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  • azertyfun@sh.itjust.works
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    9 months ago

    I’m European (nonreligious) but my observation is that religion is practiced very differently in the US. They are way more religious than most European countries (their least religious state are about as religious as our most religious countries IIRC), and they practice a very preachy form of religion to boot as there is seemingly little to no taboo on evangelizing. And yes they have a large proportion of fundamentalists/radical “christians” whose antiquated beliefs (like creationism, to pick a “harmless” one) were already rejected by the Catholic Church and therefore European societies at large in the '60s.

    So this leads to a climate where on one side religious people are more open, and often weirder/pushier, about it. And on the other side American atheists tend to be more aggressively antireligious because of the more oppressive environment they grew up in.

      • azertyfun@sh.itjust.works
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        9 months ago

        Totally agreed, thanks for the perspective.

        Setting aside the loonies on either side of the pond, I do think understanding the cultural difference is important, if only because it sets a standard of social acceptability. Destin’s (mild) religious proselytizing would be off-putting and socially… challenging(?) coming from any of the French-speaking YouTubers I follow for example.
        But coming from an American, I still find it personally off-putting but I can just chalk that feeling up to different cultural sensibilities and suck it up.