Continuing on the Religion Theme

How much of religion has been a part of our society seems to be a popular topic this week. The day after out class discussion the same general topic was brought up in my Contemporary Middle East course. The prof. asked about our views on the role of religion in Middle Eastern countries and if we thought it played a more important roll int he shaping of countries there as compared to western countries like the United States. All the students who initially raised their hands suggested that the United States is above religion, that we were made from sterner stuff than religion implied. Meanwhile Middle Eastern countires, as they had such an import on Islam were prone to faith based weakness. I responded with what I had gleaned from our conversation, that the United States is not exempt from faith based bias as we were founded upon christianity.

What I found most interesting about this particular conversation was the American pride of lack of religion in our government. I think this may be a new form of Manifest Destiny. They were proud to say "we are not like those barbarians who use religion to rule their country". They believed it was our destiny to be seperate from God. Even though they were incorrect on the amount of religion that went into the creation of the United States, they followed the same pattern of thinking us the chosen people, the ones who got running a government the right way.

Is it then the case that all people feel a manifest destiny? I dont think it is limited only to the United States. Most people in most areas of the world think their way of living is the correct "god chosen" way. However, when it is that a country begings to pride itself on not being partial to a god? Does it ever really happen? While there are many different belief systems alive in the United States, for the most part they all have a concept of a divine spirit. Those spirits allow people to think of their lives and futures as god driven. I think that most of the world has this sense of godly destiny, and that all people think that their country is the best because a certain god is looking over it. The United States version of this destiny has morphed into a nation of right thinking people instead of a god given people.