Is it an American thing to be very religious? A lot of people on here seem to be...?

Question

Sorry if this sounds ignorant but in the UK I don't know anybody that goes to church and very few who would say they were religious. Even the ones who are married don't really believe in the religious part of the ceremony. A lot of the Americans on here seem to say to trust in God or God will save you, is the UK just not so religious?

Answer 1

I don't think I'd realized until I read Phil Rickman's excellent novel A Crown of Lights how very strange American Christianity is to the UK--and for that matter, probably the rest of the world. It does seem to be a unique phenomenon.

Answer 2

First, ignore fireball, America wasn't founded on the backs of Christians, that's a well propagated lie. Why else would the Constitution's First Amendment state that state and church are separate? (that is not my proof for it, look it up and you'll see that's true)

Secondly, the simple fact is that most of the population of the US are under-educated and easily manipulated by preachers. You can deny it all you want but the evidence is in the fact that roughly 40% of the population of the USA believe the Genesis creation story to be a word for word literal account of the creation of the earth.

And you're right, fundamentalists are a rarity in the UK because it's a fairly tight-knit macro-community where information is freely shared and people aren't left with only Bibles to provide the answers.

Answer 3

The USA is a very religious society. Evidence abounds demonstrating Americans' deep and abiding religious convictions.

A Gallup Poll released in November 2003 found that six out of ten Americans said that religion was "very important" in their lives.

In contrast, in Canada and the United Kingdom, two societies often perceived as quite similar to the United States, only 28% and 17% respectively described religion as similarly important in their lives.

FAITH IN AMERICA
Protestant (White Evangelical) 30%
Roman Catholics 25%
Protestant (Liberal) 20%
Protestant (African-American) 8%
Jewish 2%
Other 15%
Source: City University of New York (2001)

Answer 4

Really, the further you get from the big cities in America, the more religious the area gets to be. In America, it's divided, and has been for a long time, along those lines, in general.

Also, remember, our ancestors were kicked out of every decent country in the world becuase their neighbors couldn't stand the constant preaching.

Answer 5

America was founded on religious freedom and the original colonists took their religion very seriously. They broke away from the church of England to found their various protestant denominations. They passed down their legacy of a strong Christian heritage and that legacy has stuck to the culture in America. For many in America the church is a social institution that strengthens one's core values and protects the family from perceived disaster such as divorce, drug abuse, crime. Social ills are a problem in America, perhaps because there is such a convergence of so many different cultures and the church provides a safe spot to aid in healing of these social ills.

Answer 6

No I don't believe America is very religious. It just happens to be the ones in charge are. The Clinton Admin did have the support of the religoius right, so you didn't hear much about it during his eight years. Bush gets most of his support from the religous right, so you are going to hear a lot about it; especially when it looks like the rest of the population does not support him.

Answer 7

first off it is a choice,we have the freedom to choose this or not..the uk is religous,lets not forget the I.R.A.and what they are about..hmmm wasn't that a protestant catholic thing?most of europe is turning muslim and the last i checked i think that is a religion..it is the fastest growing religion over there..soon you will all be wearing berkas and having your asses beat in the streets by the radicals of this so called great religion..oh and i think those are the people that we here are actualy tolerant of and support there rights to freedom of religion..and so when you say in god we trust or god will save you ,now you must ask which god are you refering to!

Answer 8

There is a large percentage of the American population that attends church regularly (about 30% ?). It's mainly people over forty years of age. The younger ones think they are invincible, of course, so they think they don't need Jesus.

Answer 9

I am not sure if it is American or not. We were founded on religious principals.
But Christians are all over the world.

Answer 10

Our rich heritage of our founding fathers gave us a foundation of Christian values. While a lot of our society has forsaken those values their is still a lot of us who embrace them. I would even say that there is a resurgence in the conservative values politicaly and religiously that is ever so slightly growing steadily.