Creationism & the Bible Belt

[nojnoj]

Any theories on why ground zero for creationist belief is in the US Bible Belt?

An extra question: Are there any creationists who don't believe in satan, demons, angels, etc.?

 

[Exiledoomsayer]

Just checking but are you actually asking why the most fundamentalist religious part of america has the most creationists?

second question, probably. There's always some right?

 

[nojnoj]

Just checking but are you actually asking why the most fundamentalist religious part of america has the most creationists?

Good point there.

I suppose I'm effectively asking why the Bible Belt is so strongly fundamentalist.

 

[Exiledoomsayer]

Good point there.

I suppose I'm effectively asking why the Bible Belt is so strongly fundamentalist.

I could be wrong about this since i am not familour with the history but here is what i think.

Well, The thing is that its not that a arbitrary piece of land named the bible belt attracted fundamentlists.
Its that a particular piece of america contains a great deal of fundamentalists and we later choose to designate such areas by the term Bible belt.

So in essense its called the bible belt because the fundamentalists where there.

Does that help with your question?

 

[nojnoj]

Erm ... not really (tho thanks for the reply); the question is why is there such a high proportion of fundamentalists in this region?

 

[knowledgeIsPower]

Erm ... not really (tho thanks for the reply); the question is why is there such a high proportion of fundamentalists in this region?

Fundamentalists are indoctrinated to become fundamentalists, they're not born fundamentalists. It just makes sense that there would be a greater amount of indoctrination in the Bible Belt than there is elsewhere resulting in more people growing up to become fundamentalists. It is self-sustaining.

The education system is also often geared towards Christian ideals and so the indoctrination doesn't end at home.

 

[Targ]

Well, to put it into perspective, here in Australia, the number of Christians is much lower than in the USA. The reason for this is that Australia was established primarily as a penal colony. Most of the people who then became citizens and governors and soldiers of Australia were ex-convicts, children of convicts, indentured servants and former prison guards. Some people were free settlers. But the majority were here not out of choice. The goal of most people wasn't to turn Australia into a Christian country.

By contrast, the USA was founded by religious free settlers (including Baptists, Calvanists, Methodists, Presbyterians, Quakers etc) who were keen to convert the natives and further their particular denomination by establishing themselves in a completely new (and very large) land, free of any political barriers. They wanted to make America a continent that was a haven and stronghold for their religion, free of the constraints on freedom of religion that they had previously experienced in Britain and the rest of Europe.

Someone living in the US would have to explain precisely why the south stayed more fundamentalist than the east, north and west.

 

[nojnoj]

Thanks for reply guys. Targ, your thought about the Christian momentum behind US settlement makes sense.