A Sentence to Ponder

I'll take anything that reduces one group's power to control my life.

"It seems to me that the religious instinct is indeed growing vigorously -- but that it rejects any specifically theistic gratification with profound distrust."

Nietzsche, 1885

Actually, it may the other way around: the original and default, if you like, form of religion is a solitary sky god, not a plural animistic religion. In Discovering God, Rodney Stark argues that a pluralistic religion in which every god has his own temple and priest is a later form of religion, in which the priests become the rentiers of the religio-political complex. It's monotheism which is the more original form of religion.

Apparently Douthat misses the good old days when Jews could skip living in places like La Jolla because all those theologically aligned Christian real-estate agents ensured they couldn't buy a house.

Another good example of them good old days is Iran's theocracy. No thanks. I'll take a new age flake--as much as I find them annoying--any old day.

just a minor note, to back up my assertion i linked to a chart showing various religious attitudes in europe. the data from the USA seems a bit fuzzier, but institutional religion is much stronger than in europe.

Joe Cushing writes:

"I'll take anything that reduces one group's power to control my life."

Agreed, but I think you will find that the substitution of not very rigorously enforced Christianity with its rigorously enforced animist replacement (i.e., environmentalism) will not be an improvement from the perspective of having others tell one what to do.