Religiosity of the urban community in Kazakhstan

Abstract

Religious values as the most important component of the worldview can significantly affect various aspects of human life - from everyday practices to political preferences. The analysis of changes in religiosity shows that in the post-Soviet space, there is a clear tendency of the transition from atheistic attitudes to the religious revival. In the contemporary Kazakhstan society, a complex model of religious identity develops - it combines ideals and norms of religious consciousness with ideas of spirituality and national revival, but the confession values can often only be of an external, declarative nature. According to different studies, in Kazakhstan, the share of believers following religious practices increases. The question is whether people really observe religious rites and traditions and follow religious regulations. The article summarizes the results of the study conducted by the Center for the Study of Public Opinion to assess the religiosity of the Almaty urban community. The survey showed that the share of people who identify themselves as a part of some confession is significant; however, this is not a direct indicator of the increase in the number of true believers seeking to actively follow all religious rules and practices. The article presents the data on the activity of respondents in religious practices, their knowledge and understanding of some religious postulates. The study showed that the religious renaissance among the youth can be accompanied by undeveloped religious consciousness and insufficient religious knowledge, which provides grounds for the dissemination of pseudo-religious ideas including the extremist ones.

Keywords

• religiosity
• religious values
• traditions
• spirituality
• islam
• christian orthodoxy
• kazakhstan