Why Atheism Replaces Religion In Developed Countries

[Valkyrie]

Valkyrie: The things as you ask, you won't find it as much but...every time some news comes up that someone has prayed for health while a simple visit to the doctor would have done the trick, it comes from the USA. I have even heard news of a child suffering from diabetes, which was untreated because the parents preferred praying for a cure instead of a proven and working way to deal with it. So amongst the 'western world', the USA citizens certainly seem to be the most religious.

There also seems to be a 'is the USA poor' discussion going on. The problem of course, is to define poor. Would we look at debts, the USA is poor. Do we look at average income, it's not so poor. If we look at the income of the majority of the population, it's slowly edging towards poor again. But even with these interpetations, the USA is certainly not the poorest, and it's far from being the poorest.
But I do think that when it comes to religion and atheism, the USA is actually the 'oddball', and not Sweden. The USA is an oddball in many ways, like being a very poor and a stinking rich country at the same time. When I look at other European countires, it seems that atheism is also growing there, and religion (I mean Christianity) is in decline.

I wonder if the USA is becoming more radical. It´s hard to see because I don´t really know how it was exactly like there a couple of decades back.

I do see what you mean, Girlysprite. Yes, the idea of God seems to be everywhere these days, and there are a few parents that let their children die out of an unsubstantiated belief in God. I won't argue that some of us really do believe- Christian scientists are one such group, but among Christians in general, belief is not as deep as it would seem.

You offer as evidence those who let their children die out of belief, and that is valid. However, I'd like to propose that the number of American Christians who do this are far outweighed by the number that pretend not to hear the beggars on the street asking for spare change.

I appreciate that there are different levels of belief, and I suppose that one could claim that even a slight belief still qualifies as belief. Maybe I should have phrased my intitial post differently . . .

How about: "Americans do not believe as much, or as deeply, as the circumstancial and anecdotal evidence would seem to suggest."

[Salty Amy]

Sorry 4 taking so long, I swear I have valid reasons, I did gave up learning the proper forun rules.. I'm a rebel.. and yeah taht's my excuse. So ya'll go ahead and correct ma post.

I have lived in countries with third world conditions besides this one. I was an high school exchange student in Brazil in 1976 and 1977 (though the only reason I was able to go was because my mother won $5,000 in the Michigan State Lottery one month before I was scheduled to depart). Eu vivei em Birigüi, 10 km do leste de Araçatuba, no Estado de São Paulo. The families I stayed with are far wealthier than my own single mother family was. (My father, chief breadwinner, was killed in the Vietnam War.)

I'm marvelled with the fact that you actually lived in Brazil and that you caught us in such a special moment, if you could see us today you'd see how much we changed in so little time. We still have some very serious problems but only on the last decade 31,7 million brazilians left poverty and 12 million left extreme poverty (13 million to go still). São Paulo is the richest state in Brazil and it atracted lots of migrants from the northeast creating the favelas we see today. It was also a period we're people left the country to concentratre on the urban areas (this is happening in China now).

We are not a wealthy nation because we borrowed our wealth rather than built it: at the end of World War Two we were the largest creditor in the world. We are now the largest debtor. (While your link does show that as a percentage of GDP nations such as the UK are higher than us, we certainly owe more than any other country in terms of dollars.)

I have to be Team America here..I think you did built a lot of wealth and a lot of value, through the swet and hopes of imigrants that believed that USA was a place we're hard work payed off. You also had the very awesomest first constitution.. really. I love Elvis, Johny Cash, Rock n roll, 40's movies, hoitdogs, Clint Eastwood and Charles bronson... and I give credit were it is dued. USA forefathers kickedsomeroyASS! In my opinion that was your headstart, and you should never turn you back to it.
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Our wealth was squandered in a mass of borrowing to pay for a TV lifestyle that few people here actually live. )And we don't own a TV, but that doesn't matter anyway because there are no TV stations here).

When I lived in Brazil, I was amazed at the number of people who actually believed the American television programming, that everything was either like the Old West or that everyone was wealthy like Beverly Hills. Or maybe they were just having me on.

I believe that Brazilians in the 70's had misguided ideas about US, no internet, no democracy, no internet and a running cold war can cause that. But let's be honest till this day the average American feels that from the south border down it's all MEXICO! and none of it matter..

The standard model of business here today is to purchase undervalued companies and break them up and sell them, not create new wealth. Our most popular news network, Fox, is owned by an Australian that can't keep his reporters out of other people's voicemail and only pushes his agenda of "make the rich richer and it will help the poor." And by-and-large our poor here believe it.

I note looking at a couple of investment house Websites today that they recommend those investing in government bonds get out of US treasuries and invest in Brazilian bonds. Seems they trust Brazil better to pay back its debts.

Here in Western Nebraska, the hospital is 80 km away, so are the doctors, the nearest bus station is in Denver, almost 300 km away. There are no taxis. We might as well be in Amazonas. (Wait, Manaus has taxis, hospitals, and busses.)

Since my wife brought it up, I was a homeless disabled veteran for eleven years, from 1996 to 2007, tossed from the Navy for epilepsy and divorced by my first wife for the same. When I met my wife BethK, I was indeed fortunate she looked past my poverty and saw someone she loved .When she took me in, I had my clothes and my musical instrument. That is everything I possessed.

Ohhh that paragraph got me on my knees, I look tough, badass n all but I'm a freaking cry baby! I'm also honest and you just went to my weak spot! My breaf "i respect veterans" quote should start a thread of its own, and it's not the empty praise u get at home. Brazilians are genetically suspicious of the military, and it's easy to critisize USA foreign policy, army, wars, stupidity AND military actions in the last 10yrs. Some wars were fair some were wrong- I have to quote Peter parker here, can't help it...- with great powers comes great responsibilities...- I did loved your post and i'm glad you took the time to writte it. I'm not anti-american and I already knew of some of the hardships you describe, I know there are struggling, poor ppl in USA, the katrina hurricane showed the world some of this in real time and high def. Vocabulary, language and background can be tricky, I tend to use a world wide standard when using definitions like: Rich,poor, developed, democratic etc.. So I'll write off our initial disagreement as cultural clash and "lost in translation"stubborness...You keep the "poor" adjective on your argument and trade it for "Miserable" on my. deal?

I do hope we can keep this up and talk more in the future.

Beijos pra vcs!

muah!

I am quite familiar with what poverty is in this country. It is just like poverty in every other country, it sucks eggs.-James[/font]