Peterburgian Vedism "to know" ("vedat")—a semantic root which is shared in Slavic and Sanskrit languages alike—, and it expresses the difference between sight or knowledge and dogmatic belief ("verit"), the latter being typical of non-Vedic doctrines. According to one of the contemporary leaders of the Peterburgian Vedic movement, Roman Perin, "Rodnovery" defines the practised religion, while "Vedism" defines the philosophy or knowledge at its core. Vedism therefore is not a religion but pure knowledge. According to Bezverkhy, dogmatic religions such as Christianity, but also Brahmanism (the successor of Vedism in India), were created in order to control the masses. Bezverkhy codified his
Religion in Guatemala stagnant numbers in the capital, Guatemala City. There are also small communities of Buddhists at around 9,000 to 12,000, Jews estimated between 1,200 and 2,000, Muslims at 1,200 and members of other faiths. Estimations of 2000 reveals that there was a significant percent of atheists or people with no religion. Being "non-religious" in Guatemala can refer to atheism, adherence to no specific religion, or agnosticism. However, there are high percentages of confidence in the church and religious practice. Officially the country has had no state religion since 1882. According to a national poll in 2000, approximately 18 percent of Guatemalans