XPost: alt.california, az.general, az.politics   
   From: usenet2@DE.LETE.THISljvideo.com   
      
   Waiving the right to remain silent, Rudy Canoza    
   said:   
      
   > Larry in AZ wrote:   
   >> Waiving the right to remain silent, Rudy Canoza   
   >>  said:   
   >>   
   >>> You're wrong about that.  Church attendance in the US   
   >>> is still at very high levels.  The percentage of people   
   >>> who report attending church at least once a week in the   
   >>> U.S. dwarfs the percentage for most of continental   
   >>> Europe, for example.  While obviously some people are   
   >>> going to lie, I can't think of why Americans would lie  about it more   
   >>> than Europeans.   
   >>   
   >> Yurps lie in the opposite direction...   
   >   
   > No, they don't.   
      
   It's "fashionable" to be secular.  Europe is full of closeted believers.   
      
   "The religious divide between Americans and Europeans may be smaller than   
   we think. The sociologists Rodney Stark, of Baylor University, and Roger   
   Finke, of Pennsylvania State University, write that the big difference has   
   to do with church attendance, which really is much lower in Europe.   
   (Building on the work of the Chicago-based sociologist and priest Andrew   
   Greeley, they argue that this is because the United States has a   
   rigorously free religious market, in which churches actively vie for   
   parishioners and constantly improve their product, whereas European   
   churches are often under state control and, like many government   
   monopolies, have become inefficient.) Most polls from European countries   
   show that a majority of their people are believers."   
      
   --   
     Larry J. - Remove spamtrap in ALLCAPS to e-mail   
      
     "A lack of common sense is now considered a disability,   
      with all the privileges that this entails."   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)