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What do you think the reason is for Westerners (aside from Utahns/Jello Belters), especially Western white people, to not believe in God vs people from the center and eastern part of the country? Did the harsher natural environment inspire more cynicism about the Universe? Did people go West with the specific intention of getting away from organized religion?
The only part of the East which is comparably irreligious is New England and parts of upstate New York. I'd say as many as 60 percent of white Westerners born after 1960 are atheists or at least non-Christians.
What do you think the reason is for Westerners (aside from Utahns/Jello Belters), especially Western white people, to not believe in God vs people from the center and eastern part of the country? Did the harsher natural environment inspire more cynicism about the Universe? Did people go West with the specific intention of getting away from organized religion?
The only part of the East which is comparably irreligious is New England and parts of upstate New York. I'd say as many as 60 percent of white Westerners born after 1960 are atheists or at least non-Christians.
Perhaps a closeness to nature makes people feel there is no need for religion or superstition to find a sense of peace.
What do you think the reason is for Westerners (aside from Utahns/Jello Belters), especially Western white people, to not believe in God vs people from the center and eastern part of the country? Did the harsher natural environment inspire more cynicism about the Universe? Did people go West with the specific intention of getting away from organized religion?
The only part of the East which is comparably irreligious is New England and parts of upstate New York. I'd say as many as 60 percent of white Westerners born after 1960 are atheists or at least non-Christians.
Is this all opinion or is it based on some solid research and data ?
If you compare any part of the USA to the Southeast USA you will always have a larger percentage of Atheists in the former. The west in general--particularly the West Coast--seems to have quite a few Atheists, though you also see it in the Front Range too.
Admittedly not having read the entire study, I'm a little suspicious of its conclusions, but the correlation is now scientifically established even if doesn't equal causation.
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The studies I have seen point to the level of education, the more educated the less religious, and the west coast (and New England) have a higher percentage of college and post graduate degrees. That would also account for the high number of religious people in the south.
Perhaps because the people of the western US are further distanced from their family and ethnic roots. From their leaving the church of (insert nation) for another denomination or non denominational local preacher to leaving faith entirely was the next step. Meanwhile the indigenous faith's of the Native American/First Nations lost on the battlefield along with the Mexican's who once forced a conversion to Catholicism to gain a land grant in Texas. The Latter Day Saints being the anomaly since their headquarters and promised land was out west so Mormon adherents were moving towards their center of power instead of away from it.
What do you think the reason is for Westerners (aside from Utahns/Jello Belters), especially Western white people, to not believe in God vs people from the center and eastern part of the country? Did the harsher natural environment inspire more cynicism about the Universe? Did people go West with the specific intention of getting away from organized religion?
The only part of the East which is comparably irreligious is New England and parts of upstate New York. I'd say as many as 60 percent of white Westerners born after 1960 are atheists or at least non-Christians.
“Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one’s lifetime.” —Mark Twain
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