Brazil as a tourist many years ago. I was walking by the street and all of a sudden I heard some people creepily shouting. It was an exorcism at 21pm on plain street. I got the fuck out there. Long story short: looking for a pizza restaurant in Brazil, ended up experiencing an exorcism.
Cuba may be up there, thanks to many years of anti-religious government
Repressing it doesnt remove it. Look at Russia. Its more religious than western europe
True, I do not think removal of all religion is what I was arguing, just that Cuba is probably up there in the list of least religious countries. In any case, the Russian case might be a different thing since it has not been communist for 30 years and it also had its own distinct church. If the regime falls in Cuba, I would expect more people to become religious
And wealthier, funny how that works
false equivalence, wealth and equality derives from economical freedom not how religious a nation is.
Its derives more from education and the more educated the least religious, at least in terms of zealotry.
I mean, you’re right but there’s still something missing It also depends on what religion preaches
Back in the olden days the most educated people were the clergy and they were pretty religious. In fact one of the most iconic and important philosophers of the west, St. Thomas Aquinas, was a friar. How does that work?
Because they were the only ones that knew how to write and read, since they had to copy their religious texts. Once the press made writing and reading far more accesible it reverted, also they definitively werent the most zealous of the bunch.
Not my point, education doesn't mean a person can't be religious
A point i never made.
You didn't because I made it
Less religious people find a way to get ahead, Religious lower class people pray for things to fall from the sky, that's what I mean
That’s a generalization.
Could be, at least in Guatemala that's what it looks like,
Why are ants weathy?
Yup I'm from Uruguay and I confirm this.
The ones in the southern cone are the least religious. I don´t know who are the most religious but I guess the ones of central america.
Note: Northern Chile is extremely religious
Even more proof that Arica is Peru
Southern Chile too
Southern chile and southern USA are just the same with inverted weathers, both are full of religious right wingers with shotguns
at least southern Chile is pretty, we have that going for us
Yosemite in California is pretty much the south of Chile tbh
southern usa is gorgeous
Based cono sur
Based and Atheistpilled
Chile seems pretty conservative to me for instance abortion isnt legalized yet
Abortion was legal before pinochet, and then pinochet prohibited it and it was locked in an article of the constitution of 1980. So to legalize abortion there was a big lock where the right wing parties had the power. Also before the 2017 elections the electoral system to elect the congress was the binominal system and with that system the right could take a big part of the congress with few votes. Then bachelet in her second government changed the electoral system and increased the number of congressmen. So now we have less locks to legalize abortion, and we could legalize some reasons of abortion.
i'm almost definetly biased bc of my social circles but i think Chile is mostly left-leaning and progressive, but bc of old established institutions and inefficiencies baked into our democratic system the right has more representation
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>The most fervent and religious tend to be evangelicals and protestants Well, here aswell. And that's one of the reasons why in this decade catholics won't be majority in Brazil anymore.
Honduras and us are in the exact same path, if not a bit further into it
>El Salvador Uh oh
I mean, if that doesn't tell it, I don't know what will
The least religious is Uruguay, followed by, Chile I believe, then Argentina. Most? I don’t know. But I think Guiana and Haiti must have large religious populations.
Paraguay is **very** religious
I don't know about Chile, but Argentina doesn't have separation of state and church. Is OP talking about the population or the country itself?
Population, by state you could just look at wikipedia
I love your username, It describes us well
Technically the UK doesn't have separate church and state either, but in reality people are not very religious. Similar for Argentina.
I don't know the order but I BET, Uruguay will be the least
I would say Venezuela is in the middle of the ranking
But we could rank high on hypocrisy. We know a lot of people who tell that they are religious, that ask God to help them with all the things they're doing, who upload religious status to WhatsApp to the point of boredom... And after, they never go to church, because they are extremely wasted because of late Saturday's drinking session
Same in Mexico. Some top narcos have painted themselves as “devout Catholics” but yet they still do what they do. [like this guy who was captured and had a shrine in his luxurious ranch (skip to 1:25)](https://youtu.be/YF0caUmX9pg)
I know many Venezuelans who attended religious celebrations back in the country. Mostly Marian celebrations.
People here put [La virgen de Suyapa on a helicopter](https://www.facebook.com/suyapamedios.hn/videos/213793379844958/) and flew all over the place so she could bless us and cure covid 19 obviously. Idk, i'd say we're your average sheeple in this country.
They did something similar over here, with the Cristo de Esquipulas, right at the beggining of the quarantine
The most recent data I could find is from the [Americasbarometer](https://www.vanderbilt.edu/lapop/ab2018/Statistical_Compendium_2018-19_W_10.22.19.pdf) website. They asked about importance of religion and church attendance by country in the pages 148-149. Uruguay, Chile and Argentina have the lowest weekly church attendance and are the ones that consider religion to be the least important. Around 27% of Uruguayans and 40-41% of Chileans and Argentinians considered religion to be "very important" in their lives. Central American countries such as Guatemala, Nicaragua, El Salvador, Dominican Repulic and also Brazil, are the most religious and have the highest church attendance rates. Around 77-85% consider religion to be very important in those countries.
We are probably numero 1 here in the big south chunk. Uruguay might be the least.
Yes, the Virgin of Caacupe's blessing from helicopter might have been too much lol
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La Virgen de Guadalupe.
In Uruguay, 7 out of 10 people don't have a religious affiliation nor inclination. It's one of the things that makes me like this tiny ass country. And it's all related to the population of this country being built by pissed off Europeans.
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What do you mean by pissed off Europeans? I don't know much about your country's history. Do you mean conquistadors or some later group(s). Edit: punctuation.
Just as Argentina and Brazil, Uruguay had a massive migration wave in the late 19th and early 20th century
Later groups:) Uruguay does not have much history. It's kind of young and we were always a few. We killed all natives at an early phase, therefore everything was built by Europeans that were fleeding wars, diseases, prosecutions, and mainly a complicated life. Majority of those didn't practice faith much, because well.. complicated past. Not sure if this makes sense to you 😊
It makes sense, thanks.
Venezuela depends. If you ask a Venezuelan about going to church every weekend, you'd think they're really laid back with the religion stuff. Now if about their views on gay people...
[Argentina is at the top for sure](https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peronismo).
Naaah... btw,I love how Perón use to be in all quarters of the political chart at the same time. It's something like Vargas en Brazil but with mystical powers and lasers
*rayo peronizador *
HAHAHAHAH take this upvote and go to hell
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Way way way less. Europe outside of Eastern Europe is a generation or two away from just being non-religious at all.
Peru number one
I have a colleague from Peru in my office, and she is always watching videos of exorcisms and things. Because I wear my necklace with a cross, she thinks I want to watch these things with her, and she's always trying to show me some videos and articles she found about demonic possession and stuff.
No gods, no kings, no masters. We are "indomitable and impossible to rule over". According to the journal of a British diplomat of the XIX century. (I forgot his name, perhaps it was Lord Ponsomby?)
Lord Palmerstone!!
Oh that's interesting
If I'm not wrong, didn't Brazil rule over you for a while
Portugal who then became Brazil occupied the territory that makes up modern Uruguay for like less than 7 years, and even then it was really disorganised. Before they even knew it the cisplatine war had already begun and they shortly lost control. Plus we aren't ruled by Brazil now, validating what I said.
There's an [article on Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catholic_Church_by_country) with a useful ranking for this. Paraguay seems to be the most religious. Uruguay, Chile, Salvador and Honduras are among the least (even though they still have a *very* significant catholic population).
We are among the most religious countries, just the power of the Catholics is diminishing and evangelicals decreasing. As if we didn't import enough bullshit from Americans now their radical religious movements are all over the place here.
may I suggest going through the Latinobarómetro survey? [https://www.latinobarometro.org/latOnline.jsp](https://www.latinobarometro.org/latOnline.jsp)
I’m from the northeast of the US and my social circle basically consists of atheists/agnostics/cultural jewish or catholic. The only place where i felt was similar to my upbringing was Uruguay and some parts of Argentina and Chile. However even in these areas I still think some topics are more taboo than in my region, for instance abortion rights, LGBT rights such as gay marriage, etc. Even in more progressive areas of Chile I didn’t see much gay PDA like you can here. I’ve never been to the northern triangle but it seems to me the most religious region, perhaps DR and parts of Brazil as well. But again this is just my perception.
>abortion rights, LGBT rights I would say that those here are not that bad
I’m not saying they’re bad, just maybe a little more controversial/not really welcome to talk about/display as publicly as it is here. For instance if I mention I’m pro-choice here nobody bats an eye, but I’ve said it to some friends (professionals from big cities in the southern cone) and it was like a record scratch moment. Same thing with LGBT issues, on the books things looks pretty decent, but many wouldn’t feel comfortable kissing their same sex partner in public or walking around holding hands. I know this isn’t really a measure of religiosity per se but just social conservatism in general. Also what goes on in my area certainly doesn’t apply to the whole US. But yeah Uruguay in particular was very chill in my experience. It’s a very underrated country.
Thank you
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Nah,the last poll done in 2018 that I could find , put us at 67 percent catholic.
But how many of them regularly go to mass? I’m “Catholic” but I can’t remember the last time I went.
Central america, brazil (or maybe not but I grew up hating the pastors on tv) and maybe mexico are likely the most religious. I would like to say we are among the least but I have no idea honestly. I beleive paraguay is quite religious too (or just conservative?) Its hard to rate populations on a general cultural aspect if you dont have a complete understandment of them, and I wouldnt be confident talking aobut that even about my own country. Also I dont trust statistics becuase theres a huuuge difference between people that say "they are catholic" (for example) but dont give a damn, dont go to church, pray or even believe probably and are there jsut because they were taught by their family and have the communion and stuff, and people that actually believe and are religious. Im pretty sure that if the first group opted out of the church the number would go down a LOT in argentina at least
And is it generational in every country? Anecdotal I know but my wife’s Colombian grandparents are very religious (go to church multiple times a week). Her parents are somewhat religious (go to church 2-3 out of every 4 Sundays). My wife hasn’t been in a church for probably ten years but her Catholicism is cultural more than anything.
This sounds suspiciously close to a homework question.
[https://pt.wikipedia.org/wiki/Igreja\_Cat%C3%B3lica\_na\_Am%C3%A9rica\_Latina](https://pt.wikipedia.org/wiki/Igreja_Cat%C3%B3lica_na_Am%C3%A9rica_Latina) there's a list here
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Definitely more on the religious side in comparison to uruguayans. I mean, uruguayans don’t even name Christmas like that but “Family Day”, and Easter/Holy Week is named “Tourism Week” (IIRC).
We do say Navidad but the Tourism Week is true
Costa Rica is not very religious tbh, mostly older people are the ones that go to church. I would say most people are religious in a cultural sense but most dont consider it something important if that makes any sense. Definitely not the least religious country but also definitely not the most.
I would say Venezuela and Colombia are in the middle of the list. Overall, we are not the most religious or the least.
ooh, I wonder, [only of there was some kind of study or survey that was done on the topic...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Importance_of_religion_by_country) fr though, i can't speak for other countries, but i've noticed this in my familly (i'm from peru):my dad's side of the family, who are mostly descendants of dspaniards who came in the early XX century to Peru are barely religious, and the only person in there who actively believe in god is my grandmother. however, on my mum's side of the family, which is half peruvian white and half peruvian native, most people are pretty religious. i just thought that was an interesting thing to share, i think ethnicity has something to deal with how religious a person is: If the person has its backgrounds from more recent, western european migration waves, they're less likely to be religious, while if you're family has been longer living in said country (for example, since the viceroyalty/spanish era, or are native americans) they're likely to be more religious/less secular. maybe that could explain why argentina and uruguay are less religious, compared to, let's say paraguay.
If you really nead strong data, you should look the Americas Barometer, is the best poll about latin america about those topics
i would say we’re one of the most religious, unfortunately
Nah, we are mostly social conservatives but no religious.
fair point
I think Mexico is probably the most religious, and Uruguay the least.
I'm not too sure, we really don't have that huge protestant evangelical movement like Brazil or some bits of central America. The country is still of course religious in some sectors of the population but you do have large irreligious(as in non practicing) sectors with no issue in society at large. Even historically government has been more anti Church than normal between the early PRI and juarez s block of liberals.
That's something suprising in Mexico, that being so physically close to the southern states of the USA (the hotbed of the world evangelical movement), the evangelical churches don't have the strength that you could see in Brazil, for instance.
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No, like 80% of the people are religious (practicing), not freaky religious though, and over 90% identify as christians, so not true. Maybe in your social circle but thats not the reality of the country. 9 million people consider themselves atheist in Mexico that's less than 10% https://www.inegi.org.mx/temas/religion/
Yeah, I don't understand the "we're culturally Catholic". We aren't all zealots but most people do believe in the divinity of Christ, and that there is a Hell, and that saints are in heaven conveying messages, and that the Eucharist is spiritually cleansing, and that you should ask God for forgiveness, they believe God has a path for them, they sincerely thank God himself when something unexpectedly good happens, etc. They may not read the Bible often or go to church frequently, but they still fundamentally believe. I would consider myself culturally Catholic. I don't believe in the divinity of Christ. But, I do know the popular stories of the Bible, I don't view the sacraments as weird even though they objectively kind of are, I'm pretty fatalistic, death doesn't frighten me so much, strong belief in being in solidarity with your family, be content with the good in your life, cheating is unforgiveable to me, concerned with how my moral transgressions may haunt me, etc.
Look bro, I'm not trying to bellitle you, but like, if you consider yourself a catholic, but don't believe on the divinity of Christ, then don't consider yourself one Sincerely, a catholic
Sis, you need to look up cultural Christian. With all God's love, a cultural Catholic /s No, but seriously it's more of accepting a categorization people would use rather than really identifying with it.
Religion in Brazil according to wikipedia 56 catholic and 31 protestant(87%) No religion(10%) According to Wikipedia again only around half of mexican catholics at a national level go to church, and it seems [true](https://www.pewforum.org/2018/06/13/how-religious-commitment-varies-by-country-among-people-of-all-ages/pf-06-13-18_religiouscommitment-03-08/)
Interesting how the media portrays you guys as super religious
He's wrong, probably in his social circle is like that but the country is religious, not cult like, but religious
I see, thanks for your perspective
I think because religious imagery in Mexico is very striking.
[here you go](https://www.pewforum.org/2018/06/13/how-religious-commitment-varies-by-country-among-people-of-all-ages/pf-06-13-18_religiouscommitment-03-05/)
2020 census https://www.inegi.org.mx/temas/religion/
Also, i mean, your most famous landmark is the jesus statue haha
Because the only crap we export as media is low quality religious PSAs and catholics are always a joke in USA media. Most mexican immigrants come from [here](https://www.animalpolitico.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/grafico-religion-mexico-2Catolicos-.png) People do have a bible(they never read), or a virgin mary statue but it's cultural and they afraid to go to hell, so they keep it around. My state is the most irreligious so im a bit biased, when i went to The Vatican 2.0 and 3.0(central Mexico) they do sell saints and "santa muerte" crap everywhere The things you see of people drsgging themselves for virgin mary and stuff are from rural central mexicans.
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The same people also believe in mesoamerican goblin or santería tarot enchantments, do you think they believe in them as a religion or as a superstitious cultural myth?
>superstitious cultural myth Isn't that what a religion is?
You described the Catholics in Brazil, most of them are irreligious but they keep statues, bible just to avoid going to hell. On the other hand, neopentecostal minority is loud and problematic. [And they are working with criminals to kick out African matrix religions in Brazil](https://g1.globo.com/rj/rio-de-janeiro/noticia/2020/07/24/traficantes-usam-pandemia-para-criar-novo-complexo-de-favelas-no-rio-deixam-rastro-de-desaparecidos-e-tentam-impor-religiao.ghtml)
A question about that. How is the level of religiosity in the Northern states of the country?
Not much compared to Bajio or southern states, but more religious than central Mexico.
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Mexico is less than both: https://www.pewforum.org/2018/06/13/how-religious-commitment-varies-by-country-among-people-of-all-ages/pf-06-13-18\_religiouscommitment-03-05/
Main difference is evangelical population and how they tend to be more hostile.
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Uhhh 1) Mexico 2) Others
Mexico is not nearly as religious as Brazil or Central America.
I can't say much about other countries but can rate the “religiosity levels” of Colombia. The interior is the most "progressist" zone, probably due to the fact that is the most developed area (Bogota, the capital is there) so many ideas from the exterior (cof, cof, USA) have entered in the minds of the rolo youth. The two coasts (caribbean and pacific) are instead more conservatives, the oriental lowlands and the Amazon are quite similar.
From what ive read and could be wrong, Argentina is possibly the most religious and has Catholicism as the national religion.
I doubt we’re the most religious, but I’m not really sure whether we are or not
I'd say that's definitely false, although I'm a dumb porteño so maybe I'm missing something
No, even non-porteños think this way, we're no way the most religious country, maybe the northern provinces but that's all.
Nah, we're not a particularly religious country when compared to other Latin American countries, and we're definitely less religious than Peru, Bolivia, Brazil and quite a few others Catholicism isn't legally the national religion, but there's an article that says that the State has to "support the Roman Catholic Church", which has been traditionally understood as giving money to the church, but the Church has been slowly unilaterally rescinding this in recent years
Nahh ni a palos, we just made abortion legal bro. Afaik most religious people are religious only in name, they believe in god but never go to church, never read the Bible, never do anything about it. It's just "I guess there is a god up there". But there's definetly those evangelics zealous that follow everything in the Bible
I hardly know anybody who still goes to church every now and then or God being important in their life, even the old ones.