No more official religion for Norway

[Big Rob]

No more official religion for Norway

[Slip]

Damn it, is there something in the water that makes northern Europeans smarter than everybody else?

[Big Rob]

Anders Breivik clearly not included.

[Slip]

Don't even know who that is, but I was speaking more generally

[Big Rob]

Don't even know who that is, but I was speaking more generally

This piece of of shit

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

Anders Behring Breivik (Norwegian pronunciation: ['andəʂ 'beːɾiŋ 'bɾæɪʋiːk][5]; born 13 February 1979)[1] is a Norwegian accused mass murderer,[6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13] terrorist and the confessed perpetrator[14][15] of the 2011 attacks in Norway. On 22 July 2011, Breivik bombed the government buildings in Oslo, which resulted in eight deaths. He then carried out a mass shooting at a camp of the Workers' Youth League (AUF) of the Labour Party on the island of Utøya where he killed 69 people, mostly teenagers.[

[Slip]

Sounds like an asshole... but 69 is a pretty respectable number. Most people that do that in the states get caught way before ten which means he's probably smarter than most, he's just not very nice.

[Frank]

Didn't Dawkins have a theory that the lack of official religion is what made the U.S. the wacko religious nation it is? Take out the "monopoly" of an official religion, and religion becomes a Darwinian market struggle, or something like that?

[Slip]

Didn't Dawkins have a theory that the lack of official religion is what made the U.S. the wacko religious nation it is? Take out the "monopoly" of an official religion, and religion becomes a Darwinian market struggle, or something like that?

I think the difference here is that we Americans were given too much freedom when we were still too immature (at least in regards to religion) to make functional choices (i.e., everybody was mostly still Christian) whereas Norway has had the benefit of a state religion to keep the wacko groups in check all the while the people have slowly gotten more mature about the issue (i.e., they've abandoned organized religion and moved onto atheism or a lazier, less-prescriptive supernaturalism).

I guess we'll have to wait and see, but I don't see them turning into anything that resembles us.

[KSti]

Didn't Dawkins have a theory that the lack of official religion is what made the U.S. the wacko religious nation it is? Take out the "monopoly" of an official religion, and religion becomes a Darwinian market struggle, or something like that?

If anything the official religions of other countries turned the U.S into the wacko religious nation it is. If more countries had religious freedom, all of the nutjobs with their crazy religions wouldn't have ended up here. They'd have been more dispersed instead of concentrated and they'd have less influence.

[White Swallow]

Didn't Dawkins have a theory that the lack of official religion is what made the U.S. the wacko religious nation it is?

He did indeed; the daft thing.

Take out the "monopoly" of an official religion, and religion becomes a Darwinian market struggle, or something like that?

His argument was that state religion makes religion boring, which was his explanation for why people in Europe were generally far less religious than their American counterparts; America has no state religion and religion flourishes there, therefore state religion reduces religiosity in a population. It's a dreadful argument which is easily refuted simply by pointing to Islamic countries that have state religions and yet religiosity is as high as it is in America.

No. The reason religion is doing poorly here in Europe is because there is little need for religion in most people's lives these days; we have very good standards of living here, with generous welfare safety nets and our societies are less individualistic than society is there in America, so people here feel more obliged to support those who in America would probably have to turn to religious communities to feel supported in the same way. As a result, religion has little to sell Europeans, so attempts to market religion here doesn't do as well as they do there in America.

You can look at America internally to see this same trend of a reduced importance of religion in people's lives who live in richer states: in states with higher standards of living, religion is less important than it is for those living in poor states: http://www.gallup.com/poll/114211/alaba ... ommon.aspx

There's also this global poll showing a strong link between poverty and religiosity: http://www.gallup.com/poll/142727/Relig ... tions.aspx

Damn it, is there something in the water that makes northern Europeans smarter than everybody else?

Anders Breivik clearly not included.

English not included, IMO.

I think intelligence plays a part in people seeing through religion's fictions in societies that are deeply religious; but in many parts of England you don't have to be smart to be an atheist: you can just follow the non-religious herd who are no smarter than their religious counterparts over there in America. ::shrug::