There is an interesting article from an Arizona Campus Newspaper located here. It talks about a recent study done whose results seem to negate the necessity of religion in order to have a moral society. This article brings up some good issues about the effectiveness of religion in society, as well as the idea of America being a Christian nation.
As far as the need for religion in society, I am not sure the data described fully accounts for some of the trends that are seen. A huge factor in the occurrence of high religiosity alongside a high 'dysfunction' should be considered in the light of America's ability and pride in 'freedom', which frequently manifests itself as 'having your cake and eating it too'. Many people are religious in this country, and the freedoms that we have allow people to be more outspoken about this. But, Some of those same 'religious' folk are probably some of the 'dysfunctional' in the studies as well.
Then, if you want to look at whether America is a a Christian nation, well this could open a very long and in depth discussion. I have recently been reading more on this due to my American Church History Class. A good book to read might be Noll, Hatch, and Marsden's Search for a Christian America. To say one or the other I would definitely say that America is not a Christian. I wonder whether it is really possible to have a truly Christian government at all. Would Scripture even allow for that?
That's what I got, what do you Got?....
