Religion

The state is independent of any religion or specific ideology, as anchored in the Czech constitution, which means that the Czech Republic is a secular country. In the European scope, the Czech Republic holds second place on the list of most non-believing countries (after Estonia). In general, the Czech Republic is regarded as one of the most atheistic countries in the world. Truth is that many people are not atheistic (i.e. utterly denying any god-like entity) but agnostic (i.e. not sure if there is or is not anything like that). They often believe in “some sort of power” or have some spiritual experience, but do not identify themselves with any large church. It is no wonder after all, for religion had been historically a tool of oppression and the traditional churches are rather fossilised.

Numbers from the 2005 Eurobarometer poll, studying view on religion of 25 EU countries’ citizens, have shown that 19 % of Czech respondents “believe that there is a god” (second lowest score), 50 % “believe that there is some sort of spirit or life force” (third highest) and 30 % “do not believe that there is something like god, spirit or life force.”

2001 census has shown that 59 % of Czech people are without any religion, whereas 32,2 % are believers. Among organized churches, Roman Catholic is the largest with 26,8 % of all believers. In general, more religious people are in the countryside. There is also difference between Czech areas; Moravia has more believers than Bohemia. Fact is, however, that in every town and village, small or big, is a historic church building to be found – from big important churches to smaller chapels to wayside shrines.

In CB you can visit several facilities of e.g. Roman Catholic Church (St Nicholas Cathedral, Sv. Vojtěch Church, St John Nepomuk Church) or Orthodox Church (Kaple Všech svatých země české).

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