ABSTRACT
Social scientists, journalists, and religious leaders, each for reasons of their own, have reported and either lamented or celebrated the decline of religion or the decline of its influence. This chapter focuses on data from the 1991 International Social Survey Program study of religion and examines religious values and behaviors in sixteen countries. Some European scholars, especially those connected with the European Study of Values, have argued that correlation indicates that there is a sharp deterioration in religious faith and practice, especially in Europe. Thus, such belief in life after death becomes an excellent indicator of whether there has been a recent deterioration of religion. Faith and affiliation have yet to generate high levels of religious devotion. Religion, in its many subtle and diffuse manifestations, continues to persist even among those who do not believe in God or at least in a "personal God.".
