Qualify it?

I don't even care about it. I'm not religious. I don't worry about it.

3 things..

Yelling at the world to wake up gets old fast. Tired of the same arguments.

Not sharing the same annoying characteristics as those missionary preacher types who try to convert everyone to their way of thinking is hard to avoid when you become overly vocal about your beliefs. See lots of comments from Wired's cover article on atheism.

Those most likely to be persuaded by logical arguments are the least likely to need such debate and conversations. They usually figure it out on their own internal struggle with belief and research/reading about said topics.

Call it apathy on my part, but....eh....

I think I mostly agree with Veritas but it is interesting to think about why the UK and Western Europe in general have less religious fervor than the United States. Why is that?

Is it a failure of education? Is it higher poverty in the US? Is it the steady influx of immigrants? Is it lake of economic stability? What is it? What are the factors that contribute to this difference?

There isn't higher poverty here yet. Education here is certainly a failure, but precisely because of leftist propaganda and "teaching" methods. Economic stability is better than elsewhere, even its "lake."

Why are people in India religious? Nearly everyone I've met from there is smart.

It is a cultural component that serves useful functions. It doesn't need to be done away with, only prevented from causing trouble. If everybody were atheists there wouldn't be enough "diversity," would there?

Nothing prevents people from becoming atheists. I've been since about age 12 and I haven't been killed or even arrested for it.

Ahem, I meant to write "lack" not "lake."

I'm only curious as to why there is this measured (Or maybe you'd say "perceived.") difference between the religious fevor of the United States versus the most of the rest of the post-industrial world.

Is it due to some factor? Something different in the States versus the rest of the post industrial countries?

Of course there's poverty in the US. It may be a relative measure but it's still poverty. Perhaps a homeless guy on the streets of Cincinatti is better off than some drug addict on the streets of Lagos but, relative to the rest of the population in the States, he's poor.

I find it odd that the US' income disparity is noticably larger than other post-industrial countries:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gini_coefficient

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:World_Map_Gini_coefficient.png

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/d/d4/Gini_since_WWII.gif

Do we really love the middle class here? Or has that been steadily eroded over the last 30 years?

And is the US educating its citizens as well as other post-industrial countries? If we are, then what is the source of this measure disparity in religious feeling?

Or is it, as you, CP, would have it, merely a polling illusion hiding some agenda?

Part of the error is indeed an illusion: the assumption that religiousness equals stupidity and/or being ill-informed. That's why I mentioned the people from India I've met who were top rate surgeons or computer analysts and burned incense before pictures of cows or statues of elephants.

However, our educational system is deteriorating due to the left. Do first graders really know how gay people *** instead of how to spell? No, but if you can distract people with titillating ideas about things they'd eventually learn anyhow combined with sulky self-righteousness and fake morality you can keep them from learning anything important. See above for the connection between religion and education.

I fear the middle class has been eroded, but that's precisely what people on the left want since they have the money and time to think about politics but don't belong to the elite effete. Hence the latter's long term, successful strategy to sieze control of media.

Yes, there are several agendas, including most people's of getting information they can use to make decisions and that their children can use to improve their lives. This is at odds with the extremists on either end of the spectrum -- which is why both want to get rid of the middle class, if by no other means then by convincing it it doesn't exist. (The safest way to maintain prosperity: keep the middle class and pretend it's not there.)

In a way we're faced with the need to identify and evaluate hidden agendas in the "post-modern" world.

Yawn. It's pretty clear to me that your not really interested in a serious discussion about these issues, CP.

Yawn. It's pretty clear to me that you're not really interested in a serious discussion about these issues, CP.

The issues being how to "qualify" your atheism -- I admit I'm not sure what that means -- and not the failure of left-wing education and impoverishment programs to destroy other people's cultures and prosperity.