> organized religion is a key part of how Americans transmit their cultural values The abandonment of religion and culture more generally has been a giant exer

> organized religion is a key part of how Americans transmit their cultural values The abandonment of religion and culture more generally has been a giant exercise in ignoring Chersterton's fence. Culture is a basically "here is how we act so we don't die." People grow up in it, and they realize that some of it is perhaps outdated or inaccurate. That isn't by itself much of an issue. The trouble comes when those people have children and grandchildren who were never immersed in the culture and so didn't have the backing of "here are our mutual stories" to know what to keep and what the get rid of. It's basically burning down a library because, "Well I only read three or four of those books anyway" [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Chesterton's_fence https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Chesterton's_fence