Europe and religion

>>2570475
because religion is a spook and the more educated you become the less you believe in spooks

>>2570475
>Why did Europe (specifically Western and Northern Europe) drift away from Christianity and religion in general? What caused this?
An extreme form of individualism, to the degree the family unit dissolved, led religion to be separated from its practices and as such reduced to a factual statement, either Christianity is true or it's not. And a lot of them simply don't believe in God while still using Church services. A lot of people also believe in "something higher" that's not the Christian god.
>Are they content with the idea there might not be an afterlife or some kind of being watching over them?
No but that's reality
>I think that specific train of thought is depressing.
It is

>>2570475
>>2570503
It isn't. Go read Nietzsche.

I find nothing depressing about that.

File: 1484383145783.png (501KB, 1131x1064px) Image search: [Google]

501KB, 1131x1064px

>What caused this?
The protestant reformation
When they usurped the authority of rome they were no longer under the patronage of our Lord. They stopped building churches and started building brothels. Monasteries were ransacked and looted. They killed priests and monks. They took jewel encrusted bibles, pulled the diamonds off of them and threw these illuminated manuscripts into the mud to be trampled on by their horses.

>>2570874
bait

>>2570475
Protestant reformation is one thing. Destruction of monasteries for the sake of taking their money held back advancement too.

Renaissance with their hatred for anything Medieval and being absolute Ancientboos is another (and said hateboner for Medieval also stopped advance in sciences, by forcing them to reinvent things already invented then).

And finally, French Revolution. To say that they hated religion would be understatement. Even Communist Revolution didn't hit religion that hard.

>>2570475
Because secular humanism replaced Christianity as a religion in all but name. It was a bloody conflict (just look at the French Revolution) and a shadow conflict for the hearts and minds of the people.

>>2570874
Lets keep doing infrographics within infographics like a neverending spiral.

>>2570874
You can't trust krauts with nothing.

File: IMG_0809.jpg (41KB, 225x350px) Image search: [Google]

41KB, 225x350px

People with higher IQs tend to be atheists

>>2571820
So Jews are atheist?

>>2570475
Luther fucked it up with protestant ideas
Basically german princes and later most of Germany/ Scandinavian went full protestant which allowed the separation of state and church

You may think this is just a change in politics, but personally I think this is a historical indicator that people living in those areas valued Christianity as less important

>>2570792
>> Nietzsche
cringe.jpg

Protestantism has not fared well in post-WWII Europe. Orthodox and Catholic countries have held the faith much better. Even in countries that have historically had both Protestant and non-Protestant Christianity, the Protestant population has fallen relative to the others. Take Switzerland for example.

Even in pairs of countries that are otherwise very similar, Protestant countries have slid into atheism: Belgium has stayed Catholic while the Netherlands has lost Protestantism, Latvia has stayed Christian while Estonia has lost Protestantism, Ireland remains Catholic while the UK has slid to atheism, Austria remains Catholic while Germany (particularly northern Germany) has become atheist.

>>2571832
Reading comprehension

>Tend to be

Anyways, a significant number of Israelis are atheists.

>>2571882
>Protestantism has not fared well in post-WWII Europe
This basically. Both world wars shook people's faith. Camus sums it all up pretty well.
But a big part of the reason Orthodoxy has held up in eastern Europe is because of the iron curtain. Religious institutions were seen as a symbol of resistance to communist rule, particularly in places like Poland and Russia.
As for Catholicism, in the last 15-20 years it has somewhat waned in popularity due to all the abuse scandals (particularly in Ireland). It has been in slow decline in France ever since the Revolution but has had a few revivals depending on who's in government. Right now with a move away from Gaullism in politics and rising trends of immigration it looks to me like Catholicism is declining again.