kalu_miah
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Why some north European countries are the most non-religious? Care to elaborate? They are developed countries, so they care more about material things, but the US and other European countries are also developed, arguably, they even care more, however the percentage of non-religious population is lower. Thanks!
By the way, China so dark!
In answer to your question about Northern Europe particularly Scandinavia, I would like you go through these material, I believe the answer is somewhere in there. My personal opinion, it may have something to do with late arrival of Christianity in these northern areas of Europe, lets say roughly around 1000 AD:
http://www.stavacademy.co.uk/mimir/religionscandinavia.htm
Northvegr Home page
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/28/us/28beliefs.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0
As for China, I think the explanation is quite simple:
Neo
Neo-Confucianism - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
"Neo-Confucianism (simplified Chinese: 宋明理学; traditional Chinese: 宋明理學; pinyin: Sòng-Míng Lǐxué often shortened to 理學) is a moral, ethical, and metaphysical Chinese philosophy influenced by Confucianism, and originated with Han Yu and Li Ao (772-841) in the Tang Dynasty, and became prominent during the Song and Ming dynasties.
Neo-Confucianism was an attempt to create a more rationalist and secular form of Confucianism by rejecting superstitious and mystical elements of Daoism and Buddhism that had influenced Confucianism during and after the Han Dynasty.[1] Although the Neo-Confucianists were critical of Daoism and Buddhism,[2] the two did have an influence on the philosophy, and the Neo-Confucianists borrowed terms and concepts from both. However, unlike the Buddhists and Daoists, who saw metaphysics as a catalyst for spiritual development, religious enlightenment, and immortality, the Neo-Confucianists used metaphysics as a guide for developing a rationalist ethical philosophy.[3]"
http://www2.kenyon.edu/Depts/Religion/Fac/Adler/Writings/Confucianism Today.pdf
Confucius Institute - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
China: Confucianism in early 20th-century China
New Confucianism - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
A Manifesto for a Re-appraisal of Sinology and Reconstruction of Chinese Culture - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Bottom line, whether it is religious or non-religious, there has to be some kind of unifying ideology and cosmology of belief system that is shared by the population for the proper functioning of a large human society, such as a nation state or group of nation states. I think it is a mistake to cutout the spiritual or mystical elements from any shared belief system, one reason for which communism failed. New Confucianism (the latest PRC state sponsored incarnation of Neo-Confucianism) is only decades old, so only time will tell whether it will survive the test of time, specially because of the absence of mystical/spiritual elements in this system. To compete with Christianity, New Confucianism may have to reintroduce those elements from Daoism and Buddhism, in my opinion.