Lol... Ok, I'm out. Thomas, Thomas, Thomas. We don't run away from discussion because we disagree. We each are on this path reigning each other in when we go off on tangents (as we all do) when we get pissed off and say things.
Do I think the fact that Europe and the UK is in general much more secular than the US makes them smarter than us? Sometimes. We've got our bible belt over here, our west coast is no hot bed of religionists, that is where we keep our new agers, new thought and secularists...(hee hee) You've to Ireland, and Spain, and Italy, and Romania....where there are more godfearin folk...
We talk of interfaith, and when it comes to agnostics and non believers...vs. the bible thumpin hellfire intolerance....yeah... I do think you europeans are moving in the right direction. Tis you primarily that has educated me on the difference in Christianity in general and Catholicism in particular from this side of the pond to yours... You've had a hard time believing, and still don't know if what I've told you about things over here is true....and I don't know if your description of Catholicism over there is accurate...or if it is just that you have had a life where you were raised in it, left it, and re-immersed yourself in it...studying a mystical theological level that the average Catholic never sees. I have spoke with learned Catholics and Jesuits here...and they are not of the same belief or actions as the lay congregant going to mass....
In many religious folk there is a chasm... we are all large areas of land...with wide varieties of demography, societal microcosms that have developed over decades here....centuries there...all fighting with, adjusting to, the changes and influx of new thought and new beliefs with migration and immigration....
generalizations are not completely accurate.... but there is a difference eh?
