I've been wandering around the forum and taking part in some discussions and a thought has occurred to me. Of all the nationalities represented on this site, the States appears to be the one with the biggest contingent of dissatisfied members. For all of the disquiet I come across, it would appear there is little difference between the integration of church and state there and with other more 'fundamentalist' states like Iran for example.
Now before anybody jumps down my throat I am not comparing the 2 on a like-for-like basis, but some of the things the Americans say about the way religion affects their lives puts me in mind of states like Iran et al. I am stunned at how deeply entrenched in every day life religion is in the US. I haven't really had a grasp of how significant atheism is for Americans until seeing some of the posts.
I was raised as a catholic by a woman who made the pope look like a heathen. My dad and 5 siblings just went along with her faith. When I eventually arrived at my own atheism it wasn't the end of the world, nor has there been much dissent amongst my family. I therefore find it remarkable to read 'coming out' stories from somewhere as supposedly advanced as the US.
Am I reading things correctly, is religion so completely immersed in the American way of life that it's abandonment is such a big deal? Or are the atheists here just more (apparently) militant than in other developed countries?