I remember an anecdote from Hitchens, which made me laugh. Stopped at the border by a bunch of scary guys in balaclavas, insisting he was an atheist they retorted;
"But are ye a Catholic atheist or a Protestant atheist??

@chazwin Oh yes....I’ve certainly heard that one before....only it was a Pakistani living in N.Ireland who was asked if he was a Prod. or a Taig Paki!

More or less my thoughts too.

I am also a dual national living on the UK side of the pond.I agree with your observation of folks replacing region with a religious belief in atheism! I think Americans are more prone to need "belief" in their lives than Brits.

There have been studies that show a predisposition to believe in "something" (which makes sense evolutionarily due to religions grip on society for so long) so seeing people replace a religion with another belief isn't so surprising.

@1of5 Um... That would not account for the cultural differences between UK and US. I do not think you could so simply argue for genetic predispositions between the two countries.
Unless you are willing to argue that immigrants from Britain were more genetically inclined to Faith over Reason? Quakers, Shakers, Presbyters, etc, could account for some of that, maybe?

@1of5 No it’s not surprising, but maybe we’ve just had longer to get used to a large section of the population who are apathetic to religion.

@chazwin the U.S. was supposed to be a land of religious freedom so we've attracted a much wider religious diversity (arguably leading to a more diverse culture, which is all religion really is, and also from the whole world, not just Britton), and also I think, a much stronger "bent" towards being religious to begin with. So yes, I think our population was/is self selecting to be a bit more religious in general.

So, basically, you guys exported your nut jobs to us. Thanks a ton, and you're welcome, btw.

@1of5 "The whole world" is a massive exaggeration. Most settlers were from Britain in the foundational stages, some from France, and a handful of Germans. Italians came later with the Irish. Mostly Catholic Europe went to South America.

I think the idea of religious diversity might be exaggerated, since it was all basically Judaism and Christianity - in fact - almost wholly Protestantism of one kind or another. But yes, you got the nut cases.
They were not "exported". Nor were they fleeing persecution.
Generally speaking the Pilgrim Fathers and many other groups were actually fleeing too much TOLERATION.
They went to the New Land to impose strict religious control on their flocks. This was well before the USA existed.
After the civil war, Britain (note spelling), pretty much decided to reconcile the Christian schism, and toleration of religious differences became the default. So right through the 16th, 17th and 18th Centuries crack pots did indeed populate the religious heartlands of American, particularly the Southern states where the loons are. By 1776 laws guaranteeing religious freedom were imposed to stop the nutters killing each other. Such laws mimicked the toleration in the England which was necessary to stop violence.

@chazwin actually the whole world is accurate. I mean if you want to reduce immigration to 20% of the time we've had immigration, then your argument stands. I'm from the west coast and trust me, there's a lot more than European immigrants there.

Was going to continue but won't with someone who's pedantic enough to bitch about spell checker. Enjoy.