>Incidentally, the _Observer_ article on the Iraq war is not an
>explanation; it is a fine and detailed description of what needs to be
>explained. The strength of fundamentalist religion in the u.s., for
>example, is an important phenomena which history will have to explain,
>but it is not itself really an explanation of anything. This is one of
>the differences between journalism on the one hand and history or
>historiography on the other hand.
An explanation for the strength of fundamentalist religion in the USA would depend on an understanding of the social role of religion. And US society of course. But first, just how strong is fundamentalist religion in America? And what exactly is fundamentalist religion.
My sister was converted to one of these crackpot American religious sects, but aside from that I know little. As I recall, she eventually became disillusioned because she came to realise that most of them were hypocrites. She BELIEVED and she tried to actually live up to the tenets of the religion, which is virtually impossible to do in this day and age. Eventually she grasped that the main function of the "church" was to enrich the leaders of the church. I assume that is generally the case, if so then fundamentalist Christianity is basically just a racket, creating and exploiting guilt.
However this is not the historical role of religion in human society, religion has filled an essential role for millennia. The material circumstances of human societies have usually been such that it was quite impractical for the accumulated social knowledge of any society to be passed from generation to generation in any other way than as unquestionable dogma. So, in the evolution of society, religion has served us well.
But for fundamentalist Christianity to retain a strong hold in a nation like the USA would be strange. Dogmatic thinking, which is basically what any religion amounts to, is seemingly incompatible with social and technological innovation which seems so much a part of the USA. So am somewhat suspicious about the claims that yanks are a nation of backward dogmatics.
However, I don't know much about the place. Or the people. Maybe I'm wrong, in which case there would be an explanation that seems feasible. But I don't want to strain people's mental capacities by going into that just yet.
Bill Bartlett Bracknell Tas