Macedonians most religious in Europe?

[damian]

Damian your forgetting that under Ottoman rule the priests were the ones who kept us going with our faith, they were instrumental in VMRO.

yah but the way i see the more we get into religion the further away from our language...religion is part of the colonisation process

[skeletor]

I must comment on this even if its an old topic, I was searching atheism macedonia and this is what first came up. So just my thoughts on this.

Many people in macedonia are actually atheists but just dont acknowledge it in public because theres is almost no reason for them too (untill maybe now). For instance church is something macedonians go to on more of a cultural basis. They wont go to church unless its easter or christmas and most of the time they wont go inside but rather gather outside of the church. People who actually went to church every sunday or even involved with the ideologies of the church were kind of seen as either stupid or that theres something wrong with them. This has been the case for macedonians everywhere, from in macedonia to canada to australia. In canada for instance my grandmother used to work at the church and went every sunday when she first came to canada and those days alot of Macedonians went to church on sundays but it was only because it was the place Macedonians went to meet other Macedonians, in toronto there was like 3 different banquet hall rooms where people would gather and the actual "church" part was small and at the most people would go light a candle(if not even do that) and then go chat and hang out with other macedonians, so the basis to even go to church was not actually going to "church" for many. Also when I asked my grandmother recently she said she doesnt believe in god, I told her shes not a christian then.. she said yes im orthodox. But now I see that as more of an ignorance to the actual meaning of being a christian but it all leads to macedonians identifying themselves as "Christian Orthodox" on a cultural basis not an actual religious basis. Now some do believe in some kind of god but to actually read the teachings and live by what the pope or anyone says almost NO ONE does. If anything the majority of Macedonians are probably Agnostic.

Also there still is many actual atheists who dont involve themselves at all with the church but wont state it , remember during the communist days there was no religion, most people didnt really even think about it. Alot are "gradski" people have those views.