Picto Diary - 07 May 2016 - Religion in Czech Republic

Above: The Bishop eyes St. Vitus Cathedral. Prague, Czech Republic. 07 May 2016.

Every bit Chartres or Notre Dame.

Maintenance? Little or no state assistance. Catholic Church in Czech Republic doing very well, thank-you very much. Post Communism, 1989, Church received back considerable land holdings confiscated by the Communists.

Adherents? That's another matter as some 60% of Czechs profess to be atheists, the highest percentage of non believers of any country in Europe.

Czech indifference to religion has come up in several of our tours. Many of our group assumed that the influence of the communists must have affected Czechs' attitude towards organized religion.

According to the guides, Czech religious apathy pre-dates communism. Since the xxxx's Czechs have been subjugated to outside rule.... Hapsburgs and Nazis before the Communists. Being forced to pay heed to the varying ideologies of their rulers, without having the chance to forge their own national identity, likely contributed to a cynical indifference to religion generally.

The Armenians are a former Soviet Republic and church activity there is over 90%. Church activity is growing in Russia notwithstanding 80 years of Communist rule.

Above: Stained glass window. St. Vitus Cathedral. Prague, Czech Republic. 07 May 2016.

Zoom into the lower right panel. There is a man holding a pretzel. The individual who funded the creation of this window had a thriving bakery business.

Above: Zizkov Television Tower. Prague, Czech Republic. 07 May 2016.

The tower was completed in 1989. There is a restaurant in one of the towers.

Addendum:

Steve,

Thought you might appreciate this 70% sized Honda Monkey Bike and all-titanium violin seen recently.

Malc
Tokyo, Japan