I’m curious about why religious belief is so much more prevalent in the US than in Britain and (I think) Australia. Anglophone, high education rates, strong scientific research sector, democracy, market economy: these nations have a lot in common. On measures of faith Britain looks more like the rest of Western Europe, whereas the US looks like a third-world country. Why?

Peter says that the Enlightenment has been naming The Game for the last 300 years, eroding the authority or confidence of the faith. America’s entire history falls within those 300 years. Dawkins sells well in America; so do Daniel Dennett, Sam Harris, and other popularizers of scientifically-based atheism. Again, why are they the underdogs in America but the dominant voice in England?

I doubt whether people come to faith in God based on their belief that he created the universe; I doubt whether many fall away based on the scientific validity of evolution. Similarly, I doubt that faith decisions hinge on whether religion is the historic source of war or of peace in world politics. Faith seems influenced much more by family, community, and existential encounters with a personal God. Even personal encounters with God are usually mediated by family, friends, community. At least this has been my American experience.

So that brings us back to culture. Why is faith a more self-perpetuating influence in America than in Western Europe and Australia?