…and they lived happily ever after in the most atheistic country in the world.
Okay, I don’t actually know for a fact that the Czech Republic is the most atheistic country in the world. I do know, however, that I have never been to a country that has less time for gods and religion, and I have not heard of one either. If Prague is not the most atheistic city on the planet, it is certainly close.
The results of a survey were published in the Czech press yesterday. The question asked in the survey was, “Do you believe in God?” 28% of the respondents said yes, 48% of the respondents said no, and 24% of the respondents said they didn’t know. In case you are interested – my translation of the short Novinky article is here, the Czech original is here.
Keith and I swapped stories last night.
One evening as I was walking towards the tram stop after work, two young men approached me. I recognised them as Mormon missionaries straight away due to their plastic nametags.
“Dobrý večer,” they said sweetly.
“It’s all right,” I said, “you can speak English to me, I’m American.”
They were nice kids – one from Utah and one from Austria, and we had a nice chat. We established early on that I knew quite a bit about their church and that I was 100% sure that I wasn’t interested in going near the place. But what I was interested in was getting an idea of how their work was going.
You see, not only is the Czech Republic the most atheistic place I know, but it also populated almost entirely by drunks, and it has the highest per capita beer consumption of any country in the world. You might actually be able to make a Czech believe in God, or in Jesus, or even in the prophet Joseph Smith and the angel Moroni, but you are never going to convince him to give up his beer.
The Mormon kids were willing to answer me. It seems that they were not actually converting anyone over here, but they had been able to do their charitable work and help people, which they said they were satisfied with.
Keith’s story was about some Jehovah’s Witnesses that had interrupted him and a friend as they were sitting outside and peacefully enjoying their lunch in the early spring sunshine.
“Yeah, we told them they could just fuck right off.”
The Unabating Enlightenment of Max 
So what I love about you; and what I find so contagious about your writing is YOUR PASSION. Your Passion for Politics. and Fairness; for intelligent analysis first -last and always. I have forgotten that passion or suppressed it or lost it somehow in the dullness and stupidity of Tucson. You continue to help me live outside this mindless prison.
Thank you, Aunt Cookie.
I think you are dead on. I do think Czech is the most atheist country in the world. There is no other country with more than half a population claiming they are “atheist.” I currently live in the Czech Republic. The majority of people I asked, including old women (who are usually religious), said flat out that they don’t believe in God or it is not important.
I think this has to do with the fact that one of Czech greatest people, if not the greatest is Jan Hus. He found the Protestant movement in Czech and protested vehemently against the Catholic. The Czech are very proud of him as well as this part of their history.
Cheers,
The history will change. There is true pure BIBLE gospel floating around Czechs. And than they truly realize who Hus was REAL Czech…I believe..there will be more Czechs like him soon.
I think the most atheistic country in the world is Sweden with about 80% of the population being atheistic……..I want to move there. I’m afraid to say that I’m an atheist in America. I fell like they want to crucify me.
I think you would like it here. People are pretty open-minded. I even confessed that I am a satanist to my grandmother. She became interested in what exactly satanism is, and said that she pretty much is an atheist. In the states, I think that would be extremely rare. When we discuss religion and belief in school, the ones who say that they believe in any religion are minority. But it doesn’t matter how stupid the rest of us think religion is, they are still respected. Like I said, we are decently open-minded. Although, this country is not totally devoid of morons.
Yeah, statistically Sweden is the most atheist country in the world.
I love Europe. I mean, I love America too, but I agree with the guy who said it feels like everyone wants to crucify you here if you don’t believe in god. And the religious right, ooh boy, they think they’ve been mandated by a giant space pixie to make the country a democratic theocracy.
Sweden officially is the most Athiest country in the world, roughly 85% of people dont belive in God.
We are doing our part here in Czech Republic to erase every last trace of filthy religion from society. There are small evangelical sects growing and they need to be terminated before they spread. They try to “minister” outside of shopping malls but are thankfully mocked and condemned by the vast majority of the population. But hey, they’re christians, they love feeling persecuted, so it just keeps em goin. idiots 🙂 As far as the poor mormons. MY friends and I are always excited to see them as we try to make their stay here as uncomfortable as possible. They shouldn’t be here. Time to go. Bye Bye. 🙂 We will regain the title as the most atheist country in the world goddamit!!!!
well even though the Czech republic is the most athiest country in Europe it would be impossible for everyone in the country to be athiest. In fact many of the so called athiests are agonistic.
There are still Christians in the Czech republic and Sweeden just as there are Chrisitans in Japan even though Japan too is largely athiest and agonistic nation.
I was a mormon missionary in the Czech Republic. Most people I talked to were atheists. I made a lot of great friends that I still keep in contact with. Verici i neverici. (Believers and Non-Believers) It was definitely one of the most remarkable events of my life. Beautiful country and a beautiful people. Maybe I’m biased, but I think trying “to erase every last trace of …” dedicated young people doing “charitable work and helping people” seems to be a destructive use of time and energy. Most of the Czech atheists I met in my two years in the Czech Republic would be ashamed to be affiliated with such a statement, and I hope in the future, you can find a better reason for existing than being excited to make other people feel uncomfortable and unwelcome no matter their life views.
I’m Czech and I agree with you. (btw. I am Atheist)
You Christians are strange. How can you not believe in the greatness that is Allah? You are worse than the idol-worshipping Hindus. Atheists are deniers of Allah and His works and refuse to submit themselves to His works?
Chcipni svinskej musulmane, litr praseci krve na tvou hlavu
Dobrze prawisz, czeski bracie! Precz z muzulmanska zaraza!!!
Leave the Czech Republic!!!! We don’t want you, we don’t like you!
There is nothing worst than religious fanatics. Organized religion costed more lifes than nazis and communist together. It should have been outlawed long time ago. It’s a plague of human race. And If there would be the end of the world sometimes, It would be becouse of these religious freaks and there stupid wars. Just remember the history!
One word Democide look it up.
Actually it is sweden that has the highest percentage of people that claim to be atheist – something around 65%. Czechs come about the third place worldwide
Sorry, but to say that The Czech Republic is occupied mostly by drunks is very irresponsible statement!!!!!!
It is, of course, not occupied just by drunks..who doesn’t drink beer? Forgot about Germans or English??
Yes, we are atheist but that is due to our past. Whether we are proud of it or not it’s not something to be judged. It is a personal thing – beliefs – I am pretty sure you can find deeply religious people in Czech as well as non-believers. I am an atheist and I find it strange the way people react to it when i tell them about it. it’s just something so normal to us and actually I find it interesting when I meet young people and they are religious. Simply, different backgrounds. I don’t think about God and I don’t know whether he exists or not but I do respect Christians beliefs which I consider to be the pillar of our society. It’s all about respect!
Dobrý komentář…:)
Sweden- Mostly Atheists/Agnostics
-Extremely low crime rate
-Doesn’t participate in wars
-Ranked as one of the highest quality of life
-Healthy, educated, and green.
USA- Mostly Christian
-Crap load of crime (I know this is hard for upperclass to realize)
-Warmongers
-Uneducated(dumb) Fatties 😛
-Where it’s okay to watch people kill each other like crazy on TV, but “God” forbid we see two people make love.
-Serial Killing is primarily an American phenom
WAKE-UP lol! I am an American veteran and a Pantheist (A nature-oriented atheist), I have visited Sweden on several occasions. I love my country for many reasons, but please christians and please patriots do not let pride blind you from the problems we face. The only way we can progress without consuming ourselves is to learn from others 🙂
Fact- More people have died under the sign of the cross than any other symbol. The warmest and most genuine Christians I have met were Swedish. Ironic.
Ireland-Mostly Christian
-Extremely low crime rate
-Doesn’t participate in wars either
-Ranked as having THE highest quality of life
-Healthy, educated and just as green
The fact that America is predominately Christian is not the source of it’s problems. Neither is the fact that Sweden is predominately Atheist the source of it’s success. It depends completely on the people running the counrty and on the people voting for the people running the country or in the case of North Korea it depends on one old sick atheist.
Where did you get these facts that it’s ranked the “highest”? I can’t imagine Ireland being in the top as religious countries usually have far worse equality rights for LGBT-people in their country, denying them the same rights as other citizens (same-sex marriage for example). That should statistically place you lower.
I do however, as a swedish atheist and a strong believer of people’s freedom and rights in a modern democracy, think religious freedom is an important aspect of the today’s society. We need to, if possible as it we have failed again and again, to accept and respect each other’s differences instead of just pondering about with what we ourselves think is right.
It’s sad when a person have to lie to make a point.
Norway(third most non-believing country in the world) has been ranked 1st eight times for the last ten years by UN. Ireland has NEVER been ranked 1st.
Take your lies elsewhere.
This took me literally 10 seconds to find http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2004/nov/18/population.ireland
This took me another 2 minutes http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quality-of-life_index
So who is lying exactly?
2011 study-http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_Development_Index
Difference between Norway HDI (Human Development Index) and Ireland is just 3.5%. Ireland has consistently been ranked in the top 5 for over 5 years.
I am Czech and the only person in my family who believes is my grandma….but we Czechs are going out to prove that religion is not nessicery in our lives…many Czechs will…and Many already have.I love my country and will always respect its past
fail
America leads the world in so many ways, it is a shame it is held back by religious people.
I couldn’t agree more.
Anyway the Czech republic, just like other nations where an majority of people are athiest are now in situations where there are more deaths than birth and fewer women are now having children. In years to come the population for Czech republic and much of Europe will have population declines.
However when Euorpe was religious it was not unusal for the average women to have more than 3 children. So I wonder did religion encourage women to have children and have as much as possible and with out religioun women are encouraged not to have children or have very few children?
No, this is not about religion at all, or just a very little bit. The women have to work in the times you are talking about, they stayed at home. In the times that you are talking about, contraception was not available as it is now. In those time, you are talking about it was usual to have more children (because the women stayed at home and didn’t have any other job) and the social surroundings pushed them to it, if you didn’t have more children you were considered steril. Now if a women has more children, she is considered either stupid (have more children because haven’t studied a university etc) or courageous (having more than two children and going to work!) And as you can see, I am still talking about career mainly, nothing in common with religion. Even religious people can’t afford to have more children, if they do, they can’t do for them all the things, that they could do if they had less children.
I am sorry if my comment is chaotic but I am quite indignant.
I live in the USA… I hate it here… Every Christian is insane and wants to get rid of the Atheists, and maybe you guessed but I’m an Atheist… All the Christians here are idiots when it comes to talking about science and if I ever try to explain anything to them all they say is: “God created everything, I am going to pray for you.” And it pisses me the hell off that Christians say they are right even though
they don’t even listen to PROVEN FACTS. So I either move to the Czech Republic, Sweden or Germany when I get out of college just so I can go somewhere with more Atheists.
Czech Republic Girls…
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