Why is atheism so much more common in Europe than in USA/Canada?

Question

As per a request below, more details:

BBC shows 39% atheist in the UK
Pew Research Center shows France @ 19% atheist/16% agnostic --- while the USA has 2% atheist and 4% agnostic.

I was wondering what reasons you could come up with for this vast difference.

And I stand correctly, let's leave Canada out of this!

Answer 1

Interesting... The UN Human Development Report (2004) ranks 177 nations on a societal health through a weighing of such indicators as life expectancy at birth, adult literacy rate, per capita income, and educational attainment. Of the top 25 nations ranked all but one country (Ireland) are top-ranking non-belief nations. Conversely, of those countries ranked at the bottom of the “Human Development Index” -- the bottom 50 -- all are countries lacking any statistically significant percentages of atheism.

According to the CIA World Factbook (2004), out of 225 nations, the top 25 nations with the lowest infant mortality rates were all nations containing significantly high percentages of organic atheism. Conversely, the 75 bottom nations with the highest infant mortality rates were all very religious nations without any statistically significant levels of organic atheism.

Fajnzylber et al (2002), looked at 38 nations and found that of the top ten nations with the highest homicide rates, all but one (United States) were highly religious nations with statistically insignificant levels of organic atheism. Conversely, of the bottom ten nations with the lowest homicide rates, all but one (Ireland) are highly secular nations with high levels of atheism.

So it's possible that societal health causes widespread atheism, and societal insecurity causes widespread belief in God.

Answer 2

I am very religious if you want to call it that and I am very happy.I laugh and joke a lot.My wife on the other hand is at best agnostic and is always complaining and very unhappy never content.I am college educated and study science and am confunded at the complexity and ingenuity in the design of existance.The poverty and unhapiness you describe exists in nations where the religion is hindu buddist moslem or something like that.My god is the christian god.The majority of Europe still believe in the same god.

Answer 3

I don't know about atheism per se, but the U.S. is definitely more religious than most of Europe. European countries tend to have a state religion which most of the people very happily don't practice.

In many ways, it's a self-perpetuating system. No one here in Scotland has EVER asked me my religion or what church I go to. Eventually it comes up when I say that I need a day off work for Rosh HaShannah or Yom Kippur. Then there's often a lot of interest and curiosity, but akin to my being from the U.S. as well.

But people worry about these things a lot more in the U.S., especially in the South and Midwest. So society there forces people to define themselves in terms of their religion.

Answer 4

I didn't know it was? Because I was shocked to learn after someone brought it to my attention that holidays are less celebrated there also. So did some research, Halloween which is really big in USA and costume partys are held all over the city.
Everyone asks what your costume is and they can be rented each year for the occassion. This girl told me that whe wanted to go to Irish country for St. Patricks day it is such a big cellebration in Dallas TExas. They didn't even celebrate it.
She looked stupid in an all green outfit. Maybe they are better educated. Our myths are told to children as the truth.
Such as the millions of Santa Clauses across the country at Christmas. But that is to get parents to part with their money.

Answer 5

The first people that left Europe to come to the Americas were Religious people , escaping religious terrine.

Even cities were named after churches.
I have a business in what was the Parrish of Newark NJ.

Organized religion has become not much more than a club one joins.

Finding God is an individual experience that comes from hearing his word.

Not everyone responds to it , but those who were predestined to hear it and respond will.

Answer 6

The reason is historical. Many European countries were under the yoke of religious governments for centuries. Some, like Spain and Portugal, were under dictatorships that were allied with the Vatican (in the case of Spain it was official - I'm not sure if I'm correct about Portugal).
Once democracy, secular democracy, was installed in these countries, many continued to adhere to the religion that had dominated their lives. Many, however, reacted against the religion that had they had perceived as being supportive of the dictatorship (and in any dictatorship there are a lot of cruelties and injustices). Among these, some converted either to other religions or other forms of Christianity. Others turned away from all religion altogether, declaring themselves to be atheists, in hostility to their former faith. These were not able to separate belief in God from what they had seen as abuses in religion.
In Eastern Europe, of course, you have the dominance of communism for three generations. The communist governments usually discouraged expression of faith, and equated communism with atheism. So while many in Eastern Europe were glad to be freed from communism, many continued to consider faith to be an anachronism.
Here in North America, religion has not so much been related to abuse of power. As a result, you do not have as much strong conviction either for or against religion. At least, religion does not have such an impact on political choices )speaking for Canada). In the province of Quebec, during the Duplessis years, religion was closely allied to government, and during the 60's quiet revolution, there was a religious rebellion. There is as a result probably more atheism in Quebec than the rest of Canada, although it is expressed more in agnosticism than atheism. The situation was far from being the same as in Europe. Nobody was killed for either their religious or political convictions. So the results have not been as radical.
In the United States, many are connecting evangelicalism in their minds to right-wing politics. That is tragic, as there is really no relation between the two. It is the fault on one hand of some outspoken evangelicals who have been rather naive, and on the other hand, non-believers who happened to be of more leftist political conviction, who delight in scoring points against evangelical faith. I'm afraid the result in the United States could, in the long run, be a violent rejection of religious belief (I am referring here to emotionally violent, not physical!).

Answer 7

Atheism (e.g. secularism) in Europe has been fueld to a greater extent as a backlash against the Papacy, which has never been strong here. The presence of the Roman Catholic Church has always been small in the States. Our culture simply couldn't produce the French Revolution or a Voltaire, in that regard.

Answer 8

While you are correct about Europe, you are wrong about Canada.

Canada is much closer to Europe in terms of religious belief and atheism. The USA is actually quite unique among modern industrialized well educated nations, for the high level of religious belief and other superstitions.

Surveys also show the more education a person has, the less likely they are to have religious beliefs. The relatively impoverished and under-educated southern states, also have the highest rates of religious belief in the USA.

Answer 9

Because a few hundred yrs ago, a whole bunch of christians left and started a whole new country based on God's word. I guess it just went downhill from there.

Answer 10

Is it really? If so, it's probably because this country was founded, for the most part, by Puritans, who were known for intolerance. (If you count the rest of the country, colonized by Spanish and French immigrants, they were usually Catholic, which means rigid religious beliefs, too).