New England is in many ways more like Europe than it is like the rest of America. Take regional attitudes on religion: the Pew Research Center's Forum on Religion & Public Life recently released its state-by-state data on the role of religion in the lives of Americans. The findings? God doesn't play much of a role in the lives of a significant number of New Englanders. For each of the four questions posed, the states of New England ranked at or near the bottom. Whereas 91 percent of Mississipians--the most God-fearing state--believe with absolute certainty in God, just 54 percent of respondents from the Granite and Green Mountain States answered in the affirmative. Massachusetts, at 60 percent, also ranked far below the national average of 71 percent. Just 40 percent of Bay Staters, second-to-Maine's last, pray at least once a day. In no state in the Atheist Belt do more than thirty percent attend religious services at least once a week, compared with 60 percent in Mississippi, 57 percent in Utah, and 54 per cent in South Carolina. Since America generally ranks as one of the more religiously observant nations within the West, can we say that New England is the Sweden of America while the Bible Belt is, well, the America of America?

Imagine John Winthrop running for office today in the Bay State.

I live in the atheist belt too (Massachusetts).

Remember when Howard Dean decided to start telling people what a God-fearing religious man he was? When asked what his favorite book of the New Testament was, he replied "The Book of Job". Which is, of course, in the Old Testament. I do remember reading something at the time that Dr. Dean was deciding to talk openly for the first time about his faith because the rest of America seemed to think it was so imporant, whereas in New England it wasn't. He said something about New Englanders not wearing their faith on their sleeves. For New Englanders, religion is something that is "private" and "personal".

The implication was that New Englanders are equally religious, they just don't see the need to "show off" in the manner of (Biblical) hypocrites. As a New Englander myself, I took issue with this. It's not that we're all uniformly religious and that New Englanders are just more private about it. New Englanders are generally more secular/progressive/humanist, and yes, almost "European" than the rest of the country.

It's not that we New Englanders don't talk about our religion because it's "private" and "personal". We don't talk about religion because 1) there's so little to speak of, and 2) because it makes people squeemish, uncomfortable, and embarassed to hear the word "God". People who talk about God are weird and probably stupid.

I wonder--will the term "Atheist Belt" catch on? (I hope) Will it be used with as much disdain as the term "Bible Belt"? Will movies be made about how difficult it is to grow up in the close-minded, intolerant Atheist belt? (And believe me, Massachusetts is one of the most close-minded, intolerant places you will ver visit). I doubt it.

I find it humorous that you reflexively believe that blind faith is somehow admirable or "American". I would be ashamed for anyone who, with extreme hubris and self-satisfaction, could actually claim they believe with absolute certainty that God exists. Not even Mother Theresa believed with absolute certainty. That's really shameful for Mississippi and a testament to the relatively more rational New England states.

91% with absolute certainty? That's creepy at best, very scary at worst.

I for one could care less about other people's belief, or lack of belief, in God.

Keith: Do you feel the same way about their belief in Global Warming? Just curious.

PMA: Who said anything about "blind" faith? And anyway, if you want to take the "Absolute certainty" thing in a literal way, then there is practically nothing anyone should say they are absolutely certain about. Here's a question: Ask the people of New England, "Do you believe with absolute certainty in man-made climate change?" You will see a lot of "blind" faith there as well.

So what is the correlation between these state stats and the stats for each state on literacy, pedophilia, divorce rates & hate crimes?
Tiller was a practicing Christian. so was the BTK serial killer. And they were both from the south.

Also, Japan being one of the most non-religious countries has low crime, low divorce rates, and known for their emphasis on health, education and family life. In your opinion, why is this?

xantippe: Based on the comments I hear from others, most people whether they are believe in global warming or not, base their views on limited information. Therefore, I could care less about THEIR views on the subject. I for one do have questions about the research Exactly how much temperature change can be explained by changes in greenhouse gas emissions? What is the relationship between others factors hypothesized to affect global temperature and recent temperature changes? Answers to these questions would shape my views, and if anyone has a link to such information I would greatly appreciate it.

Just to clarify, when I said I don't care about others's religious beliefs, I simply meant that there is nothing inherently wrong with either religious or atheist belief systems. I wasn't implying that either belief system was superior.

I subscribe to GK Chesterton's theory that an atheist is not someone who believes in nothing but someone who will believe in anything. Hence the propensity to support things like gay marriage, removing the age of consent, state run health care, global warming, etc. in places like Massachusetts.

Peg: Hitler, Stalin, Mao, Pol Pot, etc. were all practicing atheists.

just saying, I was not asking what religion(or non-religion) the most evil people of the world have belonged.

I am interested in theories on why some secular cultures are a better Christian witness than some practicing 'Christian' cultures.

Is it not contradictory that non-practicing states have lower crime rates and divorce rates?

Peg: I don't find it "contradictory" -- traditional Christianity does not deny that humans (including Christians) are sinful. Generally, different society's do better or worse according to their customs/traditions and according to how well the people are habituated to try to live up to worthy values. One's place's traditions and one's personal habits are not changeable overnight, nor are they in any simple way determined by one's conscious beliefs (which one might report to Pew). Traditional Christianity recognizes this fact about the person -- does Enlightenment-inspired secular humanism? Less so, I think.