FSD Bulletin

Issue 33 (2/2011)
9.12.2011

ISSN 1795-5262

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FSD Bulletin is the electronic newsletter of the Finnish Social Science Data Archive. The Bulletin provides information and news related to the data archive and social science research.


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Finnish Social Science Data Archive
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Finnish Religious Attitudes in International Comparison

The Finnish Social Science Data Archive published a report on the role of religion in Finnish life in August 2011.

The report is based on the cross-national International Social Survey Programme (ISSP) survey 2008, which focused on religion. There were over 50,000 respondents in 34 countries. Statistics Finland collected the Finnish data. The report on the data was written by Harri Palmu, Kimmo Ketola, Kati Niemelä and Hanna Salomäki, all researchers at the Church Research Institute.

Compared internationally, it seems that Finns are more critical towards strong faith. Four out of five believe people with strong faith tend to be intolerant while three out of five believe that religions bring more conflict than peace.

On the other hand, Finns tend to be fairly accepting of other religions. For instance, only four per cent would not accept a person from different religion or with a very different religious views marrying a relative. Three out of five believe there are truths in many religions while eight per cent thought there is truth only in one religion.

When Finns were asked whether they had a positive or negative attitude towards members of certain religious groups, Finns seldom seemed to have negative views of, for instance, Hindus, Buddhists and Jews. The most negative views were held on Islam. The question listed a number of different religious groups.

Links:
» FSD2410 ISSP 2008: Religion III: Finnish Data
» International Social Survey Programme (ISSP)