Is Creationism infuenced by American history

[QED]

I think one of the main reasons we have so many creationist in United States (it almost only exist there), is because of the lack of time conept americans seem to have. Do not missunderstand me now, i am not Bashing americans in that sense, it simple is that they think 100 years is aloot, so ofcourse 6000 years would be mind boggling for them, and millions of years cant be possible, no, we refuse to accept, wight?.

Legend has it that some American tourists visiting Buckingham Palace were overheard musing on why the Palace had been built so close to Heathrow airport (the flight lanes are pretty much overhead and rather spoil the stately plot). I'm not sure if this story is indeed true however I have seen claims that that the US has the oldest democracy in the world. Given that the Icelandic Althing dates from the year 930 and the English Parliament dates from 1265, I think such claims do betray a perspective of history that is quite different on other continents. Perhaps this might make a good topic for a new debate?

EDIT> This discussion got sparked-off in the Human Evolution debate where is was not particularly appropriate. Seeing as it drew a couple of follow-up replies I've split them off to this new topic.

There are some very broad generalisations being put about in what follows so I hope nobody takes their contribution to the discussion too seriously. However, it has been suggested before on these forums that the relatively short history of the United States might have an influence on the views of those Biblical Fundamentalists who hold to a young Earth as per Usher's chronology. So perhaps we could debate whether this might explain the predominance of this type of thinking in the US.

[ST88]

Thanks Jose, that seems like a good summing-up of the situation. It'll be interesting to see if anyone disagrees with your assessments. I always have a mental picture of North America as being up until quite recently an "empty continent". It's always seemed odd that there are no relics of past civilizations dotted about as there are in South America, Europe and Asia. This has led me to wonder if it makes it easier to believe in the truncated version of history supplied by the Old Testament.

That's an interesting concept. But I think that the collective history of America not only different from the collective history of Europe, say, but also of a different paradigm. That is, in Europe, history means the things that happened on this spot however many years ago (and here's a monument to it); in America, history means how we got to where we are now through actions that happened however many years ago. The distinction being that Americans might tend to see history as perhaps more inevitable than Europeans do. Manifest Destiny, and all that. It's possible that it might have to do less with how "empty" America was, and more to do with the force mysterieuse qui pousse that led them in that direction.

[Jose]

Thanks Jose, that seems like a good summing-up of the situation. It'll be interesting to see if anyone disagrees with your assessments. I always have a mental picture of North America as being up until quite recently an "empty continent". It's always seemed odd that there are no relics of past civilizations dotted about as there are in South America, Europe and Asia. This has led me to wonder if it makes it easier to believe in the truncated version of history supplied by the Old Testament.

We can usually find someone to disagree with my assessments, so don't worry. As it turns out, there are relics of past civilizations, they just weren't discovered by us European Invaders until that Manifest Destiny stuff was well in hand.

It is probably good to bear in mind that humans didn't make it to the Americas until relatively recently. Europe had a lot longer to fill up with people, and to face the necessary consequences thereof. In the Americas, there was still plenty of land available, and even supported nomadic lifestyles. The pueblos were developed in the more difficult places to live. Civilization might be a simple result of being forced to rely on agriculture.

...The distinction being that Americans might tend to see history as perhaps more inevitable than Europeans do. Manifest Destiny, and all that. It's possible that it might have to do less with how "empty" America was, and more to do with the force mysterieuse qui pousse that led them in that direction.

We now phrase it as "God, Guns, and Guts made America great." What a terriffic bumper sticker.