Why do Americans believe in God?

Better than having foreign led socialism control our masses.

Better than having the poor believe in the fantasy that their surrogate government will create their "American Dream".

And just how are those enlightenment nations faring when compared to America in economics, military strength and personal happiness/contentment?

The answer should be obvious to all. The need as you put it is in realizing that a religious America constitutes the makeup of the most generous people in the world, of the happiest people in the world, of the most inspirational, studious, entrepreneuring, energetic, gifted and content people etc. Try finding those attributes from any of your atheistic nations. Need I mention how nations faired under the atheistic regimes of Stalin, Pol Pot and Zedong? No, I didn't think so.

 

I think many believe in Christianity because of a claim that you can be a scumbag and still go to heaven as long as you accept Jesus in the end, and other, more sitty types simply want to make sure they don't go to hell for not accepting Jesus. I personaly have God and people like Jesus in my heart, and that is where it ends, I don't need any religion or bunch to tell me anything more, ESPECIALY when their leaders are war criminals

 

Americans believe in god because god is perpetrated generation after generation, and those who disbelieve are demonized the ignorant sheep amongst us.

Take a look at the religion forum and see how far from reality peoples views on atheism are. It is both amusing and sad at the same time.

 

I'm confused. You believe in god because you think that gives you individualism? And that religion isn't controlled by "a few nefarious men"?

Titter.

 

In 2006, the New Zealand census asked, "What is your religion?" 34.7% of those answering indicated no religion. 12.2% did not respond or objected to answering the question.[59][60]

And the trend is away from any sort of religious belief. In the last 20 years, the number of non-believers has almost doubled.



Of those who say they have a religion, only 15% are estimated to attend a church. There are no numbers on those who are religious because it gives them entree to coffee afternoons.

In Norway, those who believe in a god are already in the minority.

It is interesting that the countries moving away from belief in a deity are wealthier countries with access to good education. The exception is the USA. My guess is that this is because the US suffered (and still suffers) from fundamentalist evangelical movements throughout its modern history, and other wealthy countries did not.

 

That's say no religon, not atheist. I win. Thanks for playing.

 

What can I say? We've always been a spiritual people, going back to before the Europeans showed up. And since the particular Europeans that did show up were also very spiritual, many of them, that didn't do much to change it. The shapes, sure -- but not the stone the shapes were carved from.

I think it's in the land itself, myself.

 

Spiritual is one thing; pushing one's religion is another. The pushing of religion, especially those who await something apocalyptic (almost gleefully)... isn't a good thing.

 

There is a point at which trying to drill into someone's head that they'd better do what they're told or else they'll burn in a lake of fire for all eternity does become at least akin to an assault, that's true. But religion and its social subjectivity is one of the most important things to protect with the first amendment. The right to a belief in the immaterial is very material.

Roger Williams' concept of freedom of conscience, whether that means one religion or another religion or no religion, was one of the first really good things to come out of the mingling of European and Native American philosophies.

 

The great thing about religion is that you can practice it between you and your God without any middlemen.

Name these so called " nefarious controllers of religion".

 

I always laugh when I see the criminal presidents and the like end their speeches with GOD BLESS AMERICA.

Not one of them believes in God. However you are correct.. they have to pander to the vast swathes of ignorant, controlled Americans who do. I wonder why they want God to bless America and not all of the world?

Perhaps the backwardness of Americans stems historically from the extremist christians who fled Europe. They were from weird sects that believed in all sorts of nonsense.

 

Less raa-raa-raa, more rationality, please.

 

Sorry, but it's the left that considers people an evil that has to be controlled by a government.

I'm an American. I'm a fiscal conservative. I'm an atheist. Once again, the libeals are talking nonsense.

On the bright side, I don't know a single conservative who thinks Barack Obama is god.

 

The difference between religion in the US and Europe is..

If a US president declared he was an atheist, he would lose votes.
If a European leader declared he was deeply religious, he would be looked upon as very strange and no doubt lose votes.

Religion is kept way out of politics in Europe, whereas politicians in the US use religion as a tool to win votes.

 

I doubt people will never stop believing in God.

 

I do not understand this post. Surely the Europeans who showed up were so spiritual that they completely massacred an entire race?

The indigenous Americans were no doubt deeply spiritual and of the land. The Europeans who invaded tended to be pretty unspiritual and following weird extremist views which permeate to today.

 

Well, they're not really elected by, or representing, the rest of the world when they make a speech. I don't think it's that they don't want God blessing the rest of the world. It's more like, when you're a coach for the Lakers and you're giving the players a motivational speech, you don't finish it off with, "And I hope the Yankees have a really good year!" It would be sort of odd.

Probably.

 

American fundamentalism captured American politics right from the start. Many of the colonies were founded by religious sects and they quickly developed political institutions.

Evangelical movements - of which there were and still are many - compounded the capture of American politics by religious groups.

In NZ, no politician can afford publicly to appeal to God In the US, no politican can afford not to.

And a poor US education system keeps the masses believing in religion because it gives little access to other ideas.

 

The post is correct. I have lived in Italy and Spain. Both are extremely CATHOLIC nations in a traditional sense. However, I never once met a person under 40 who attended church. Religion really is not a factor in Europe today.

 

Politicians have nothing to do with a belief in God. That's pure stupid.

The "American Dream" is a concept, you obviously don't understand, that has nothing to do with a belief in God.

I can assure you that Australia is no more "enlightened" than the US. LOL on that one.

There is a near universal need for a belief in God. In some sense almost every human being feels a need to believe in a higher power. The only way there can be a true belief in God, and there are many true believers, is for God to bring about a change to the individual allowing such belief.

I have no idea why God has blessed the US with so many believers. Ask him.

That's an honest attempt to answer your question. Now answer one for me.

Why do you care? Honestly.

 

A lot of them did cite spiritual cause at the time. Which I find stupid, and ridiculous. I didn't say they were spiritual geniuses, just that they were spiritual.

Yahweh was, according to some scholars, a Canaanite god of war before He graduated to the big non-league of monotheism. In the bible the Hebrews get into some genocide on the path to the holy land. I think those precise stories, spiritual in nature, were often cited as reasons why the natives should be wiped out, or at least as implication of how it was okay.

Appallingly stupid. Still spiritual.

 

See the graph I have posted above on the numbers of New Zealanders and Norwegians who are rapidly doing just that.

 

And here we have the answer to the original poster's question.

A deeply controlled and uneducated people. The backward religious control attempts to instill a sense of superiority whilst the world looks on and laughs.

Could you imagine those hilarious evangelical churches making the millions they do in any normal nation?

 

This question could only be answerable if you were right, but you're not.

Religion is a self imposed social control that has gained control of the political process. I think the problem, ironically, is the separation of church and state. It created a laissez faire environment for bad ideas and mountebanks like L. Ron Hubbard, Joseph Smith and Rev. Falwell. There was no state sponsored religion to discourage them like in the old world, so religions sprouted like weeds in America.

Despite your claim, I think god's shadow is slowly, but surely, lifting in America.

 

The decline in Christianity in other Western counties has brought with it a collapse of moral standards. The United States is one of the few countries left where adultery is still frowned upon. In Germany, France, Russia, Spain, Mexico, and many other countries, adultery is very common and no one cares that much about it.