Finland can be considered in many ways as a secular country, and also the main religious institutions are being more and more accommodating with the morals of the secular society. Yet, religious and especially Christian revivalist movements have still their strong position. This is seen especially in the big revival meeting events organized in summer time. The biggest in numbers is the event by Conservative Laestadian movement, part of Lutheran revival movement and the biggest branch of Lestadianism. Number of people attending to their yearly Summer services (Suviseurat) can rise up to 70 000 attendants. Conservative Lestadian movement is strongest in the Northern Finland (also in Oulu where I live), altogether including around 100 000 members.One of the peculiar features of Laestadian movement is that they, according to their doctrine, consider themselves as the only true believers, the Kindom of God. This can be, on the other hand, considered at least to some extant as part of the revivalist tradition, where different groups has identified themselves based on some distinctive symbols of separation. Another distinctive symbols, along with the core belief of only the Conservative Lestadians being the true church, include abstaining from alcohol, television and birth control. They are also characterized by potentially really big families, up to 15 or more children in one family. Common feature with other conservative sects of Christianity include maintaing the authority of the Bible as the true and trustworthy Word of God.
Size of a family or not watching television can be more easily regarded as part of a subculture and tradition. Even though I'd prefer people to freely select their tv-channel and number of children. More problematic are the separative basic doctrines, common to many if not almost all religions. Believers get their evergreen gardens in the Heaven, while the rest of the mankind will find themselves in spacious yet unconfortable Hell. Naturally, after arriving to that final destination, eternity is the right amount of time for suffering and pain for the unrighteous. These type of "facts" may be also indoctrinated to children at their early age, sometimes with all too graphical terms, causing anxiety. These beliefs are not to be questioned or critisized, or else one may have to face abandonment by their own social foundation: family, friends and relatives.
In some of these movements, conception of biology and cosmology can be deeply flawed, as evolution theory is considered as a lie that diminishes the glory of the works of the God who created the Earth and the life on it in some 6000 years ago. When scientist say that the Earth is some 4,5 billion years old, and the Universe some 13,7 billion years old, they may laugh at it as a joke. While there are many forms of Creationism, other allowing longer time spans, they all need to put boundaries to the scientific method not to enter their territory and belief system. And after all, "evolution is only a theory", they may add.
While most of the scientist and the educated people usually prefer to silently neglect the existence of these movements and belief systems, some do not. The group of people being most vocal advocates of using reason against considering religious beliefs as true, include such notable authors such as Richard Dawkins, Daniel Dennett and Sam Harris. These authors are sometimes referred as "the three musketeers", or as "the four horseman", by adding journalist Christopher Hitchens to the crew. They all are saying about religion: these people are wrong and someone should have the courtesy of telling them that. These voices of reason do not restrict to any particular religion or sect in their criticism: any belief without evidence or logical ground, can not simply be any more considered valid in this age of reason and scientific knowledge. In Finland there are also some notable voices of reason promoting scientific approach to life, such as Finnish astronomer Esko Valtaoja. The discussion, or great controversy, has been mild in Finland, in comparison.
As a scientist and sceptic, I have to agree with these vocal advocates of reason, that one should look into all evidence and knowledge available in our modern culture. Rather than being designed, the evidence shows that the life on earth has been observed to be a self-organizing process of natural causes, following the principles of evolution. There is also much interesting analysis and research about the evolution of religions themselves, as part of human culture. If one can distinguish between the contents of a human tradions (and preferably focusing on the positive aspects of them), and factual aspects based on science and knowledge, that can be one way to expand the understanding of the religions and the human life in general.
