Quote:
[D.B.]: Lately we frequently hear that Enlightenmentare under attack, particularly in education, where abstinence is being taught rather than other forms of protective sex, creationism is being advocated, textbooks are being censored. Are you worried about this trend?
[N.C.]: "This is a very worrisome feature of U.S. culture. No other industrial country has anything like the degree of extremist religious beliefs and irrational commitments that you commonly find in the United States. The idea that you have to avoid teaching evolution or pretend you're not teaching it is unique in the industrial world. And the statistics are mindboggling. Roughly half the population think the world was created a couple of thousand years ago. A huge percentage, maybe a quarter or so, say they've had a born-again experience. A substantial number of people believe in what's called "the rapture." Large majorities are convinced of miracles, the existence of the devil, and so on.
These strains go pretty far back in American history but in recent years they have come to affect social and political life to an unprecedented extent. For example, before Jimmy Carter, no U.S. president had to pretend to a religious fanatic, but since then every one of them has. This has contributed to a genuine undermining of democracy since the 1970s. Carter, probably inadvertently, taught the lesson that you can mobilize a large constituency by presenting yourself, honestly or not, as a Bible-fearing, evangelical Christian. Up until that point, religious beliefs were people's personal concerns. There has been a conscious takeover of the electoral system by the public relations industry, which now sells candidates the way they sell commodities. And the image of a God-fearing, believing person of deep faith who is going to protect us from the threats of the modern world is one you can sell."
If things are going the way Chomsky says, you could say that the U.S. is "too religious", yes. But if I remember correctly, there are only two countries in the world that is ruled by a priesthood, Norway and Iran, and while Norway is a mildly annoying country (for Swedes anyway), I wouldn't say that religion is necessarily all that bad. *shrug*