By: Phippa Runner – The EUObserver

BRUSSELS – Europeans remain strongly religious but like to keep faith out of politics while cultivating an open mind to various forms of spirituality, according to a new survey by the Bertelsmann Foundation.

Seventy four percent of people in Germany, France, the UK, Italy, Austria, Poland and Switzerland said they were “religious.” Italy (89%) and Poland (87%) topped the German NGO’s “Religion Monitor” chart, with France at the lower end on 54 percent.

Christian faith still has a strong influence in Europe (Photo: EUobserver.com)

More than half of Europeans regularly practice their faith and 61 percent pray, with church attendance higher in Poland than in Italy and with Roman Catholics describing themselves as more highly religious than Protestants.

“The Christian faith still has a strong influence in Europe,” the survey said. “The role which [religion] plays in tying together the countries of the European Union should not be underestimated.”

“Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the premier of EU-aspirant Turkey, says that Europe is not a Christian club. But reality suggests something else. Europe is still based on Christian values,” the NGO’s Philipp Hildmann told Polish daily Gazeta Wyborcza.

The survey also found that religion plays a small role in Europeans’ political outlook and the most intimate aspects of their personal lives, however.

Just 27 percent said religion influences their political choices and 35 percent said it affects their sex lives, with Roman Catholic Poland also keeping to the trend on 29 percent and 49 percent, respectively.

Europeans described themselves as open-minded, with 92 percent agreeing with the statement that there is probably a “kernel of truth” in every faith.

More and more people are also turning to non-institutional forms of worship, such as private meditation, while 11 percent believe in pantheism – identifying God with Nature – and 31 percent are “open” to the idea.

Looking further afield, the US is more religious than Europe with 89 percent of people holding some type of faith. Nigeria and India are the most religious worldwide on 99 percent.

Russia – which the Bertelsmann Foundation did not include in its definition of Europe – is the most secular, with 51 percent of Russians saying they are religious and just 7 percent calling themselves “very religious.”