You’re quite right of course. I should have said ignorance and poverty are correlations rather than necessarily causative agents of religiosity.
In the UK the church Of England is the official state religion and the monarch is the official head of the church.
When I grew up, Australia was a very different country. There was a very clear dichotomy of Protestant and Catholic.
My state of South Australia had the same political party and same state premiere for 29 years continuously. He was a devout Methodist, Consequently, my sate was known as ‘the city of churches’ and for being a bunch of wowsers. EG all pubs closed at 6PM sharp. There were no clubs. All trading stopped at 11 am Saturday. Everything was shut on Sunday. One could have a drink with one’s meal if a guest at an hotel. No theatres were open on Sunday, nor was any kind of organised sport allowed.
As for background; South Australia is unique in that we are the only state founded by free settlers rather than by convicts, in 1836.
South Australia was the first country to grant women full political franchise.IE they could not only vote, but run for office in 1902. However Aborigines were not given the righto vote until 1962. The White Australia policy was not abolished until 1973.***.
Today society my state can be called ‘laissez faire’ socially .Pubs shut 10 PM, there are many clubs which are open to the wee small hours, shops of all kinds are open 7days, Sunday is just another day. Of course systemic sexism and racism still exist.
I should have realised that complex social issues rarely have simple solutions.
Consequently, might I suggest that The US becoming a theocracy is also not a simple matter? (That was the original claim to which I was referring)
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***That meant that ideally, we only wanted people ‘like us’. IE Anglo-Celts. In the1950’s we enticed brits to come to fill our serious labour shortage by heavily essentially paying for their ship passage. They paid 10 pounds. They had an obligation to stay for two years or repay the full cost of their fare. Many Brits experienced great bigotry, being collectively called ‘whinging poms’.
Around this time we grudgingly allowed Southern Italians, Greeks and Maltese. They also experienced heavy bigotry.
Australia’s social fabric really began to change in the1980’s with the arrival of the Vietnamese refugees. They were treated with great racism by the general population. Today Australia has people from every continent and there are over 200 languages spoken here.
Today Australia has anti hate speech laws. Such laws may change some behaviour, they do not change minds. Today our issues of sexism and racism tend remain more covert or perhaps more subtle…