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Religious scenes (in the US and GB)

Religion is the adherence to codified beliefs and rituals that generally involve a faith in a spiritual nature and a study of inherited ancestral traditions, knowledge and wisdom related to understanding human life. The term "religion" refers to both the personal practices related to faith as well as to the larger shared systems of belief.

There are many definitions of religion, and most have struggled to avoid an overly sharp definition on the one hand, and meaningless generalities on the other. Some have tried to use formalistic, doctrinal definitions and others have tried to use experiential, emotive, intuitive, valuational and ethical factors.

The most popular religions in the world today are:

Christianity 33%

Islam 21%

Non-Adherent (Secular/Atheist/Irreligious/Agnostic/Nontheist) 16%

Hinduism 14%

Chinese folk religion 6%

Buddhism 6%

Primal indigenous ("Pagan") 6%

Now let’s have a look at the religious scene in the US and GB.

America is a highly religious country, and has been since its earliest days. Nearly every religion in the world has adherents or organized institutions in America. Religion in the United States today is built primarily on the structure of Protestantism, Catholicism, and Judaism.

Such religious diversity in the USA can be accounted for in the following way. The immigrants who first came to America from countries all over the world brought a variety of religions. Many came with the express purpose of establishing communities where they could practice their own form of worship without interference or fear of persecution. Although the official separation of Church and State provided a climate for these diverse religious practices to flourish, Protestantism, because of numbers and influence, has until recent decades occupied a dominant position in American society.

Protestantism originated in Reformation, the religious revolution that took place in the Western church in the 16th century. Initially, the term “protestant” meant “to be a witness” rather than, “to be against” as the current popular interpretation of the word seems to imply. In the broader sense of the word, Protestant came to be used as the collective name for those individuals and churches who advocated a formal separation from the Roman Catholic Church.

The first settlers of Massachusetts were members of a radical Protestant group called Puritans. From Puritanism the new American nation took many of its basic values: materialism with little asceticism (mollified by a stress on the importance of religion), moral fervor, and a high regard for law and social order.

Nowadays almost all Americans regard religion as a matter for each adult to determine for himself. Each is free to be religious or not, and to observe religion in whatever ways he chooses, as long as his conduct does not violate the law. Nearly half of citizens (48 %) think that America has had special protection from God for most of its history and only 15 % of the population do not belong to any church or religious community.



The United States had achieved a unique balance between religion and government. They are diverse people of different religious traditions, different intellectual traditions, and so they have to come together and not ask the government to do too much, particularly not ask the government to do too much in promulgating a civil religion that is inevitable.

The United Kingdom is traditionally a Christian state, though of the four constituent countries, only England still has a state faith in the form of an established church. Christianity is the majority religion, and a wide variety of Christian churches, denominations, and sects exists.

During the 20th century, many other religions have established a presence, mainly through immigration, though also partly through the attraction of converts. Those with the most adherents are Hinduism, Sikhism, and various forms of Islam (mainly among immigrants from southern Asia). Apart from a period of expulsion between 1290 and 1656, there has been a Jewish minority in the United Kingdom for many centuries. Other minority faiths include Buddhism, the Baha'i Faith, and Rastafarianism. There are also small neopagan groups, and various organizations which actively promote rationalism and secularism.

There are two established or state churches in Britain: the Church of England, or Anglican Church as it is also called, and the Church of Scotland, or 'Kirk'.

In 1533 the English king, Henry VIII, broke away from Rome and declared himself head of the Church in England. Ever since 1534 the monarch has been Supreme Governor of the Church of England. No one may take the throne who is not a member of the Church of England.

The Church of Scotland is recognised in law (by the Church of Scotland Act 1921) as the national church in Scotland, but is not an established church and is independent of state control in matters spiritual. The Church of Scotland is a Reformed church, with a Presbyterian system of ecclesiastical polity as determined in 1690.

According to the 2001 Census 15% of people in Great Britain (8.6 million people) said they had no religion. 72% of people (41 million) identified themselves as Christian, making it the largest religious group. Muslims were the second largest religious group (1.6 million) and the information provided by them shows a young, tightly clustered, and often disadvantaged, community.

 


Date: 2015-12-17; view: 1039


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