They take religion very seriously there
Ish, if you consider church attendance the measure of how seriously people take religion, the U.S. has long taken religion more seriously than any other modern Western country, including the Netherlands. Just found a summary of a recent survey, according to which 44% of the U.S. population still goes to church (or temple or mosque) at least once a week. The comparable figure for the Netherlands is 35%.
FYI:
December 10, 1997
Study of worldwide rates of religiosity, church attendance
ANN ARBOR---Even though some Americans worship only once a year, weekly church attendance is higher in the United States than in any other nation at a comparable level of development, according to a worldwide study based at the University of Michigan.
Fully 44 percent of Americans attend church once a week, not counting funerals, christenings and baptisms, compared with 27 percent of people in Great Britain, 21 percent of the French, 4 percent of Swedes and 3 percent of Japanese.
Moreover, 53 percent of Americans say that religion is very important in their lives, compared with 16 percent, 14 percent, and 13 percent, respectively, of the British, French and Germans.
"The stereotype that the American public is more materialistic than other peoples seems to be very misleading, at least by these criteria," says Ronald F. Inglehart, a researcher at the U-M Institute for Social Research and director of the World Values Survey, now covering 60 nations.
Funded by a variety of public and private sources, including the National Science Foundation, the series of global surveys started in 1981. They were last conducted between 1995 and 1997, using representative national samples of each nation's adult population. The latest U.S. figures are based on a sample of 1,839 people.
In addition to comparing religious attitudes and behaviors among nations, the data provide a look at how the religious beliefs of each society have changed over the years.
"In general, the importance of religion has been declining in the developed world," says Inglehart, "whereas in countries experiencing economic stagnation and political uncertainty, religion has remained strong."
The collapse of religion in Northern European countries is particularly striking, he observes. Not only has weekly church attendance plunged, but Latin American countries are now sending missionaries to save the souls of their former colonizers.
Why America is an exception to this global trend is uncertain, although Inglehart suggests several possible explanations. Religion could be a legacy of America's frontier mentality, in which a strong sense of faith was necessary in order to brave the unknown. It could also have a more contemporary cause: a social welfare system less developed than those in most Nordic or European countries.
Finally, according to Inglehart, high American church attendance and interest in religion may also reflect a well-educated and rapidly aging population's search for the meaning and purpose of life. "Besides providing a sense of orientation and insecurity in an insecure world," he says, "one of the functions of religion is to help
satisfy the need to know where we come from and where we are going."
umich.edu
As for the Netherlands, you might be interested in this study, entitled "Secularization in the Netherlands":
scp.nl
The study goes up only to the year 1988, but even then only 43% of the population were identified as "members of a church congregation." That does not mean, of course, that they attended church regularly, let alone once a week.
In 1958 76% of the Dutch population were members of a church congregation. The figure has fallen since then. By 1966 it was 64%, by 1970 61%, by 1980 50% and, in 1991, it was 43%, having fallen
well below 50%. Over the years, church attendance among church members fell. In 1970 67% attended a church service at least once a fortnight; by 1980 the figure was 50% and in 1991 it was 43%. This move away from the church has been going on for a very long time. The decline in church membership began at the end of the nineteenth century.....
jbe
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