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Denmark, a society with God (sort of)

Explore Danish secularism and its unique perspective on religion, revealing intriguing attitudes towards belief and cultural miscommunication.

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Late last year I reviewed a book by an American sociologist on Danish secularism. The book was titled Society without God: What the Least Religious Nations Can Tell Us About Contentment, and apparently its publication resulted in some controversy in Denmark, in large part due to perceived misrepresentation of the Danish populace by the author. I suspected at the time that part of the issue was that of cultural miscommunication; what "secular" and "religious" are in the United States and Denmark vary a great deal, and the author was attempting to communicate primarily to an American audience to whom the Danish would seem very secular indeed. In any case, I thought it would be informative if I looked in the World Values Survey at differences in attitudes and opinions in regards to religion when comparing Denmark, the United States and Great Britain. The last as an outgroup which I presumed ...

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