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Russotto posts:
Tell me about the Republic of Ireland, where divorce was only recently legalized.
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Radar posts:
Or Italy, France, Spain, All of South & Central America, or pretty much every single western hemisphere nation on earth.
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Cited are countries with a dominant religions, but not necessarily a highly religious population. Only developing countries really complete with America for actively religious people. Many may claim to be members of a religion, but don't actively participate except maybe during Christmas and Easter. More often the pews remain vacant.
When a country of 1st generation immigrants, then America was about 35% actively religious in 1850. This has risen to in excess of 60% in the 1950s. A Gallup poll in the early 1990s put that number at 70% for college educated and 67% for non-college graduates. Religion is sold in America as a commodity. TV evangulists even time their speeches to meet the TV commericial breaks. Religion is a business more in America then anywhere else in the world from Scientology, to Mormons, to Pentecostalists. Only Protestants have seen significant declines in America - especially Prysbeterians, Luthurans, and Methodists.
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The Economist 16 Jan 2003
A second reason is the continued importance of religion in American life. The Pew Global Attitudes Project recently revealed that six in ten (59%) of Americans say that religion plays a "very important" role in their lives. This is roughly twice the percentage of self-avowed religious people in Canada (30%) and an even higher proportion when compared with Japan and Europe. To find comparable numbers, you need to look at developing countries.
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Which developing countries? Africa.