Why is religion so important in the USA? For most of Western Europe religion is in decline, but in the US - although now there are reports of some decline - it is still much more popular.
Surely the reason is the welfare state? In the US vast numbers of people have nowhere to turn when they fall on hard times - they are ill and unable to afford medical costs, they are unable to afford an education, get a well paid job, find a house or money if they lose their job, survive on a pension when they get old.
This is just speculation, but I'd guess when people have no "human" hope of getting their medical bills covered, keeping their house when they lose their job or finding the money to educate their children, then they can only resort in desperation to some divine intervention.
If people knew they had a welfare state to fall back on in the US then perhaps the levels of religious activity would lessen, and what remained would take a different form.
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