Godless Dave

If by "some other countries" you mean practically all other industrialized democratic nations, then yes, you are correct.

Sarpedon

To elaborate on Godless Dave: The united states have always been socially behind the western european nations. The europeans instituted regulation of foods and health long before america did. They banned slavery decades before america did. They instituted social security decades before we did (1899, Bismark). They were open to labor unions long before we were. and so forth. As I commented once to my boss in response to his comment about the sluggish european economy, "the governments and laws of european nations seem to put a greater importance on the rights and happiness of their citizens than the success of their corporations."

Anyway, most people here (II) believe that religion is a backward social construct from ancient times. There are many other threads to argue against this, if you like. Similarly, colleges and universities, being the forefront of american intellectualism, generally have similar views. If you look at atheists, most have a college degree. And if you look at people with college degrees, you will find a greater proportion of atheists than among those without them. Is this because colleges and universities teach atheism? Many religious people like to pretend that that is so. However, it is not the case. What college teaches is "critical thinking." Education is the antidote for religion. It is also a fact that europeans are better educated than americans. Many scientists in america come from overseas, drawn here by high wages and so forth. The education here has been largely crippled by the religious fanatics, with their warning labels on science books. They rankle at the fact that they can't control or intimidate the universities, nor can they get any kind legitimate recognition for their sham colleges, so they make up these stories about "persecution." The fact is that the myths of primitive barbarians living thousands of years ago in the armpit of the Roman empire have no place in scholarly discourse outside of the school of archaeology or comparative religion.

Shake

My point exactly! Made up to create sympathy - an emotional response to try to help them politically.

passion9

There were more Christian martyrs in the 1900s than in all other history put together, which includes all the ones listed in the Bible... the persecution is out there, America just knows nothing of true persecution like that.

Glass*Soul

This is interesting. Do you have some statistics to back this up?

Even "critical thinking" is subject to fads and political pressure. The answers you get are quite dependent upon the questions you are allowed to ask.

Vespertine

Huh? No, we have no idea. There's only been persecution of Jews, Blacks, and every other minority throughout the entire 20th century but the 'true' persecution is of the Christians? Uh huh.

Also, if you'd like to note, the KKK is a Christian organization.