[jusssi]

As a fellow European, I feel we have nothing to be amused about. What the church thinks still has excessive weight in lawmaking and people's opinions. Publicly funded schools have "religion" classes where the local mainstream christianity variant is the main content. And the tax authority is still tasked with collecting the "church tax".

[haylem]

As former resident of several European countries, I find your statement, while not entirely incorrect, a bit too "blanketing".

All this may be quite dependent on where you live (the mention of the "church tax" makes me suppose Germany, as they have a Kirchensteuer, but I'm sure other countries must have a similar tax). In any case, there are European countries without church tax, beyond normal taxes that could be used for preservation of historical sites, religious or otherwise (which I agree may be somewhat biased in what religious sites can pretend to be considered historical).

Similarly, many countries do not have "religion" classes in "publicly funded schools", especially in countries that are (supposedly or admittedly) laic. That being said, there's also often a bias there as a lot of holidays are tied to religion and Christianity in particular, and it'd be quite common to explain in class the origin and nature of these holidays. I'd hardly think it counts as "religion" class, though, but that'd depend on what the teachers do.

[ud_0]

In Germany, I was pleasantly surprised that some parties up for election have (regionally) expressed the will to abolish relgion-based studies in public schools. It makes me a bit hopeful, especially since I recently got the impression that young people are skewing more religious again. I have also seen some proposals to abolish the laws currently prohibiting singing and dancing during certain religious holidays.

[raxxorrax]

I think in Germany this is really crying out of boredom. If you want to, you don't have to come in contact with any of it. It was still relevant 30-40 years ago, but not today. Not in any relevant capacity.

Other european countries are more laical or secular, but that is pretty much just flavor today.

Some eastern countries are more involved, but if you propose the church having relevant influence in central or western Europe, you really slept the last two decades.

[Traubenfuchs]

... and religious figures are still invited to discussion about the ethics of voluntary euthanasia. What gives?

[BongoMcCat]

You are right, we Europeans still have more we need to do before we are truly secular.

But, I still find this funny.