For the first time "No Religion" has topped a survey of Americans' religious identity, according to a new analysis by a political scientist. The non-religious edged out Catholics and evangelicals in the long-running General Social Survey.
Ryan Burge, a political scientist at Eastern Illinois University and a Baptist pastor, found that 23.1% of Americans now claim no religion.
Catholics came in at 23.0%, and evangelicals were at 22.5%.
The three groups remain within the margin of error of each other though, making it a statistical tie. Over 2,000 people were interviewed in person for the survey.
[...] "We are seeing the rise of a generation of Americans who are hungry for facts and curious about the world," she says.
-- submitted from IRC
(Score: 2) by NotSanguine on Monday April 15 2019, @03:37PM
Honestly, I haven't seen the television programs. That said, I'm sure plenty was left out. After all, it was just two programs.
I'm currently in the middle of reading the book, which also glosses over a lot, but I'm sure it's better than the television bit.
I put the links to the TV stuff because, sadly, so many folks just don't read books anymore.
As I mentioned in my comment, the links I provided are accessible starting points not intended to be really comprehensive.
Guns, Germs and Steel is likewise not comprehensive and focuses on specific historical and technological areas which are both interesting and provides some context around western domination of the world.
Both Ferguson and Diamond attempt (and somewhat successfully -- at least in their books) to elucidate how the west managed to dominate most of the rest of the world starting around the fifteenth century. They're attempting to address specific areas of western culture, technology and political thought using a narrative format that (IMHO) makes it more accessible to the lay person.
Likewise, The Western Tradition, which is also not meant to be comprehensive, gives a broad brush across the last 7-10,000 years. It does (again, IMHO) give a really nice overview (in 52 ~30 minute episodes) of western civilization. As a broad, but shallow exploration, it's rather well done.
I'm sure your g/f would agree that if you really want a deep dive into the history of western civilization, you'll spend years reading dozens, if not hundreds, of books of the academic variety.
Based on your usage (not just in this comment, but others I've seen as well), I suspect you're in the UK (or if not, are from there). I'm not sure how much history is taught there, but in the US, history education is abysmal. That's why I suggested these works. Shamefully, most Americans have a really poor understanding of the cultural, political and philosophical underpinnings of our society. More's the pity.
No, no, you're not thinking; you're just being logical. --Niels Bohr