Instruct: Given a question, retrieve relevant documents that answer the question.
Query: What is the religion in Venezuela?
Venezuela, like most South American nations, Christianity is the largest religion, with a predominantly Catholic population.
Nugent criticised the question “What is your religion?” in the 2011 Irish census. He said the census should instead ask “Do you have a religion?” and “If so, what is it?” He asked nonreligious Irish people to tick the No Religion box. He warned that joke responses to the religion question in the census, being categorised as “not stated”, potentially contribute to an underreporting of the number of non-religious people.
In Venezuela secularization has been influencing the country, this is due to the increasing modernization of the country and improvement of education, during the 20th century Venezuela was one of the most religious countries with a dominant Catholicism, although in the early twenty-first century Protestants, atheists, agnostics, among other religions have grown in the country, the most professional people (scientists, doctors, writers, etc.) are often less believers. According to a study by the University of Cambridge, 11.7% of Venezuelans are without religion (atheists 6% and 5.7% of non-religious), also a national study estimated that 6% of Venezuelans are agnostics and 2% atheists (in total of 8% of the population).
August 24, 2017 President Trump imposed sanctions on the state debt of Venezuela which ban to make transactions with state debt of Venezuela including the participation in debt restructuring.
November 13, 2017 the technical default period ended and Venezuela didn’t pay coupons on its dollar eurobonds. This caused a cross default on other dollar bonds. November 30 ISDA committee consisting of 15 biggest banks admitted default on state debt obligations what in its turn entailed payments on CDS.
According to the "Antisemitism in Venezuela 2013" report by the Venezuelan Confederation of Israelite Associations (CAIV), "distorted news, omissions and false accusations" of Israel originate from Iran's Press TV and Hispan TV, are repeated by the Russia's RT News and Cuba's Prensa Latina, and Venezuela’s state media, including SIBCI, AVN, TeleSUR, Venezolana de Televisión (VTV), Alba TV, La Radio del Sur, Radio Nacional de Venezuela (RNV), YVKE Mundial, Correo del Orinoco and Ciudad CCS. CAIV continues, stating that the media accuses Zionism of being a "predator movement", that "anti-Semitic authors pretend to establish differences between Jewish religion and the Zionist movement" and that the Venezuelan government's media uses anti-Semitic themes.
Regarding religion and science, Albert Einstein states (1940): "For science can only ascertain what is, but not what should be, and outside of its domain value judgments of all kinds remain necessary. Religion, on the other hand, deals only with evaluations of human thought and action; it cannot justifiably speak of facts and relationships between facts…Now, even though the realms of religion and science in themselves are clearly marked off from each other, nevertheless there exist between the two strong reciprocal relationships and dependencies. Though religion may be that which determine the goals, it has, nevertheless, learned from science, in the broadest sense, what means will contribute to the attainment of the goals it has set up." 
Owing to the profound confusion of the Venezuelan War of Independence and the period of Gran Colombia over what is now Venezuela, this page has gaps between 1813 and 1819. For this period in time, historians refer to the Republic of Venezuela as the Second Republic of Venezuela (1813–1814) and the Third Republic of Venezuela (1817–1819) as Simon Bolivar twice reestablished the republic. The Congress of Angostura appointed Simón Bolívar "Supreme Commander of the Republic of Venezuela" (Jefe Supremo de la República de Venezuela) from 1819 until 1830.
A third criticism of the world religions paradigm is that it encourages an uncritical and "sui generis" model of 'religion'. It presents each of the 'world religions' in an abstracted and essentialised form, failing to take account of hybridization. For instance, in teaching about Christianity it does not refer to reincarnation, because this is not typically regarded as a Christian doctrine, and yet there are Christians who profess a belief in reincarnation.
A fourth criticism is that in choosing to focus attention on the "major" religions, it makes a value judgement as to what constitutes "major" and what does not. 
There are small but influential Muslim, Buddhist, and Jewish communities. The Muslim community of about 95,000 is concentrated among persons of Lebanese and Syrian descent living in Nueva Esparta State, Punto Fijo and the Caracas area; Venezuela also has a significant Druze community from the same countries (the current vice president is Druze, showing the small group's influence). Buddhism in Venezuela is practiced by over 52,000 people. The Buddhist community is made up mainly of Chinese, Japanese, and Koreans. There are Buddhist centers in Caracas, Maracay, Mérida, Puerto Ordáz, San Felipe, and Valencia. The Jewish community numbers approximately 13,000 and is mainly concentrated in Caracas.
This definition also does not stipulate what exactly may be considered sacred. Thus later sociologists of religion (notably Robert Neelly Bellah) have extended Durkheimian insights to talk about notions of civil religion, or the religion of a state. American civil religion, for example, might be said to have its own set of sacred "things": the flag of the United States, Abraham Lincoln, Martin Luther King Jr., etc. Other sociologists have taken Durkheim's concept of what religion is in the direction of the religion of professional sports, the military, or of rock music.
August 24, 2017 President Trump imposed sanctions on the state debt of Venezuela which ban to make transactions with state debt of Venezuela including the participation in debt restructuring.
November 13, 2017 the technical default period ended and Venezuela didn’t pay coupons on its dollar eurobonds. This caused a cross default on other dollar bonds. November 30 ISDA committee consisting of 15 biggest banks admitted default on state debt obligations what in its turn entailed payments on CDS.
How Do You Spell God?: Answers to the Big Questions from Around the World is a book on religion by Rabbi Marc Gellman and Msgr. Thomas Hartman of "The God Squad", which answers questions about different religions. Each chapter's title is a question about any religion in general; for example, one chapter asks "What are some of the bad things in religions?", another asks "What question does each religion want to answer the most?", and another asks "What's a religion?".
After answering in the affirmative, Part II proceeds to use the tools of evolutionary biology and memetics to suggest possible theories regarding the origin of religion and subsequent evolution of modern religions from ancient folk beliefs. Part III analyzes religion and its effects in today's world: Does religion make us moral? Is religion what gives meaning to life? What should we teach the children? Dennett bases much of his analysis on empirical evidence, though he often points out that much more research in this field is needed.
During the consultation on the 2011 census the British Humanist Association raised several concerns about question 20, "What is your religion?". The BHA argued it was a leading question, and suggested that it should be phrased as two questions, "Do you have a religion?" and "If so, what is it?". It contended that by placing the religion question near the ethnicity question it would encourage some responders to associate religion with cultural identity. The BHA also ran adverts during March 2011 encouraging the use of the 'no religion' box in the questionnaire
Since the late twentieth century, the paradigm has faced critique by scholars of religion like Jonathan Z. Smith, some of whom have argued for its abandonment. Critics have argued that the world religions paradigm is inappropriate because it takes the Protestant variant of Christianity as the model for what constitutes religion; that it is tied up with discourses of modernity, including modern power relations; that it encourages an uncritical understanding of religion; and that it makes a value judgement as to what religions should be considered "major". Others have argued that it remains useful in the classroom, so long as students are made aware that it is a socially constructed category.
The indigenous religion of María Lionza, similar in most aspects to Santería, lies in the mountain of Sorte, in Yaracuy state, Venezuela, which is central to the religion. Therein is located the "Altar Mayor" or principal altar. As such, it is the main destination of pilgrimage from elsewhere in Venezuela and a place for people from the Caribbean to come to pay homage to the goddess. Though pilgrims come here all year round, the most important day is October 12. On this day, all the principal shamans and priests of María Lionza come together to pay homage to their Queen. Many of them do a tribal show called "Baile de las Brasas", where they do traditional dances, including dances over coals.
Venezuela is also notable for its significant syncretic religious traditions, most notably those revolving around the figures of Maria Lionza and Jose Gregorio Hernandez.
The influence of the Catholic Church was introduced in its colonization by Spain. According to a 2011 poll (GIS XXI), 88 percent of the population is Christian, primarily Roman Catholic (71%), and the remaining 17 percent Protestant, primarily Evangelicals (in Latin America Protestants are usually called Evangelicos). The Venezuelans without religion are 8% (atheist 2% and agnostic or indifferent 6%), almost 3% of the population follow other religion (1% of them are of santeria).[1]
Owing to the profound confusion of the Venezuelan War of Independence and the period of Gran Colombia over what is now Venezuela, this page has gaps between 1813 and 1819. For this period in time, historians refer to the Republic of Venezuela as the Second Republic of Venezuela (1813–1814) and the Third Republic of Venezuela (1817–1819) as Simon Bolivar twice reestablished the republic. The Congress of Angostura appointed Simón Bolívar "Supreme Commander of the Republic of Venezuela" (Jefe Supremo de la República de Venezuela) from 1819 until 1830.
Montero has been outspoken in her support for those who have challenged the government in Venezuela and has deplored the state of the country and the crackdown on protesters.
During a break in a concert, after taking requests from the audience and improvising on them, she told the audience Venezuela was facing a "very, very critical time". It is "one of our great tragedies" she said, adding that few outside the country understood what was going on in Venezuela. She referenced a high murder rate and, to applause, mourned what she called "the loss of our country to violence, to corruption and to the worst possible things you can imagine."
The organisation was founded by the International Marxist Tendency's Alan Woods, a Welsh Trotskyist and political writer, who wrote an appeal, calling for "defense of the revolutionary process in Venezuela" and to defend the Bolivarian Revolution, to oppose US intervention in Venezuela, and to ensure that information about what was happening in Venezuela would reach the international labour movement.
American civil religion is a sociological theory that a nonsectarian quasi-religious faith exists within the United States with sacred symbols drawn from national history. Scholars have portrayed it as a cohesive force, a common set of values that foster social and cultural integration. The very heavy emphasis on nondenominational religious themes is quite distinctively American and the theory is designed to explain this. The concept goes back to the 19th century, but in current form, the theory was developed by sociologist Robert Bellah in 1967 in his article, "Civil Religion in America". The topic soon became the major focus at religious sociology conferences and numerous articles and books were written on the subject. The debate reached its peak with the American Bicentennial celebration in 1976. There is a viewpoint that some Americans have come to see the document of the United States Constitution, along with the Declaration of Independence and the Bill of Rights as cornerstones of a type of civic or civil religion or political religion. Political sociologist Anthony Squiers argues that these texts act as the sacred writ of the American civil religion because they are used as authoritative symbols in what he calls the politics of the sacred. The Politics of the Sacred, according to Squiers are "the attempt to define and dictate what is in accord with the civil religious sacred and what is not. It is a battle to define what can and cannot be and what should and should not be tolerated and accepted in the community, based on its relation to that which is sacred for that community."
The Netherlands–Venezuela Boundary Treaty is a 1978 treaty between territory of the Netherlands and Venezuela which delimits the maritime boundary between territory of the Kingdom of the Netherlands and Venezuelan territory. When the treaty was concluded in 1978, the treaty set out the boundary between what was known as the Netherlands Antilles and Venezuela. Today, it establishes the boundary between Aruba and Venezuela, between Curaçao and Venezuela, and between the BES islands and Venezuela.
The Constitution of 1999 was the first constitution approved by popular referendum in Venezuelan history, and summarily inaugurated the so-called "Fifth Republic of Venezuela" due to the socioeconomic changes foretold in its pages, as well as the official change in Venezuela's name from the "República de Venezuela" ("Republic of Venezuela") to the "República Bolivariana de Venezuela" ("Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela"). Major changes are made to the structure of Venezuela's government and responsibilities, while a much greater number of human rights are enshrined in the document as guaranteed to all Venezuelansincluding free education up to tertiary level, free health care, access to a clean environment, right of minorities (especially indigenous peoples) to uphold their own traditional cultures, religions, and languages, among others. The 1999 Constitution, with 350 articles, is among the world's longest, most complicated, and most comprehensive constitutions.
The Pre-Columbian period in Venezuela refers to the period before the Spanish colonization of the Americas in the 16th century, known as the Pre-Columbian era. It covers the history of what are now known as the indigenous peoples of Venezuela.