Hello, everyone!

[Papist]

Hello, everyone.

I am Papist. I am a practicing Catholic from Scotland, UK.

[Lux]

I know you didn't ask me but I thought I'd add my two pence worth.

It does seem that there a growing hostility towards religions in general. The anti-Christian sentiments are tied in with an anti-Americanism that comes from Bush making political and global decisions based on 'what God told him to do'. Other anti-religious feeling comes from the increasingly hostile views of Islam. Church Of England was more of a faith than an organised religion - respectful in most cases and anti-dogmatic.

It's funny how in the US you can't get elected unless you're a 'proper' Christian, but in the UK people would think you were a nutter. Tony Blair was warned off talking about religion - he himself is a Catholic. People in the UK may be religious but even they see the danger of people making decisions based on reliogion and not economics, diplomacy, society etc.

Hi, olddocbenway. Welcome to you too.

Thank you for your reply. I had no idea this recent anti-religious feelings in the UK had anything to do with Bush's administration or anti-USA feelings (although I did see a joke "Why the UK is better" or something like that, that referenced Darwin being in a £2 coin, while the USA's currency reads "In God we trust").

It's true that you couldn't get elected in the USA without being a proper christian. It was a big issue during the last election, when there was much speculation about Obama's true religion.

Do you live in the UK yourself? If so, has this growing non-religiousness affected you?

[olddocbenway]

Hi, olddocbenway. Welcome to you too.

Thank you for your reply. I had no idea this recent anti-religious feelings in the UK had anything to do with Bush's administration or anti-USA feelings (although I did see a joke "Why the UK is better" or something like that, that referenced Darwin being in a £2 coin, while the USA's currency reads "In God we trust").

It's true that you couldn't get elected in the USA without being a proper christian. It was a big issue during the last election, when there was much speculation about Obama's true religion.

Do you live in the UK yourself? If so, has this growing non-religiousness affected you?

Yeah, I'm in London. The anti-religiousness hasn't affected me I wouldn't say. Although it has made celebrities/heroes of Christopher Hitchens/Richard Dawkins whose very English (not British, English) way of approaching it has resonated with so many Brits who think, 'I was quite happy before all the religious nutters started infiltrating local government and national government to spread their religious beliefs into decisions that should be informed by things other than faith'.

How's Argentina? I've been to Chile and the religion is pretty full-on, but not in conflict with others it seems. Is that true of Argentina?

[Lux]

Yes, religion is pretty full on in Argentina too. The vast majority of the population is roman catholic, and there's also a number of other christians, muslims and jews. As far as i can tell, religious fanaticism is very low. Many will claim to be part of a certain religion but rarely practice it. There are no extremist religious groups that I'm aware of (and if there are, they keep very quiet).

However, there's a very small but active group of neo nazis here in Buenos Aires. Unfortunately, this means that every once in a while there's a hate crime against a jewish person.