Just how religious is the US?

[The_Other_Waldo_Pepper]

@jsc1953

Is it safe, then to draw these conclusions:

Americans are a bit more religious (measured by % of believers, or % of church attendees) than other western countries.

Americans talk about their religion much more than other western countries.

I’m actually kind of amazed the phrase “a mile wide and an inch deep” hasn’t yet come up in this thread.

[vivalostwages]

@HumanBear

I suspect this may lead to a debate, but feel free to move it elsewhere moderators.

I’ve only ever visited Seattle in the US, and that was for a couple of days. I did live in Vancouver for a while, and was surprised when I found a number of what I would call hardcore Christians there.

So, tell me, just how religious is the US? Are people frightened to say they are atheists? Is it only certain areas where caution is required? If you say you don’t believe in God what would happen to you? Is almost everyone around you a believer? How many people do you know who don’t believe in evolution? How many people do you know who believe there are angels walking on the Earth? If you applied for a job and were asked about your religion would you be happy to say you have none?

I know there are varying types of Christianity, I guess it’s the amount of fundamentalists around you I’m interested in.

I live in the UK where almost everyone I know is either an atheist or agnostic, although it seems most people don’t like militant atheists, perhaps because they perceive there’s nothing worth fighting for. However American-style Christianity is slowly taking hold here, with schools teaching creationist ideas; Mormons knocking on the door and trying to prove Darwin was wrong; and the Alpha Group converting people through hypnotism (http://uk.alpha.org/).

I have family and some friends (mostly the ones on FB) who are very vocal about their religious beliefs and you can’t even mention any doubts around them, and heaven forbid you should mention evolution at all. I am very careful about what I say and who I say it to in that particular circle. It would just cause too much fallout if I came out as agnostic to them.

[Glazer]

I hear and talk about religion online much more than I ever do IRL. By an order of magnitude at least. So to non-Americans who interact with Americans mostly online we probably look much more religious than we would otherwise.

[Ulfreida]

In my coastal California college town, it is really the other way around. There is a lot of prejudice against Christianity, especially among the young, who may associate it purely with fundamentalist bigots. A professed atheist would be treated neutrally (perhaps pegged as a probable geek). Christians of all stripes tend to keep their heads down a bit. Wicca, every sort of new age woo, and various eastern religions with a mystical side (zen, vipassana, sufism, etc) are all mainstream here. I cannot remember any politician representing this area from city council to state level mentioning religion, ever.

Except for the people who go to my church, I assume anyone I meet here is not a Christian until proved otherwise. There are in fact lots of churches so the place isn’t as much a devil’s playground as it appears, but it remains a rather atypical place I guess.

I don’t know anyone who doesn’t believe in evolution who lives here. I’m sure they exist, but the dominance of one of the top science schools in the country, cheek by jowl with Silicon Valley probably reduces their numbers quite a bit.

[Czarcasm]

@Ulfreida

In my coastal California college town, it is really the other way around. There is a lot of prejudice against Christianity, especially among the young, who may associate it purely with fundamentalist bigots. A professed atheist would be treated neutrally (perhaps pegged as a probable geek). Christians of all stripes tend to keep their heads down a bit. Wicca, every sort of new age woo, and various eastern religions with a mystical side (zen, vipassana, sufism, etc) are all mainstream here. I cannot remember any politician representing this area from city council to state level mentioning religion, ever.

Except for the people who go to my church, I assume anyone I meet here is not a Christian until proved otherwise. There are in fact lots of churches so the place isn’t as much a devil’s playground as it appears, but it remains a rather atypical place I guess.

I don’t know anyone who doesn’t believe in evolution who lives here. I’m sure they exist, but the dominance of one of the top science schools in the country, cheek by jowl with Silicon Valley probably reduces their numbers quite a bit.

Would you mind naming this town?

[Qin_Shi_Huangdi]

@Czarcasm

Would you mind naming this town?

If I had to bet I’d say Santa Cruz considering his mention of it being coastal, being a university town, and proximity to the Silicon Valley.

[SeldomSeen]

@Qin_Shi_Huangdi

If I had to bet I’d say Santa Cruz considering his mention of it being coastal, being a university town, and proximity to the Silicon Valley.

Heh…my first thought upon reading the post was San Luis Obispo. Could also be Palo Alto? Be interesting to see how accurate our guesswork was if an answer is forthcoming…

[MyFootsZZZ]

I fear putting a “Darwin Fish” on my car because someone might scratch it.

[jsc1953]

@SeldomSeen

Heh…my first thought upon reading the post was San Luis Obispo. Could also be Palo Alto? Be interesting to see how accurate our guesswork was if an answer is forthcoming…

SLO is coastal but not Silicon Valley (100 mi away); Palo Alto is SV but not coastal. I’d go with Santa Cruz.

[njtt]

@jsc1953

SLO is coastal but not Silicon Valley (100 mi away); Palo Alto is SV but not coastal. I’d go with Santa Cruz.

SLO is a few miles inland, probably about as far as Palo Alto is.

I agree with your guess though. Santa Cruz is truly coastal and, I should think, much more culturally dominated by UCSC than SLO is by it Cal State Poly.

[Ulfreida]

@Czarcasm

Would you mind naming this town?

yes.

But it is not the only town like this on the west coast. Most towns dominated by a liberal college or university are rather like that out here.

[Ulfreida]

@MyFootsZZZ

I fear putting a “Darwin Fish” on my car because someone might scratch it.

It ain’t nothing but Darwin fish out here.

[Ulfreida]

Some other places religio-politically resembling my town:

Olympia, WA
Eugene, OR
Amherst, MA
Bolinas, CA
Sebastopol, CA
Berkeley, CA

possibly but I have not been there:
Chapel Hill, NC
Burlington VT
Oberlin OH
Arlington VA

I am sure there are others. But still, a small fraction of the population (though an influential one).

[Ibn_Warraq]

@Ulfreida

yes.

But it is not the only town like this on the west coast. Most towns dominated by a liberal college or university are rather like that out here.

I’ll be honest and say think that’s at best a huge exaggeration and I have a difficult time believing whatever campus you’re talking about is more liberal than Brown University or Macalester College.

[Ulfreida]

@Ibn_Warraq

I’ll be honest and say think that’s at best a huge exaggeration and I have a difficult time believing whatever campus you’re talking about is more liberal than Brown University or Macalester College.

What exactly is a huge exaggeration? I never said the phenomenon was restricted to the west coast. It is possible though, that there is some confluence of traits that contribute to the massive non-Christianity of this type of town on the west coast that isn’t present elsewhere . . . I’m just familiar with the west coast is all, so I can’t really speak about other places.

[MyFootsZZZ]

@Ulfreida

It ain’t nothing but Darwin fish out here.

I don’t get it.

:smack:

[fumster]

@Ulfreida

In my coastal California college town, it is really the other way around. There is a lot of prejudice against Christianity, especially among the young, who may associate it purely with fundamentalist bigots. A professed atheist would be treated neutrally (perhaps pegged as a probable geek). Christians of all stripes tend to keep their heads down a bit.

When you go to someone’s house do they ask you to hold hands while they say there is no God? Do city council meetings begin with a recitation of “reason”? Do atheists cite a philosophy book as “evidence” why they need to pass laws restricting others’ rights?

[Ulfreida]

@fumster

When you go to someone’s house do they ask you to hold hands while they say there is no God? Do city council meetings begin with a recitation of “reason”? Do atheists cite a philosophy book as “evidence” why they need to pass laws restricting others’ rights?

I don’t think you quite understand. It’s more likely that they’ll all hold hands and invoke the Goddess and chant a pseudo-native-american blessing song.

Huh, doesn’t that happen to you guys?

[Ulfreida]

[quote=“MyFootsZZZ, post:136, topic:589580”]

I don’t get it.

darwin fishare a commentary on the Christian fish symbol. There are many variants.

[fumster]

@Ulfreida

I don’t think you quite understand. It’s more likely that they’ll all hold hands and invoke the Goddess and chant a pseudo-native-american blessing song.

Huh, doesn’t that happen to you guys?

In my godless town I’ve been to a few houses where the hosts said a prayer before eating, but at the non-believers they just say “dig in”. If they “held hands, invoked the Goddess, and chanted a pseudo-native-american blessing song” I’d probably lose my appetite.