Why is the USA such a religious (and patriotic) country?

Question

I have often wondered this. In the West generally, people don't seem to be overly religious and you often hear about church attendance falling. People describe themselves as being Christian but I wonder if they know what it really means (I'm not a religious person by any means by the way).

In the USA it seems different. The media would have you believe that it is a very religious country. Very patriotic as well which is another point : in the West generally, patriotism seems to be "incidental" but not in the USA.

Any (rational) thoughts?

Answer 1

Poor education,

Some parts of that huge country are very isolated - insular, they have little contact with the wide world in general, and very little education of any quality in the smaller communities.

You also have communites of religious ideas who escaped from Europe to live as they believed, which does tip the balance somewhat.

Not every community is this way, its a huge country, but the most isolated communities get worse, as any who do get past a poor high school education, will escape to a more cosmopolitan city.

However, it seems like the few, who seem to stand out in the media, and the majority in the cities have then been influenced by the action of this very loud few.

The US is no more religious than any other place on earth, but it is more vocal in its beliefs, because of its wealth. It only takes a few on-line voices to give you this impression, and the US accounts for about 12% of the globes population, so they seem very active, but unlike Europe, they are only active in English.

Most well educated Europeans - who speak English seem much more tollereant than thier US counterparts, but go to the mother lanugage page of those individuals, and you will find similar uneducated individuals proffessing thier ideas in the same way as the more radical US surfers do.

Answer 2

In truth, the USA isn't either. The 'patriotism' is often more an expression of jingoism and he-man-ism than true patriotism. Church attendance is falling in the US, as it has in Western Europe and Canada, and the loudest among the religious, the Christian Fundamentalists, are, I'm afraid, merely extremists who despise America and would gladly replace our political system with an Iran-style theocracy. The one word which best describes the majority of Americans at this point is greed.

Answer 3

Well, people came to America to get away from the conformist religions only to do the exact same thing, only we normal, sane people have no where left to flee. I would say it's been a point of pride for the country for some time. However the main people, who are also the majority of our population and are adamantly religious, live in smaller towns, remote areas, or have been brainwashed from birth in middle class backgrounds.
Unfortunately the US is slipping behind other countries as far as IQ, motor skills, etc. With selective stupidity (people here have the resources to educate themselves on world events, they just choose not to) gull ability, willingness to follow a crowd, and the loss of common sense and intelligent thought, religion is rampant and a core argumentative point for politics here. In our pledge, on our money, the government added god to all these things years ago to aid the control/herding factor, i assume other countries did not, nor did they choose to capitalize on it, (televangelists, christian clothing, bumper stickers, jewelry, dolls, what a market!!) Now its become the status quo here and there is no escaping it, because the uneducated far outnumber open minded, educated people.

So, basically, other countries aren't as widespread stupid as we are. *Sigh* As for patriotism, that is falling every year nothing changes or gets better. We are circling the toilet.

Answer 4

As far as the religious thing goes.

"The media would have you believe that it is a very religious country"

How do you see this in our media? We have virtually no mainstream religious music, movies, books, or television shows (with the exception of a couple channels) We are a society obsessed with consumerism, not religion. We have a claim rate of 85% Christian, and the polls have broken that down to actual Christians being 25%. How is that so different from your country?

Answer 5

The media isn't orientated by religion, but is entirely insular. The themes of religion and nationalism go hand in hand, see "God bless America". In the South especially, there is an obstinance ingrained in to the culture of trying to maintain old fashioned values, as they're something that can't be taken away by the bureaucrats in the North. Lets face it, most of the world's biggest corporations are American and particularly ignorant Americans think the world over looks up to them because of this.

Answer 6

It seems to be brainwashing from an early age and is still done today by the media.

However, look at the state of their country. I wouldn't wish to live there. They may think they are religious and their country is great, yet they have so much crime, corruption, bigotry and intolerance compared to other countries. This mix of religion and patriotism is obviously doing them no good!

Answer 7

Because they are brought up to believe that America is the greatest country on earth, and it is 'God's own country'. They are spoon fed their beliefs from an early age eg they pledge alleigance almost every day. The news is monitored so they dont see what they shouldnt. The education system narrows their global view. Anything that is not consistent with their middle of the road views is shunned and ostracised (eg people not working, single mothers, etc) they have a very strict view of what people should and shouldnt do, say, wear etc. Thats what i can figure out ftom the americans I know anyway.

Answer 8

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Answer 9

i believe that this is because the population of the usa are immigrants. Immigrants tend to stick to the values they had in their original country for several generations. One of these things is religion.

Answer 10

Possibly because religion is such a huge money-making scheme. Religious leaders become millionaires, so they're naturally going to pull out all the stops to keep people believing their nonsense.