ABSTRACT
One would think that those who believe in life after death would also believe in heaven, though in given countries the proportion believing in the latter would be somewhat less than those believing in the former. However, this expectation is not confirmed in several countries. The secularization theory predicts religious decline. The rational choice theory predicts religious increase where there is competition. No one, however, has suggested that there might be an increase in religious faith in Europe. One might argue that the increase in faith in former communist countries is in great part a return to religious values that existed before the advent of socialism in these countries. One could also suggest that the younger people in these societies might find religion to be a substitute for their lost Marxist faith. The average increase in all twelve countries from the birth cohorts born in the late 1950s to those born in the late 1970s is seventeen percentage points.
