Today, state religions are not as prominent as they had once been; however, they still exist. Below is a
map of countries currently under an official state religion. As can be seen, the majority of the 193 countries on Earth today do not have an official state religion.
Although a country may not have an official state religion, it may not be secular either. For example, the government of countries such as France and Germany sponsor and fund a particular religion. The relationship between government and religion inspires questions that I hope to answer through research:
- Who does a government-religion relationship impact more: the youth or the elderly?
- How does a government-religion relationships affect one's culture?
- In turn, how does this affected culture impact its religion?
- What are the advantages and disadvantages to the varying degrees of government-religion relationships?
I will be comparing the culture of the secular and pluralistic United States to other nations either similar to the United States (either secular or pluralistic) or different from the United States (official state religions or government sponsored/funded denominations) in order to identify which government-religion relationship is best for society and a given religion itself.
