Faith in Europe

Recently I was attending a talk on ethics in the medical profession
While I sat there, I was asked about the situation in Europe.
Have most Europeans become non-believers, have they lost their faith?

I was taken aback a bit by the question. As if I am an expert on faith in Europe!
I live in Malaysia and have been here for the past 22 years.
I grew in Belgium and go back occasionally.

Anyhow here is my answer, which may be right or wrong:
I think that indeed a majority of people has moved away from the classical forms of religion as they have been practiced for centuries. A minority is still strictly religious in that sense. Another minority has become strictly "religious in claiming that no God exist" and became blind followers of that "religion". A majority in the middle is sitting on the fence. While the term 'sitting on the fence' may sound negative, I think it is not. People seem to have moved away from the "abnormalities" that have happened in the organised religion  and have adopted a position of the agnostic. Agnostic means: there may be God, but I am not sure about it.

I think that being in such a position is putting you in the very right place for growth. Once we become absolutely certain of our faith (on either side, the fanatic religious people or the atheists), we adopt an attitude that prohibits any growth. If we are convinced our faith is perfect, let us be aware that an equal number of people have a faith extremely different from ours and they are as convinced as we are that their faith is perfect. In every faith, there are people like this. They become blind to all wisdom, they stop growing.

So, I think, sitting on the fence is not too bad. Leaning heavily to one or the other side is OK, as long as we remain on the fence and we can see all sides of the world. I was attending once an interfaith talk and when the question was asked why God had allowed so many religions to evolve, each "expert" answered something along the line that God had given the challenge to the humans to find the one true faith (and of course each of them thought it was their own faith that was the true one). I could not have disagreed more with these statements but I did not get the opportunity to voice out my opposition.

My take on this is that our God has allowed so many religions, so that we may keep on growing. Our human mind, though the most evolved among all creatures on earth, is no where near the level that we can grasp all truths about the world and the spiritual dimensions associated with it. Let us remain seekers. Let us open the windows of our soul, not to be inundated  by swarms of nonsense, but with a nice filter (perhaps a wonderful mosquito netting) in front of windows, so we can let sip in the fresh air of true wisdom from all sides and grow spiritually to a level higher than any blind fanaticism could ever achieve.