I finished the book Society without God by Phil Zuckerman yesterday. I found it very interesting. The book doesn't try to prove atheism or insult religion in any way; it talks about the few societies in the world where atheism is dominant (primarily Sweden and Denmark), and attempts to explain why atheism is so prominent. It also attempts to prove that atheistic societies are very stable, well-off places to live, disproving the myths that without religion, society would spin out into a dystopia.
The author of the book is a professor who lived in Denmark for over a year. There, he interviewed around 150 Danes and Swedes about their religious beliefs and their opinions on it. There were many things I found surprising. An example is how people who are Christian are treated in elementary school. One boy said that the Christians would actually be made fun of by the non-believers, just like how atheists or gays in the US would be made fun of if they revealed their feelings. Another example is how unimportant their religious beliefs are to them. There were some people who had actually never even contemplated the belief in God or a higher power, which would seem crazy to us Americans.
It pretty much said that Christianity never was ingrained into the minds of the Swedes and Danes like how it always was in the USA and other European countries. It was forced upon them, not accepted. The USA was born as a Christian nation (despite seperation of church and state). And once Christianity is firmly ingrained in one's society, it is hard to remove it. Due to the nature of religion, it is very hard for one to drop it once one's accepted it, as even doubting religion is considered sinful (or as some Christians say, "God is testing their will").
If you want to know what else it has to say, you should check it out. It was only 170 pages long, and well worth the read.
I'm out.
Tyler
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