More than 15 years ago, the Head of all Orthodox believers, Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, offered a surprising view to many in which he defined pollution and any other threatening behavior towards nature as a sin. After his move, he earned the epithet "Green Patriarch" from some. Some define it with ridicule, others with justification. But his attitude continued to preach sin and condemn any endangerment of nature.
From this distance, this view is no longer seen as radical and as opposed to religion. The current Pope Francis, as well as other heads of religious communities in the world, speak more often in that direction of ecological self-awareness.
Such a pro-environmental view is being advocated by more and more Muslims, calling for the conservation of the country's water, natural resources and biodiversity.
Global warming is becoming increasingly part of the discourse of the world's religious leaders. Ecology is not unknown to religious teachings. In the Bible you can find quotes and thoughts that from today's perspective are defined as ecological in the protection of the environment, but they still have a secondary meaning when it comes to the sermons and teachings of religious communities.
Konrad Adenauer Foundation, the Institute for Political Research Skopje and the internet portal "Religija.mk", in this public opinion poll, actualize this issue in order to test people's perception of the role of religion in environmental protection.
Salvation of creation, or salvation of what God has created, and how believers view it today is the subject of this research.
The research is divided into three basic parts, which give a comprehensive picture of perception.
The first part of the research is the classic basic one which detects the religious affiliation and affiliation of the respondents and their personal perception and thinking about ecology and the environment, but also about how familiar they are and whether they think that religion and ecology have points in common.
The second part of the research is dedicated to the assessments of the believers in terms of whether and how much the religious communities, according to them, work on ecology, care for the environment, whether and to what extent ecology and the environment are present in the sermons and attitudes of religious representatives.
The third part of the research is dedicated to the approval or disapproval of the believers for such attitude of the religious leaders towards this topic, ie whether they think that they should be proactive or not on this topic.
The research was conducted by telephone on a representative sample of 1100 respondents older than 18 years. The marginal error is between +/- 3.2% with a 95% confidence interval.
