Nasir Khan
Contrary to the popular image of the eternal existence of the supernatural beings, such as gods and demons, human history bears the testimony that beliefs in deities have also been subject to change. From time to time, old gods were banished but people replaced them with new ones. This was so in many old civilizations, such as Sumerian, Assyrian, Egyptian, Indian, Persian, Greek and Romans, etc.
The people of Nordic countries had their own religions and gods, such Odin, Thor and demons. However, when Christianity finally made inroads in in the Nordic countries, old gods were replaced by a new god. He was Jesus Christ, born as a human being but was believed to have been the eternal god who took on a human form in the shape of Jesus Christ. Despite, the general acceptance of this new god, many people clung to their old traditions and the old gods didn’t completely vanish.
Now, we see a growing number of people in many Nordic countries moving away from the belief in the Christian god or the Christian view of god. The case of Iceland illustrates this growing trend.
Such new developments within the realm of religion, theology and historical traditions in Nordic countries that traditionally had worshiped the Christian God for about a thousand years may come as a surprise to believers in some Afro-Asian countries.
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0.0% of Icelanders 25 years or younger believe God created the world, new poll reveals
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Iceland seems to be on its way to becoming an even more secular nation, according to a new poll. Less than half of Icelanders claim they are religious and more than 40% of young Icelanders identify as atheist. Remarkably the poll failed to find young Icelanders who accept the creation story of the Bible. 93.9% of Icelanders younger than 25 believed the world was created in the big bang, 6.1% either had no opinion or thought it had come into existence through some other means and 0.0% believed it had been created by God.
The poll, which was conducted by the polling firm Maskína on behalf of Siðmennt, The Icelandic Ethical Humanist Association, an association of Icelandic atheists, found that 46.4% of Icelanders identify as religious, which is the lowest figure to date.
Younger people and inhabitants of Reykjavík are least religious
Older people are far more likely to profess religious beliefs and to identify as Christian than those who are younger. 80.6% of those older than 55 identified as Christian and only 11.8% said they were atheists. At the same time 40.5% of people who were 25 years or younger said they were atheists, and only 42% said they were Christian. Traditional Christian beliefs also seem more common outside of Reykjavík, where 77-90% of people identified as Christian and 7.1-18 were atheists, compared to 56.2% of people in Reykjavík who identified as Christian and 31.4% as atheist.0.0% of people younger than 25 believe God created the world
The poll found an even more dramatic difference between different generations when it probed how people believed the world had been created. Of those younger than 25 93.9% said the world had been created in the big bang and 0.0% believed God had created the world. 77.7% of those between 25 and 44 years old believed the world had been created in the big bang and 10.1% believed God had created the world. In all but the oldest age category a majority accepted the big-bang theory. Only 46.1% of those older than 55 believed in the big bang, and nearly a fourth, 24.5% believed God had created the world.People in the oldest category were also most unsure about the origins of existence, as 16.6% of those older than 55 saying they either didn’t know or had no opinion on the origin of the world.
Growing support for separation of Church and State
The poll also found a growing percentage of Icelanders support the full separation of church and state. Out of those who expressed an opinion on the subject 72% supported the full separation of church and state and 28% oppose the separation of church and state. Currently the Icelandic constitution stipulates that the state church of Iceland is the Icelandic Evangelical Lutheran Church.
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