Rich Countries Should be Less Religious Not More
This lens is not actually meant to be about whether religion is a good or bad thing but rather why there are these differences between the continents. Some of the things I learned while developing this lens surprised me and perhaps will surprise you.
Reasons Why
Churches in the USA are Free Enterprises
Dull Churches go out of business2 points
Churches are very welcoming/encompassing communities in the USA
Europeans still mostly live in actual communities1 point
Americans Know That Faith Is Good
Many progressives and Europeans view having Faith more...1 point
More Americans Have Little Hope in This Life and so Seek Hope in Religion
With the increase of poverty and the rise of a soc more...1 point
Americans have never had Religious Wars
Europeans remember the many religious wars, The In more...0 points
In Europe there is a State Religion
In Europe religion is integrated into every part o more...0 points
America is the Top Dog, So Thanks God
Europeans have lost their empires it is much more more...0 points
My Religious or Spiritual Background
My father was Protestant and mother Catholic which at the time was a big deal. My strongest religious influence was a teacher who with hindsight must have been an evangelical.I was astonished when I recently did our family history to find that we had been for hundreds of years strict baptists. However in the early 1900s they were on the losing side of a doctrinal dispute (on free will) and were forcibly evicted from the chapel which they had helped to build.
My Aunt told me that as girl she dreaded passing Sundays with her relations as no hot food could be eaten on Sunday and nothing read but the Bible.
What I am trying to say is that the UK has been very religious in the past.
Main American Christian Religions
- Catholicism
- Catholics represent perhaps the largest single block of Christians in the USA. An estimated 24% of Americans are Catholic.
- Protestants
- Roughly 51% of Americans are Protestants, these split into various denominations including Baptists, Anglicans, Pentecostals, and Evangicals
A few books that inspire me
Religious Statistics for Different Countries
- The latest round of surveys completed last year found that 44 percent of all Americans attended church once a week
- Only 27 percent of people interviewed in Great Britain said they attended church once a week, as did 21 percent of those surveyed in France. Churches were virtually deserted in Sweden: Just 4 percent of those interviewed said they went to church weekly. And despite the fall of communism in Russia, only 2 percent of all Russians interviewed said they went to church once a week
- Americans also were far more likely to say that religion was important to their lives. More than half - 53 percent - said religion was "very important" to them, a view expressed by 16 percent of all British respondents, 13 percent of those interviewed in France and 13 percent of the Germans questioned.
- In fact, we don't have to look too far for an answer. America is religious precisely because it is so modern and Europe is secular precisely because it was so religious. America was the first country in the world to formally separate church and state, one of the founding pillars of modernity.
- The Czech Republic is the most secular country in the world because of the wars of religion that tore it apart in centuries past as the state sought to impose one religion and crush others.
- In most wealthy countries religion is a state or near-state function, i.e., something like the post office, a near-monopoly not open to competition. In the United States religion is kept private and open to competition and churches are constantly finding ways to increase their membership. Successful churches find ways to market themselves to the public, and religion is therefore much more popular.
Religious Books
Have a Little Faith: A True Story
Amazon Price: $11.00 (as of 01/04/2010) 
The Faith Instinct: How Religion Evolved and Why It Endures
Amazon Price: $17.13 (as of 01/04/2010)
The Faith: What Christians Believe, Why They Believe It, and Why It Matters
Amazon Price: $12.91 (as of 01/04/2010)
Readers: How about you?
Fetching blurbs now... please stand by
AMK says:
My father was Catholic and my mother was prodestant. Tr living in Scotland 40 years ago with that combination? Otherwize I totaly disagree with you on all points! I would have said americans are more gullable and would say yes just to about anything reardless of how silly or not it might be? Some europeans are more reserved which means change is difficult. (more boering realy) However Not the scots! We are windswept and incredably interesting, Very polite and open but reserve the right not to agree to everything that is thrown at us :-)
Posted November 17, 2008
State Religion in the UK
The UK has a state religion called the Church of England. In former centuries Roman Catholics were forbidden to own property, inherit land, and join the army. Later on attempts were made to suppress Baptists who were also seen as a threat to public order.The Church of England was integrated into all forms of public life schools, military, youth organisations, television etc. So much so that somebody has said they were a kind of muzak that few noticed. Vicars would be quiet retiring studious types.
European Catholic Countries Maintain High Faith Numbers
European Religious Belief Statistics
I have been asked to mention that Ireland is still very religious with some of the highest attendances in the world. Poland and many southern European countries also remains very religious. It would seen that the protestant countries have seen the greatest decline in religious belief.
(Chart image fom Wiki Commons)
The American Pioneers and Their Churches
When Americans build their first towns they also needed a church for christening, marriages and funerals. They built and identified with these churches. In Europe the Church was already ancient and was often seen as part of the establishment.Photo of wooden pioneers church by ~Darin~ on Flickr
Religious Wars and Massacres in Europe
I know the Protestants also killed Catholics but I couldn't find a good example
- St. Bartholomew's Day massacre
- St. Bartholomew's Day massacre , catholics massacred an estimated 2000 protestants in Paris and 3000 in the provinces
- Spanish Inquisition
- Exact figures are not known but 3000 executions are likely
- Catharism - France
- Catharism was a name given to a Christian religious sect with dualistic and gnostic elements that appeared in the Languedoc region of France in the 11th century and flourished in the 12th and 13th centuries. The Cathars were exterminated with estimates of 20,000 dead
- Sack of Magdeburg
- Catholic troops massacred up to 20,000 inhabitants of Magdeburg Germany during the Thirty Years War.
Religion in the United States (Wikipedia)
:This article primarily covers the current status of religion in the United States. For information about the historical role of religion, see History of religion in the United States.
Category: Image - :Washington National Cathedral in Washington, D.C..jpg|thumb|200px|The Washington National Cathedral, in Washington, D.C., is a cathedral of the Episcopal Church.
Religion in the United States is remarkable both in its high adherence level compared to other developed countries as well as its diversity. The First Amendment to the country's Constitution prevents the government from having any authority in religion, and guarantees the free exercise of religion. A majority of Americans report that religion plays a "very important" role in their lives, a proportion unusual among developed nations, though similar to other nations in the Americas. Many faiths have flourished in the United States, including imports spanning the country's multicultural heritage as well as those founded within the country, and have led the United States to become the most religiously diverse country in the world.
The majority of Americans identify themselves as Christians (76%), while non-Christian religions (including Buddhism, Hinduism, Judaism, and others) collectively make up about 4% of the adult population. Another 15% of the adult population identified as having no religious affiliation. According to the American Religious Identification Survey, religious belief varies considerably across the country: 59% of Americans living in Western states report a belief in God, yet in the South (the "Bible Belt") the figure is as high as 86%.http://www.gallup.com/poll/109108/Belief-God-Far-Lower-Western-US.aspx
The United States has more Christians than any other country in the world.
Category: Image - :Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception.jpg|thumb|200px|The Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, D.C., is the largest Roman Catholic church in the United States.
Several of the original Thirteen Colonies were established by English settlers who wished to practice their own religion without discrimination: the Massachusetts Bay Colony was established by Puritans, Pennsylvania by Quakers, and Maryland by Roman Catholics. Although some individual states retained established churches well into the nineteenth century, the United States was the first nation to have no official religion.Feldman, Noah (2005). Divided by God. Farrar, Straus and Giroux, pg. 10 ("For the first time in recorded history, they designed a government with no established religion at all.") Modeling the provisions concerning religion within the Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom, the framers of the Constitution rejected any religious test for office, and the First Amendment specifically denied the federal government any power to enact any law respecting either an establishment of religion or prohibiting its free exercise. The decision was mainly influenced by Reformation ideals, but was also a consequence of the pragmatic concerns of minority religious groups and small states that did not want to be under the power or influence of a national religion that did not represent them.Marsden, George M. 1990. Religion and American Culture. Orlando: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, pp.45-46.
Religion in Europe (Wikipedia)
Category: File - :Europe religion map en.png|thumb|250px|Predominant religious heritages in Europe
Religion in Europe has been a major influence on art, culture, philosophy and law. The largest religion in Europe for at least a millennium and a half has been Christianity. A number of countries in Southeastern Europe have Muslim majorities. Smaller religions include Judaism, Buddhism, Sikhism, and Hinduism which are found in their largest groups in Britain and France.
Americans are Changing their Religion
Religious Churn
Among the most striking findings are that most people who change their religious affiliation leave the denomination in which they were raised by age 24, and many change religious affiliation more than once. And the study found that the growing population of unaffiliated Americans are more disenchanted with institutionalized religion than with the idea of God.
More Catholics are becoming Protestant than the other way round
Surveying the Religious Landscape: Trends in U.S. Beliefs
Amazon Price: (as of 01/04/2010)
Americian Religions Losing Ground in 2008 ARIS Survey
Non-Believers now Third Grouping
These dramatic shifts in just 18 years are detailed in the new American Religious Identification Survey (ARIS), to be released today. It finds that, despite growth and immigration that has added nearly 50 million adults to the U.S. population, almost all religious denominations have lost ground since the first ARIS survey in 1990.
So many Americans claim no religion at all (15%, up from 8% in 1990), that this category is now third behind the Catholics and Baptists.
There are some bright spots for believers especially in the south where there are many Mexican immigrants. Other believers point to the shift away from organized religion towards personal faith.
Teens, Religion, & Values (Gallup Youth Survey: Major Issues and Trends)
Amazon Price: $22.95 (as of 01/04/2010)
Why Are Americans So Religious?
From http://revolutionaryspirits.blogspot.com/
In an interview leading up to Pope Benedict's visit last week, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, the Vatican secretary of state, said that "religion is deeply rooted in American life despite the separation of church and state."
But in fact, the exact opposite is true. Religion is so rooted in American life because of the separation of church and state. That's the way the Founders planned it. Keep government out of church affairs, they reasoned, and faith would flourish. An official hands-off policy toward religion would unleash people's latent spiritual energies, just as a laissez-faire policy toward the economy would unlock the engine of private enterprise.
Ben Franklin made the connection explicit. If businesses thrive in a climate of competition, he wondered, why wouldn't churches do the same?
Perhaps Cardinal Bertone should have read Alexis de Tocqueville. Coming to America in the 1830's from France (officially Catholic in faith), the author of Democracy in America noticed immediately the vibrant religious atmosphere of the United States and inquired why people in the New World were so pious. "To find this out, I questioned the faithful of all communions," he recorded.
"I particularly sought the society of clergymen, who are the depositories of the various creeds and have a personal interest in their survival. As a practicing Catholic I was particularly close to the Catholic priests, with some of whom I soon established a certain intimacy. I expressed my astonishment and revealed my doubts to each of them; I found that they all agreed with each other except about details; all thought that the main reason for the quiet sway of religion over their country was the complete separation of church and state."
Maintaining the separation of church and state is key to preserving the Founder's legacy and insuring that America remains a nation whose faith is powerful, varied and free.
Conclusions
I've learned a few surprising things writing this lens. I'd still say that most Americans are more religious than most Protestant Europeans. However I think the main conclusion is that Americans are much more vocal about their religion, introducing God and Jesus into general conversation and assigning quite ordinary events to God's plan.Agree or Disagree? Why not create your own lens at Squidoo by clicking here
Your Views
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- jbauer0318 jbauer0318 Oct 4, 2009 @ 10:37 pm
- As an American atheist, I am not sure why many Americans are so religious. It seems to me that it is much easier to believe in religion when it comes to looking for the bigger answers than it does to really research and understand science. This is just my opinion. Another opinion is the lobbying power that religions have gained in the U.S. government. In the most recent presidential election, religion should have had nothing to do with the race. It only clouded the real issues.
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- Kylyssa Kylyssa Jul 16, 2009 @ 12:25 am
- Many interesting points. As an American and an atheist, I have often wondered why Americans in general are so very religious and so opposed to those who are not. Great lens!
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- poddys poddys Mar 1, 2009 @ 2:32 pm
- I find it really interesting that the USA is so religious, predominantly Christian with a large Catholic population too, and yet most people do not get Good Friday off work. Seems a bit contradictory to me, when a much less religious country like England gets a 4-day weekend at Easter. 5***** for a good lens.
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- Zion Zion Dec 27, 2008 @ 10:07 am
- Wow! Your lens is fantastic! I really like it so I gave you 5*. Keep up the god work!..
Please try to stop by my lens. I would really much appreciate if you could rate mine too!
Thank you so much!
Zion
http://www.squidoo.com/legitimatehome-basedbusinesses
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- Seth1492 Seth1492 Nov 17, 2008 @ 5:51 pm
- Interesting subject on religion with a nice comparison. I would say that America has had some religious problems though. Looking at persecution of Catholics, irish protestants, or even mormonism (which at one time had an extermination order in Missouri state law). Another interesting addition to your lens might be religions that started in America in comparison to europe. Time is definitely a factor, but might be an interesting comparison.
Map of Religious Denominations of the US State by State
Reference http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:BlankMap-USA-states.png by verrai
data from the 2006 American Religious Identification Survey
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