On 16-10-2011 17:36, Warp wrote:
> andrel<byt### [at] gmailcom>  wrote:
>> In the Netherlands we have sort of a state religion, in the sense that
>> our Queen is from a particular church. But all religions that were
>> present in the beginning of the 20th centuries all are treated the same.
>> Yes they have privileges, but giving a church tax breaks does not make
>> the country a theocracy.
>
>    I don't know how it is in Netherlands, but in Finland there's an official
> state church (from the Lutheran denomination) that has official special
> privileges, and special legislature governing it. No other denomination nor
> religion has the same status.

But is the church consulted during the law making process? If not it is 
still not a theocracy. Theocracy means that God and its representatives 
are *ruling*.

>    It's the same in Sweden. Britain naturally also has an official state
> church (which has even larger power, as they coronate the country's
> king/queen, among other things). I don't know about other European
> countries, but AFAIK it's pretty common in most of them.
>
>    In fact, the US is the only western country I know that has no official
> state church. I don't know what the technically official status of countries
> like Canada and Australia is. (Ok, Australia isn't exactly "western", but
> I'm using the colloquial meaning of the word here.)
>
>>>     Yet something like 85% of people in the nordic countries are secular
>>> (and the governments are largely secular), while something like 95% of
>>> people in the US is Christian.
>
>> can you give a reference for those numbers?
>
>    Nope, just repeating what I have heard from sources I consider decently
> reliable. The exact numbers are probably slightly different from those,
> but are probably not very far from them.

WIYF
61% secular for the Netherlands and according to W that is one of the 
highest values in Europe. For Finland I can not find a single value but 
the first line in an article about religion in Finland starts with: 
"Most people in Finland are at least nominally members of a Christian 
church,..."
76% Christian in the states according to W. I'll leave it to you to 
judge if your numbers are "probably not very far from them"


-- 
Apparently you can afford your own dictator for less than 10 cents per 
citizen per day.

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