According to a recent STEM/MARK survey on faith issues commissioned by Christian NGO Maranatha, only a fifth of people living in the Czech Republic believe in God, 35% of the respondents believe in a higher power, and 23% don’t believe in anything. However, the existence of extraterrestrial civilizations is accepted by 57% of people. More than 1.500 people over 18 took part in the survey via online or telephone interviews.
More than half of the respondents consider that belief in God divides people more than unites them. 48% of believers were brought to faith by family. The belief in God or a higher power was realized by 57% of such people before they reached adulthood.
According to the survey, women over 60 years of age are the biggest group in the Czech Republic that believes in religion. Moravia is the region that people are more likely to believe in God.
During the Covid-19 pandemic, 5% of people changed their attitude towards faith and God, and 2% stopped believing. Almost one-fifth of the respondents started thinking about the meaning of life after the pandemic began.
Regarding their relationship to the Ten Commandments, 57% said they know about the Ten Commandments, but they perceive what is right and wrong even without them. They are essential in the lives of 8% of people. The Bible has not been read at all by 56% of people, and half of the respondents consider it a historical source that is partly based on historical events but should not be taken literally. Another interesting statistic shows that 45% of respondents do not attend church at all at Christmas.
When asked about their knowledge of world religions, the survey found that people most often named Christianity (73%), followed by Islam (71%) and Buddhism (60%), while Hinduism and Judaism followed at a distance.
Concerning the origin of life on Earth, almost half of the respondents believe that it happened by coincidence, 15% of people believe in the intervention of a higher power, and 8% of people think that God intervened. Nearly 62% of respondents are supporters of the theory of evolution.