My last economics post

[elef]

I've tried to find it in english but not, swedish public service tv reported yesterday on text-tv the result of a poll in germany. 40 % of germans regarded USA as the biggest threat to world peace, Iran just got 31 %.

[Steve]

and before that a couple generations ago.

Dude, I totally disagree. It is amazing how much religion is shoved down your throat here.

 

Hmmm...public schools all across the country had prayer in schools and its now illegal. The teaching of evolution was non existant in the south and large parts of the rest of the country that was conservative and now its taught instead of creationism.

The litmus test of any president was that he must be a christian and we now have 2 democratic candidates that is a moslem and the other is at best pays lip service if not agnostic. Impossible a decade ago. And of the republicans, Guiliani is catholic and divorced.

The DaVinci code wouldn't even make it on the shelves in the '50s. Probably not the '60s as well.

No disrespect but you've got to be kidding. The fundamentalists of today are no more religious than their counterparts a generation ago, if anything less so.

The religious references you site was the norm a generation or two ago. You were thought of as a godless communist in those days if you were atheist.

The fundamentalists and religious right are mobilizng because they are becoming marginalized. They were the majority in large parts of the country a generation or two ago and now they are the minority.

I'm sorry but there is abosolutely no way we're more religious as a nation now than we were a couple generations ago. None.I agree religion and politics shouldn't be mixed but in the old days it was entertwined. Far more than it was now.

Name any national recognized religous leader that was routinely thought of as a religious nut in the old days like Pat Robertson, Jerry Falwell and the like are now? If you even proclaim to support them to the average american you're seen as nuts.

 

Less people identify themselves as christian http://www.religioustolerance.org/chr_prac2.htm

and I would say a lot of them are christian by designation and not in practice.

 

http://www.voanews.com/english/NewsAnalysis/2007-03-14-voa87.cfm

 

"Americans are not as religious as they were, say in the 1950s. So Americans may go [to church] for a wedding or a funeral or some special occasion during the year. But on a week-in, week-out basis, if you just took a snapshot, only one-in-five would be attending some kind of worship service during a given week. It was much higher in the 1950s," says Woolever.

 

There is abosolutely no way we are more religious now. None. Not saying that religious groups don't have power, mostly in the Republican party but religious groups have ALWAYS had power in some form or manner in politics. Sometimes for good (black churches and sympathic northern white churches, mobilizing for civil rights) and sometimes for bad (white southern churches preaching legal segregation of the races as God's plan).

 

I defy any person who visits the US on holiday to see some over indulgence in relgion. They'd have to visit small town Mississippi or Alabama for that kind of experience. It simply doesn't exist. Weddings and funerals are the main reasons why a lot of americans even go to a church these days. Of the americans on here living in the states who do you know that goes to church on a regular basis?

 

 

[..]

A belief in God and an identification with an organized religion are widespread throughout the country, according to the latest NEWSWEEK poll... Nearly half (48 percent) of the public rejects the scientific theory of evolution; one-third (34 percent) of college graduates say they accept the Biblical account of creation as fact. Seventy-three percent of Evangelical Protestants say they believe that God created humans in their present form within the last 10,000 years; 39 percent of non-Evangelical Protestants and 41 percent of Catholics agree with that view.

 

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17879317/site/newsweek

 

I guess we'll agree to disagree.

 

Cheers,

SD

[Mekong]

I am not going to get drawn into this debate but IMHO this line from Chocolate Steve sums it up.

 

The typical American thinks we're better as a nation than we really are and the typical european thinks we're worse than we actually are. The truth lies somewhere inbetween, not sure who is closer to the truth.

 

 

[Flashermac]

I'm always reminded of the bull in a china shop description.

 

 

[Flashermac]

Ask the same questions in a Muslim country and see what answers you get.

 

 

[..]

Agreed, but normal Muslims/Buddhists/Sikhs/Hindus/whatever do not seem to take joy in shoving it down your throat uninvited. Witness all the missionaries in LoS and the fire/brimstone "preachers" at Cowboy & NEP for local examples...

 

That stuff just annoys the shit outta me. Worship whatever sky fairy you want, however you want (legally, as in no human sacrifices), just do not invade my life with that crap.

 

Cheers,

SD

[Steve]

A belief in God and an identification with an organized religion are widespread throughout the country, according to the latest NEWSWEEK poll... Nearly half (48 percent) of the public rejects the scientific theory of evolution; one-third (34 percent) of college graduates say they accept the Biblical account of creation as fact. Seventy-three percent of Evangelical Protestants say they believe that God created humans in their present form within the last 10,000 years; 39 percent of non-Evangelical Protestants and 41 percent of Catholics agree with that view.

 

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17879317/site/newsweek

 

I guess we'll agree to disagree.

 

Cheers,

SD

 

And what percentage would it be in 1987, 1977, 1967 or 1957? Far, far higher as you go back. You're saying Americans are religious. I am not disagreeing, compared to Europeans but I also take it you're saying we're more religious now than in the past, what is the percentage of the populace that believed in evolution in the '50s and '60s? If its less it would prove your point.

 

We can both agree on disagreeing but frankly I'm shocked that anyone would think we're more religious as a nation now as a whole than 20 or 30 years ago.

 

Religious groups, especially in the south routinely got shows to change or drop episodes if it was deemed to insult christianity. A common job advert in newspapers below the mason dixie line routinely read 'Only Christians Need Apply' which excluded Jews and Catholics from employment, just two examples that was common 30 or 40 years ago and would be unheard of now and also having openly gay entertainers on tv. Could not have happened and we're more religious now? I'm flabbergasted frankly...gobsmacked is the UK term I think.

 

[Steve]

Another apt description of American foreign policy.

[Hugh_Hoy]

Agreed, but normal Muslims/Buddhists/Sikhs/Hindus/whatever do not seem to take joy in shoving it down your throat uninvited. Witness all the missionaries in LoS and the fire/brimstone "preachers" at Cowboy & NEP for local examples...

Cheers,

SD

 

SD..."normal" Christians don't "shove" their religion on people. In fact, some of the most devout that I know...well, they hardly wear their beliefs on their sleeve. At any rate...think "Taliban" and think "preaching fire and brimstone" and compare the two. I'd much rather ignore the "preachers" than to try to evade a hoard of bearded cutthroats. :grin:

 

HH