You are not alone. I also had the same issue. Perhaps it’s the vengence of God???

I ran into a minor problem w/posting yesterday, but it went away.
Maybe God likes me better than you 2? LOL!
(Yeesh, & I talk WAY more smack than either of youse guys, too!)

“America’s economic and military strengths can be attributed to its devotion to the Christian ethic.”

Actually, it can be better attributed to individualism. Capitalism works well with individualism, simple as that. There is so much stress on competition in our country that we used to and still do strive to be the best. Though that has faded somewhat in recent days in the education area, we still have that pride of wanting to be at the top.

Also, as The Noodley appendage pointed out-

“It’s because all the other Western nations ended up obliterating themselves in World War II that gave us the economic advantage”

This also helped us become the econimic and military superpower we are now a shadow of. Unfortunately, America is now more spread out and that weakens us.

Right now, America is actually fading from the core (top) to the semi-periphery (middle) type of power. Globalization is slowing our country down. This isn’t neccasarily a bad thing, it just a pattern in the shift of power. Look at the UK and Spain, their still operating their countries and the world is okay. (China is going to replace us BTW.)

Crazy god-people are going to dominate for the forseeable future.

In the opening chapter he talks about how Nietzsche and Time magazine got it wrong when they proclaimed that God was dead. The fact is that, in our country at least, theistic belief has actually grown tremendously since Nietzsche. Shermer calls his theory as to why this is happening “Supply Side Religion.” Essentially, it is our lack of a government established religion that allows for a sort of free market atmosphere in the realm of supernatural belief. Every church, synagogue, and meditation retreat is competing for new ‘customers,’ and as a result there are custom religious ‘products’ to suit the needs of practically every manner of belief.

Like I said, I just started this book, but it already has me reconsidering a lot of things and reevaluating my own perspective. This “Supply Side Religion” theory presents an interesting dilemma. If one’s goal is to minimize the effect that religious thought has on the world, could it be that the Establishment Clause is actually hampering this effort? And on the other side of the coin, could it be that the encroachment of fundamentalism and the push for a more theocratic government may end up having the opposite effect that they desire, eventually resulting in a downturn in church attendance?

I agree with this. If people had that sense of guidance religion provides from a government entity, they’d have no need for the privatized pillow now offered as a fallback. This is why I think there should be an expert panel of professional secular government humanitarian organizations that get together to provide help when it comes to life’s philosophical issues. Of course, at all times, there should also be a counter-point panel to ensure there is no totalitarian abuse in ideas, which allows for irrational extremist fundamentalist government law.

However, I don’t believe I would be willing to accept a theocracy in order to see the downfall of religion 100 years later. It’s a sticky wicket for sure.

Think about it folks, atheism (or humanism, non-theism, naturalistic pantheism, brights, or whatever you wish to call it) just isn’t competing very well in the free market. We need to get over our curmudgeony (is that a word?) and start representing a positive, life affirming message. I’m speaking just as much about myself as I am the rest of us. Giving up supernaturalism has had a positive influence on many of our lives, and we need to start emphasizing that positivity. Basically, we need to figure out a way to offer something more to people than just “you’re crazy.”

Economic downturns, epidemics, natural disasters, war, terrorist attacks, etc. spawn renewed interest in religion. Therefore, as long as we live in an imperfect world there will be quest for a higher answer.