--- Doug Henwood <dhenwood at panix.com> wrote:
>
> But if it's so fundamental, why have so many of us
> shed it? Most of
> Western Europe and Japan, and even some 14% of
> Americans are more or
> less secular.
>
> Doug
>
Well, that's what the may say in surveys, but I have my doubts as to whether it's actually true. I believe that huge majorities of Europeans are secular the way I believe huge majorities of Americans are deeply religious; not really, they're saying what society says they would say. And discarding traditional religions does not mean you have necessarily become areligious -- you have likely shifted your irrationality elsewhere. Maybe -- this is all yanked from my nether regions, but it makes sense to me.
Isn't Japan heavily into Shintoism?