Diversidade cultural como secularização? Exame da correlação entre os índices de religiosidade e diversidade na Europa do século XXI

The fast globalization of the second half of the 20th century and the advent of new demographic and migratory trends have awaken social sciences to the growing complexity of regional cultural dynamics. Social scientists have begun to associate cultural diversity with modernity, predicting it as an inescapable and perennial condition of modern societies that has effects on and that is affected by religious phenomena. However, few systematic and in depth empirical researches have been made to assess these assertions. Thus, our paper puts forward the formulation of a diversity index (independent variable) based on four dimensions - linguistic, ethnic, religious, and birthplace - that is correlated with a (dependent) variable of individual religiosity. We conclude that, for the set of European countries and for the time period under analysis (1999-2014), the theory of cultural diversity that states that more diversity only causes the displacement and recomposition of religiosity has no empirical validity.