Places to Avoid: Malta and Nigeria

[Catsratz]

I recently stumbled over the information that Malta is the world's most religious country, with close to 100% regularly attending church services. And I just found an interesting article (and this table) stating that the population of Nigeria that does not believe in a god is a whopping....0%.

Since the flags given with the table count as graphics, not allowing me to post its entirety, I deleted some countries. Left are the worst and the best of them; those with over 80% religious and under 40% non-religious. (Not much of a "best," is it.)

The U.S., of course, was said to be the most religious country of the developed nations. They said it - I believe it! Disappointed too in Iceland, which I think came in around 48%.

Eurobarometer Poll 2005

Country Belief in a god
Belief in a spirit or life force
Belief in neither a spirit, god, nor life force


Malta 95% 3% 1%
Turkey 90% 2% 1%
Cyprus 90% 7% 2%
Romania 90% 8% 1%

Greece 81% 16% 3%
Portugal 91% 6% 3%
Poland 80% 15% 1%

United Kingdom 38% 40% 20%
Latvia 37% 49% 10%
Slovenia 37% 46% 16%
France 34% 27% 33%
Netherlands 34% 37% 27%
Norway 32% 47% 17%
Denmark 31% 49% 19%
Sweden 23% 53% 23%
Czech Republic 19% 50% 30%
Estonia 16% 54% 26%

[psychodiva]

The fact that a place is noted to be religious doesn't make it a wholly bad place- consider comparisons with the USA which is to my mind an extreme religious society in many ways- I do visit there regularly and find it more religious than Malta which is more akin to the UK than the USA in its treatment of religion and in fact held a protest against the Poop when he visited there a couple of years ago.

Malta- while being religious is not an extreme country such as Saudi or the USA. It is a great place for a holiday- I've spent many a week there enjoying the sunshine and excellent beaches, the ruins - both pre and post Christian and the History of the Knights of St John is fascinating. The tomatoes also are the best in the world and the hiking is excellent.

Nigeria on the other hand is definitely more extreme and I would not visit there if I was paid to do so. It is again a different kind of religion and extreme in the extremity of it if you see what i mean- it is in my view what a lot of USA citizens would like the USA to be - whereas Malta is old in its religion and its treatment of religion.

[Smellyoldgit]

Syria isn't very high on my current list - can't think why

[Sinfidel]

You might want to add Uganda to the list, especially if you are gay and non-celibate.

Uganda will pass a new law against homosexuality by the end of 2012 as a "Christmas gift" to its advocates, the speaker of parliament has said.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-20318436

[Smellyoldgit]

Yup - this crap has been around for quite a while, but at least they're now being thoroughly reasonable in dropping proposals to introduce the death penalty.

How the hell do you deal with people like this? The world seems to be splitting into a two tier arrangement - enlightened, reasonable 21st centuryers - and fuckwits. If these clowns don't want to play, I'd sever all diplomatic relations, cease trade, no more aid, casually bomb their airports and leave them to rot in whatever century they want to live in. I don't think I'll get many votes if I ever stand for world leader.

[nkb]

I'm with psychodiva: A country's religiosity is not a reliable indicator of what it's like to live/visit there.

There's a huge difference between religious zealots and people who are religious out of tradition. It takes very few of the former to fuck things up for everyone else, whereas the latter usually don't bother others.

From my personal experience, I have seen that. I'm from Germany, which is generally considered a secular country. But, I was born, and grew up in Bavaria, which would probably show as being pretty religious (heavily Catholic) based on the criteria above.

However, it's almost more of a cultural thing than anything else. People accept their parents' religion, just like their parents did before them, but most of them don't really think much about it. Everyone, including me, uses phrases with religious connotations, like "Gott sei Dank" (Thanks to God) or "Grüß Gott" (Greetings from God, a very common way to say hello). Generally, Bavarians don't evangelize, their church attendance is slipping, and they don't really give a shit what you are. In fact, I don't think anyone ever asked me what church I went to in Germany, but I hear that all the time in the USA.

But, I can assure you, Bavaria is an awesome place to live or visit.

[psychodiva]

Bombing Malta wouldn't have much of an effect- they already tried that

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siege_o..._(World_War_II)