Religion in the United States
From the beginning of its history, religion has played an important role in the United States. Many early colonial settlers came to America to avoid religious persecution in Europe. They wanted to practice their belief in God in their own way in the new world. To ensure this religious freedom, Americans laid down in the Constitution the separation of church and state. The government was forbidden to establish a national church and no denomination was to be favored over the others.
The religious element can also be detected in the American Revolution. Most of the Founding Fathers of the United States were deeply religious people. They felt that God had guided them to develop a new form of government. The phrase in the declaration of independence, “All men are created equal,” refers to a central belief in God as the Creator of humanity.
In fact, religion has permeated American culture. It was part and parcel of the way early Americans saw life. Their lives, and other aspects of the culture all reflected their religious beliefs. Today America has remained fairly religious. Now let’s take a closer look at the influence of religion on various aspects of American culture.
Religious Americans
Religion has been one of the most powerful, deeply felt and influential forces in American society. When compared with people in other industrialized nations, the United States is the most religious country in the developed world. There is substantial evidence that this is so. In America, 44%of respondents said that they attend a religious service at least once a week, against 18% in western Germany, 14%in Britain and 10%in France. (The Economist, 8 July 1995) Today about 70 out of every one hundred Americans are members of one church or another, about half of the American Protestants are regular churchgoers. (Life in Modern America)
For most people in China, it is paradoxical that the most materialistic and highly industrial nation in the world is also one of the most religious. Why are the Americans so interested in religion? Several explanations can be offered.
Religious tradition From the very beginning as a nation, American people enjoyed complete religious freedom guaranteed by the Constitution. Americans are free to practice or not to practice religion, whichever they choose. This constitutional guarantee of religious freedom encouraged religious enthusiasm among the public.
Search for social conformity and emotional security The original basis of religious freedom creates a social climate in favor of religion. Most people want to identify themselves with dominant values, and going freely to the church of one’s own choice is a way of doing so, and gaining acceptance in the face of a subtle demand for conformity.
For some people, church helps them to feel that they have a place in the community. Identification with a religious group gives the individual a feeling of belonging and a sure clear place within the otherwise impersonal urban community. Social groups, close friendships, and marriage are usually formed with members of one’s own religion.
Disillusioned with social conditions the troubles of American family and all the social ills associated with family breakdown have prompted people to turn to religion for solution. There is some evidence that religiously based programs to ameliorate such social problems as drugs and alcohol abuse and homelessness are more effective than government-funded programs.
Major Religious Groups in America
The great diversity of ethic backgrounds has produced religious pluralism; almost all major religions practiced around the world could be found in the United States. Today, ninety-three percent of all Americans say that they believe in God. Only 7 percent say they have no religious preferences or beliefs. About 87percent of Americans are Christians, 2 percent are Jewish, and the other 4 percent belong to other religious faiths such as Moslem, Buddhist, or Hindu. Of the 87 percent who are Christian, 59 percent are Protestant, 27 percent Catholic, and 1 percent Eastern Orthodox. This is a pattern that has persisted for decades. (Maryanne Kearny Date’s man and others. The American ways: An Introduction to American Culture. 1997)
Sports and American Values
Most social scientist believe that the sports that are organized by a society generally reflect the basic of that society and attempt to strengthen them in the minds and emotions of its people. Therefore, organized sports may have a more serious social purpose than spontaneous, unorganized play by individuals. This is certainly true in the United States, where the three most popular organized sports are football, basketball, and baseball, with soccer gaining in popularity. Among young not much equipment is required. Nowhere are the ways and words of democracy better illustrated than in sports.
The American ideal of competition is also at the very heart of organized sports in the United States. Many Americans believe that learning how to win in sports helps develop the habits necessary to compete successfully in later life. This training, in turn, strengthens American society as a whole. “It is commonly held,” says one sports writer, “that the competitive ethic taught in sports must be learned and ingrained1in youth for the future success of American business and military efforts.”The competitive ethic in organized sports contains elements of hard work and physical courage. Hard work is often called “hustle,”“persistence,” or “never quitting” in the sports world, while physical courage is referred to as “being tough” or “having guts.” Slogans are sometimes used to drive home the competitive virtues for the young participants:
Hustle —you can’t survive without it.
A quitter never wins: a winner never quits.
It’s easy to be ordinary, but it takes guts to excel.
1.How has religion influenced the American society?
2.What are the major religious groups in the United States?
3.Why are the Americans so interested in religion?
4.According to social scientists, what is the function of the sports?
5.Why does the American like sports so much?
6.What does the competitive ethic in organized sports contain?
7.Do you know any slogans used to drive home the competitive virtues for the young
participants?
1Ingrained: attitudes or behavior that are firmly established and therefore difficult to change.
The Differences of Education between China and U.S Based on checking the extensive literature and summing up the evidence, it is clear that study about differences of higher education between China and US has carried out a lot which mainly explaines the differences from different aspects of higher edcation between China and the United States. Such aspects mainly includes the social environment and cultural tradition, higher education system and reform measures. In the Integration of these differences, advantages and evils of both educational systems have been evaluated respectively, and corresponding improvement measures were also put forwords. By summary, the detailed conclusions are listed as follows: US is a open society. The society's openness urges the American college to abandon old educational thoughts which European traditional universities stick to, adopt the open policy to absorb all advatanges from other countries and establishe a diverse and open education control system which emphasizes on the actual effect. US is the biggest imigrant country which has very strong containing nature in the culture. American economy ephiseizes on the practical value, matter rewards as well as individual value realization with fast development, rich material life, strong material idea and etc[2]. Us’s higher education was considered as the best education in the world. Comparing the elementary education between American and China, people's universal view will be: China's elementary education aims to build the foundation of education with more study and less thought; while US's education aims to bulid such an education to raise the creativity with less study and more thought. Now Chinese students are generally regarded as intalents with few intelligence and high scores. What causes for such a view? Because the Chinese students study more, actually pay little attention to the practice, and cannot study for the purpose of application. Therefore, it is very important for Chinese higher education to cultivate the idea of unifying the study and prctice. US's education pays more attention to raise student's self-confidence,independence,spirit of supporting oneself, but China's education emphases on training the students to be strict,rigorous spiritual.Obviously, Chinese education may fruitfully develop and ultilize the function of cerebrum, but US’s higher education could expand the function of cerebrum by ultilizing and synthesizing the information outside.
The influence of religion on American Value Introduction In most countries, religious people had declined obviously with the society developing and science knowledge enlarging. America is a highly developed country in civilization, culture, science and technology. But the rate of religious people in America is far higher than other western countries. In this article, we try to outline some general American values influenced by religious tradition, religious history and today’s religion. To some extent, it is helpful to know of America and American society better. Relation between the Culture and Religion In any countries, the characteristics and values of people are related with their own society culture and tradition nearly and embody its own culture value concept. America, as a country, which was founded by the protestant immigrants from Europe and their descendants, from the view of culture origin, directly follows modern European civilization, which mainly contains the values of capitalist’s equality, freedom, and democracy from Enlightenment movement. They materialized strong concept of values and principles and moralities that influence not only the foundation of U.S.A and the form of the National Democratic Political System; meanwhile, but also American characteristics and values inevitably. Religion, as the only one among those factors which influence the development of American society that possesses invisible power (the religion value) and the visible power (religious denominations or groups) has its own more special even more everlasting influence. The Important Place of Religion Culture in American Society and American Life. The U.S.A is a highly developed country with modern science, yet it is also a religious country, in which people has strong religion fervency. Religion then, being theology or the everyday practices of a culture, gives us insight into the religious influence in American life. There is a strong religious influence in American life. Among 250 million people, there are over 3000 religious denominations and groups, and sixty out of a hundred have religious beliefs. Every Sunday morning, all over American, people pour into the churches, not only the catholic churches, but also the protestant ones too, are flourishing, and new church buildings, some with interesting architecture, keep pace with the ever-growing suburbs. ⅢSome American Characteristics and Values Affected by Religion 1. American Creativity, Materialism and Hard Working from Its Religion Origin-----Puritanism[?pj??r?t?n?z?m](清教) In the eyes of other countries’ people, American s are often criticized for being so “materialistic” which means placing a high value on material possessions. Americans do not like to be called materialistic because they feel that this unfairly accuses them of loving only material things and of having no religious values. For them, though, this materialism is natural and proper. Material wealth is the most
RELIGION in the UNITED STATES
Religious Liberty ?“Among the rights which the new nation guaranteed, as a political necessity in a religiously diverse society, was freedom of religion” (p. 86) ?The Constitution forbade the government to give special favours to any religion, nor were they allowed to stop or interfere with religion. The USA was determined it would have no state-supported religion. ?When there is a disagreement between the government and any religion, the American courts must settle it. Protestants in the United States ?60% of Americans are Protestant believers. The Baptists are the largest Protestant group.* The largest concentration of Baptists live in the Southern States of America and, although some Southern Baptists have liberal attitudes to black Americans, many believe and practice racial discrimination and prejudice towards them.
Religion in America In a Christian world, many countries in the West have experienced declines in religious observance and increases in secularization in the twentieth century. This is often attributed to the influences of industrialization, consumerism, materialism, hedonism, mass culture, and universal education. The United States, however, seems to be an exception. Despite its materialistic image and intense worship of “mighty dollars”, the U. S. still remains the most religious country in the Western countries. In comparison with European countries, America not only has a greater number of religious believers, but also enjoys a much higher church survey, The Economist reported that about 95 percent of Americans believed in God; four out of five believed in miracles, life after death and the Virgin Mary birth; 6.5 percent believed in the devil; 75 percent believed in angels; and nine out of ten owned a bible. Similarly, surveys by the Gallup Organization in the early 1990s indicated that among Americans under 30 years old, about 36 percent attended church on regular basis, while close to 47 percent of the people at or over 50 went to church once in a week. Is America a religious culture, shaped by men who sought freedom of worship, with God constantly present in their minds even when the Church has become formalized? Or is it a secular culture with religion playing only a marginal role in men’s daily lives since the Untied States long time ago separated Church and
Relijion in The United States 1.Protestant（新教） 2.Catholic Church(天主教) 3.Judaism(犹太教) 4.Eastern Orthodox Church(东正教) 5.Buddhusm(佛教) Religion in America is very diverse
Christian: Protestant 51.3﹪ Catholic 23.9﹪ Other Christian 3.3﹪ Jewish 1.7﹪ Buddhist 0.7﹪ Muslim 0.6﹪ Hindu 0.4﹪ Other 2.0﹪ Unaffiliated 16.1﹪ Christian Beliefs 一．The basic beliefs of the Christian
laitn,that Christians from all denominations can agree on,are that: 1.Jesus is God’s son. 2.Jesus came to earth as a baby,lived a perfect life,and died on a cross as a sacrifice for our sins. 3.Jesus will come back again as a King.He will take his followers to live with Him in heaven. Many people in America are "deists".They believe that there is a God,but they don't think He is involved in our lives to a great extent.They don't seek God or follow Biblical teachings. Many others in America are "practicing Christians".They seek to follow God's will in their lives and often meet together with other Christians at Church meetings,42﹪American “go to church”at least once a week. American Character of