More people in Greece say religion is at least somewhat important to them (80%) than in any other European country, according to a recently published Pew survey.
Pew Research Center posed these questions to 38,426 people in 34 countries in 2019, but released the results only last week.
Greeks by a long shot stated that religion is important to them. In second place was Poland at 69%.
Of all 13 countries surveyed in the European Union, Greece has the largest share of residents who tie belief in God to morality (53%), followed closely by Bulgaria (50%) and Slovakia (45%), the Pew survey found. Still, in many countries on the European continent, relatively few people say it is necessary to believe in God to be moral, including just 9% in Sweden, 14% in the Czech Republic and 15% in France.
Although 80% of Greeks found that religion is importance in their lives, it is still minuscule compared to other survey countries like Indonesia that had 100%, Philippines at 98%, India at 94% and Brazil at 94%.
The Pew survey titled “The Global God Divide,” also found that in 15 countries surveyed, those on the ideological right are significantly more likely to say it is necessary to believe in God in order to be moral and have good values (ideology is self-reported and varies by country). Majorities of those on the right in Greece, U.S., Argentina and Israel say that belief in God is necessary for morality; less than half of those on the left in those countries say the same.
The founding of Christianity and the church is intrinsically connected with the Greeks. The Bible was actually written in three different ancient languages: Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek, many of the early churches were established in the Greek world, and the modern Greek flag has a cross. It is of little surprise then that the majority of Greeks find religion, or more specifically Christian Orthodoxy, to be important in their lives.
