The Christian crazies are absolutely overwhelming in this country I do not believe that we will move forward as a species until we can evolve Beyond religion

The amount of religious fervor in America frankly scares me sometimes. The absolute hypocrisy of it all is astounding. Spending more than half of my life in Canada and then moving to Texas( Bible Belt). You can’t drive more than a couple blocks without seeing a church.
To tell someone you are an atheist is equated with satanism. They are so uninformed.
There is no division between church and state and I find this the most troubling. Any looney tune can start up a church, pay no taxes and live like a king. It’s all a scam on the sheeple.
We have a Vice President that still believes in conversion therapy for homosexual people.
I could go on... it’s a mess!!!

i'm a jewish atheist so there never was "church." shul is different -- and as i was raised quite secularly, that was not an influence on my life. when i meet other jews they sometimes ask me which temple i go to, and i tell them i don't go, or if i'm with my guy i ask him which one we go to for the high holidays because i always forget the name. it's nice, though. other people don't spontaneously ask me that, or which church (assuming, right?) or anything like that. i tend not to hang out with religious folks lol. i live in a 'burb of a major metropolitan area. there's no small-town everyone-in-your-hair feeling here.

g

Yes America is weird that way. We really cannot get away from stupid superstition. That said like you, I enjoy reading the history no differently than I like reading about ancient Greece or Egypt

America is very odd that way.

I am very interested in the history of religion and how it has added to our culture. It is, to me, the history of people through the centuries. My country, Ireland, is very secular these days and there is great antipathy towards the R.C. Church, which is understandable after the crimes of the clergy became known.