Why do you think America is becoming an increasingly religious society, whereas the UK is a lot more secular?

Question

I just wondered what people think as to why Americans are largely a lot more religious than us brits? One example, is that some schools (in the US) are even trying to do away with teaching evolution in science, and teaching "creationism" instead (i.e.; God created the Earth). At the other end of the scale - in the UK - there was talk recently about introducing Atheism to the religious education syllabus. What do others think?

Answer 1

The anti-establishment clause in the First Amendment to the US Constitution prevents government from establishing religion. As a result, religions are noisily prosyletizing. It's the noise, not the mindset you detect.

Answer 2

Dear Magneto,

The answer is fairly simple. Number one, Britain suffered greatly because of religion-inspired civil war (like the rest of Europe), and hence has the same misgivings about religion and its potential for causing strife as the rest of Europe. The US, on the other hand, has never seen any devastating internal conflicts as a result of religion and therefore religion in general is considered much more positively in American society.

Number two: A symbolic reason behind the creation of the US as an independent nation was religion itself - many of those who eventually became Americans had been expelled from Britain for religious dissent, and the US was largely intended as an oecumenical haven where everyone could practice their own religion freely and without hindrance (this also explains the high American tolerance level for very outlandish cults). This is a very important element in American national identity.

Number three: Americans are indeed more religious than Europeans, but what you see today as outwardly extensions of this religious fervour (the drive towards creationism, etc) are in reality purely pragmatic consequences of fairly recent political phenomena which do not reflect the actual religious views of Americans at large.

First of all, the ultraliberal Clinton presidency alienated a lot of Americans, because it took such worthy causes as multiculturalism and feminism so unreasonably far that the entire country lived largely under a heinous dictatorship of political correctness, in which many could lose their job or reputation for any slightest misstep away from the accepted ideology. By association, this drove many voters away from liberal values in general.

Enter the Republican opposition. And it so happens that in the past twenty years, a key strategy of the Republican Party in achieving political success has been to court the Christian fundamentalists. The result of this association, naturally, is that once in power the Republicans rewarded their base by appointing radical evangelicals to a high number of official positions, and lending moral support to extreme Christian advocacies like creationism, the amalgamation of church and state, etc.

All this may give an outsider the impression that the US has gone dangerously theocratic, but in reality only a small minority of Americans espouse the views of the religious rabble-rousers in government or Congress (or indeed in the media). Although a strong religious faith is indeed a cultural feature of many Americans, this does not mean that they are less susceptible to reason and common sense. The large majority of Americans (whether they are religious or not) are tolerant, compassionate and very far removed from the hellfire-and-brimstone fanatics promoted by the current powers that be.

Now that the Republicans (self-styled party of "moral values") have conclusively proven, through a long series of catastrophic policies and scandals, that they are just as prone to incompetence, fanaticism and corruption as anyone else, it would not be unreasonable to predict that the fanatical religious activism of the last few years will gradually die off. And hopefully Americans will be able to find a better balance between the extremes of Clinton and Bush.

Hope this helped,

Answer 3

We do enjoy those religious British stories... The Lord of the Rings and Narnia!!! I'm not so sure about the increasingly religious part... but in general America is more religious than Europe... some people say America is like a place where the Swedes (the least religious) rule over the Indians (the most religious)

For some ethinic groups the less urban parts of the US, the 'homeland' sections of the US tended to hold onto religous values. In urban areas it appears that in the US blacks are the most church going group of people and so there may be a dynamic in the us holding onto religious faith in the country with whites and in the city with blacks... this is an over generalization of course but somewhat true.

The US has a stronger base of private Christian education in grade school, high school and college and perhaps the more secular overall school system in EUrope played a part? In the US you have seen over 50 years of efforts of Campus Crusade, Inter Varsity and the Navigators working in college campusses to influence them toward Christianity and I think they did allot. In the US you exagerate, few people in the US are suggesting public schools stop teaching evolution, students and parents overwhelmingly would like to see Intelligent design and creation science taught as well. Frankly the creationary science is far stronger than evolutionary naturalism. Better science but they tend to loose the propaganda war.

England has more talk of barring religion from Dawkins and Sir Elton John... this would not fly in the US.... I have to do some research on the why... seems the foundations o Christianity in Europe were seriously eroded after WWII... same could happen in the US

Europe in general is far more secular than the US... with Canada in between and a few exceptions in Europe like Ireland and Poland... For some reason Europe as a whole has made a sharp turn toward radical secularism after WWII. Lack of familiarity with the scriptures? Lack of realization of the substantial strengths of creationary views? and lack of understanding of the inadequacies of naturalism.

Answer 4

My opinion is that they have always been a country of religious extremes. Many religious groups emigrated to America to have the freedom to practice their religion to what ever extremes they wished to (puritans, shakers, calvinists, quakers etc) so they were able to perpetuate and evolve, while also becoming ingrained in the small societies they started from. THis ingrained 'religiousness' has continued to this day as it was also a means of population control in a rather unstable and lawless country. It is so ingrained in the culture that I think it will take many years to chance, if it will at all.

England went through that phase centuries ago and we can all have more freedom and choice not to believe.

Answer 5

I think Americans have fewer outside influences on their culture when compared to Britain. Religion in Britain is not seen as a patriotic thing to have but a personal choice. Fortunately we still have a free press, ( OK we could debate that later) and a far more secular outlook. Politics and religion are still largely separate entities. Also we do not have George Bush, mind you Tony Blair is seeking canonisation,

Answer 6

Only something ridiculous like 2% of America's society are atheists. I guess there are more Americans than Brits, but still... However, as far as impact goes, I think that Americans just tend to be more Evangelical/Devout in their beliefs, whereas with a lot of Brits being Church of England-goers (a very moderate form of protestantism,) they are more likely to be Christians as a small aspect of their lives, rather than the whole meaning, purpose, shout-it-from-the-rooftops etc

Answer 7

Good question, I've wondered that too. I couldnt believe it when I found out people believed the creation story. I was in my mid twenties and had never heard of ANYONE believing that before, guess that coz I'm in the UK and evolution is taught! I believe I was taught about atheism in RE at school though... only very briefly as everyone knows about it as pretty much everyone is atheist (or near enough), or at least where I grew up they are!

Answer 8

I would say that it is easier to take a "righteous" stand against all that is wrong in the world if you "are" or are "acting" the devout religious person.

Americans want to feel "right" and "correct" I think it's easier to do that if you have a church behind you telling you that it's ok to do what you want as long as it's in the name of God.

Answer 9

Capitalism has gone too far in the US resulting in cult like actions of the Christians there. Also US knows it is no longer going to be top dog in the world and is scared about it

Answer 10

Because of the whole Evolution vs. Creation arguement in my opinion.