> This picture of America as a land where religious fanaticism (as opposed
> to religion) is pandemic is just mistaken, I think. The fanatics get all
> the ink, and coastal secularists, who have in many cases never had
> any family connection with church at all, figure that the media picture
> is what it must be like.
>From my heartlander connections (including cousins who go to bible
colleges, home schoolers, missionaries) I'd say that much is true --
even people who are deeply involved on the religious end tend not to
beat you about the head with it. But there are still other concrete
measures -- belief in creationism, angels, miracles and the like --
that are plain off the charts in the US.
Anectodally, what I find interesting is that more formally religous types don't seem to be that into the more primitive-seeming aspects that Wojtech seems to refer to -- the incredulousness, lack of critical thinking, nationalistic hero-worship, inablility to take in new data... The formally religous ones tend to be thoughtful and sometimes even left of center.
-- Andy