Safety nets and access to medical care are exactly the things the religious/republican party is trying to terminate. I wonder if some of the party leaders recognize that this will bring more people into the flock and keep them gripping onto fear. The strategy is working.

Ken -- What you've said has no meaning.

This is actually the best explanation I've seen yet of why the U.S. region that is the most devoutly religious also has the highest rate of firearms ownership.

Its actually quite a classical stance on religion and often used as an example of how to deal with the religious people who move into secular societies.

Brilliant, thanks Charles.

Great post. Great question: "Why is there so much fear in a society that has so much wealth?"

Sometimes I think it has to do with being the Alpha Nation-- when you are king of the hill, the only direction to go is down, so that's all you think about.

I recently took a defensive handgun course. The technical training was useful, but I was struck by how every lesson came with a sort of side-dish of paranoia. It wasn't enough to carry a gun. What if the other guy had a more powerful gun or more bullets? What if there were two guys with guns? What if your gun jammed-- maybe you should carry two guns? The more you strive for power the more obsessed you become with the power of others and the possibility of losing your power. I came away convinced that while it may be useful to have handgun training, actually carrying a gun created more problems than it solved.

Yes, Charles, and most people don't vote to make their lives better. Now, that's ignorance!

It might also have to do with the foundation of the United States.

The American continents were settled primarily by highly religious people who fled their own countries because they felt persecuted. Those feelings lingered and wove themselves into the religious teachings of the day. The feelings of persecution and fear just kept shifting to the next closest scapegoat.

This country is founded on fear and feelings of persecution and victimization. Those feelings have remained in school and religious teachings.

Just my two cents...

Sorry, I just talked to God and she says that she meant to say was "The universe was created by an app", not an ape.

Bygones.

The patch will download in 2012 at some point. Might fix the magnetic Poles too. So, stay away from Poland if you have lots of iron.

I don't say this often. But Charles in 100% right.

@7 True. Yes, there were a number of religious fanatics who came here. Many on the edge of being booted out of their respective home countries for... well... being annoying as shit (don't you wish we had a Mars colony we could boot those people to now?).

But it didn't take long for nuts like the puritans to be out numbered here and very quickly despised for being... well... annoying as shit.

Remember there were also lots of interests seeking economic colonial exploitation for one monarchy or another and with them people fleeing political persecution. Religious nuts get in the way of all that.

Not to mention we had LOTS of pirates, thieves, criminals and assorted other misfits.

Think Deadwood.

Ah. Good times.

@10,

There were also religious nuts who emigrated here (think Quakers) because they were being legitimately persecuted back home. Unfortunately, many of them are now the religious blowhards trying to shove their religion down everyone else's throats.

For example, although they were homegrown, evangelicals were heavily invested in Virginia's freedom of religion act and in the First Amendment back in the day because they didn't want to be persecuted for their religion (or pay tithes to the government church or any of that shit). The Mormons, similarly, should know better than to support religious intolerance, but now those two groups are the vanguards of forcing everyone to live according to their values.

And so it goes.

Dear Charles,

You did bring it with this post.

yours in Ape,
LaLa

(PS - have you finished reading all of Frans De Waal's books?{except The Ape and The Sushi Master, no need})

Just as there are no atheists in foxholes, there are no atheists on Rainier Ave. S.

So it's all the fault of the Global Warming Alarmists?

Sodo needs to know that!

Religion ruins everything!

@13

Just as there are no atheists in foxholes...

BZZZZT. False.

FI: My father served three combat tours in Vietnam. He is an Atheist. In fact his combat tours only reinforced his secular humanistic views.