Have you missed the part where the GDR has been gone for several decades by the time this data was taken? If people had liked the church for those actions you described and just not gone to avoid repercussions from the state there would be plenty of time for them to go back since the fall of the GDR. They just didn't.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Okay, now I got what you wanted. I misunderstood you, I thought you meant that the surpression of the GDR itself was natural. But you meant what happened after the regime and people had the choice to join the church freely again.

That I agree with.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Yes, basically I meant that some religious people tend to argue that religion is some sort of natural need that people have and even if religion was not passed on to children they would flock to it on their own. It seems that is not the case though or a one generation interruption would not have this large of an effect decades later.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago

I do believe that a lot of religions kinda made sense in the past to underline laws and start building a cohesise society. In a sense the old testament is a book of laws with just a lot of fluff. And while a lot of it aged badly, you can see how a lot of rules made sense at the time (e.g. food safety). I do believe that this was the original purpose of this. To strenghten the belief in laws by adding a mystical component on top of them for people who weren't as firm with written laws and a believe in a justice system.

These days, of course, it's archaic and unnessary.