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It has nothing to do with Russia. It has to do with stuff like inherent sinfulness, the promotion of social righteousness, the exhibition of the Kingdom of Heav

It has nothing to do with Russia. It has to do with stuff like inherent sinfulness, the promotion of social righteousness, the exhibition of the Kingdom of Heaven to the world, double predestination and whatever else Puritans and other Calvinists who became the American elite believed in and promoted. The views of those people who were considered fanatics back in Europe became the norm in the US.

emodendroket 5y ago
I think people get a little carried away with this. I'd bet money that the average American cannot even describe the difference between Protestantism and Catholicism besides something facile like "they have a pope." There aren't even any Protestants sitting on the Supreme Court. In a historical sense, it's very geographically dependent. Before states got rid of established churches, Virginia, for instance, established the Episcopal church, while Massachusetts established the Congregational church.
- mordero 5y ago
  I don't think his point was directly related to people's religious views today, but the type of people who originally came to the US and how their views and norms have impacted the culture up to today.
  - emodendroket 5y ago
    Well I'd go a little further and say that it's getting too clever to act like the most important thing to understand how Americans think is the details of a dispute that happened before most of their ancestors came and that they can't even describe in broad strokes.
    - thfuran 5y ago
      One doesn't need to know history to be affected by it.
      - emodendroket 5y ago
        That's obvious. Who would argue the opposite?
- LudwigNagasena 5y ago
  > I'd bet money that the average American cannot even describe the difference between Protestantism and Catholicism besides something facile like "they have a pope." There aren't even any Protestants sitting on the Supreme Court. The modern American culture simply descends from Calvinist culture, by no means it is the same. Just like you wouldn’t expect a fish to explain its ancestry to you, you wouldn’t expect an American to do the same. Some people seem to believe that if you remove a belief in God, a sudden discontinuous cultural gap appears. But there is no reason to assert such thing. An absence of belief in God doesn’t make Americans culturally more similar to Buddhists than to their ancestors, they still inherit similar values and social practices. The American culture experienced an abrupt shift from the British culture due to the founder effect, but from that point it pretty much developed continuously. (Well, of course like all cultures, it experienced outside influence but it wasn’t as impactful.) > In a historical sense, it's very geographically dependent. Before states got rid of established churches, Virginia, for instance, established the Episcopal church, while Massachusetts established the Congregational church. There is a book called The Faiths of the Founding Fathers by David L. Holmes, it covers explanation of the sheer influence Calvinism had in the US. By the way, is it surprising that (1) Harvard originally had a Calvinist church. (2) Harvard is located in New England, the land of radical Protestants aka Puritans. (3) Harvard is the most prestigious university. My point is simply that American “average people” are in no way simply average people if such thing even exists.

emodendroket 5y ago

I think people get a little carried away with this. I'd bet money that the average American cannot even describe the difference between Protestantism and Catholicism besides something facile like "they have a pope." There aren't even any Protestants sitting on the Supreme Court. In a historical sense, it's very geographically dependent. Before states got rid of established churches, Virginia, for instance, established the Episcopal church, while Massachusetts established the Congregational church.

mordero 5y ago
I don't think his point was directly related to people's religious views today, but the type of people who originally came to the US and how their views and norms have impacted the culture up to today.
- emodendroket 5y ago
  Well I'd go a little further and say that it's getting too clever to act like the most important thing to understand how Americans think is the details of a dispute that happened before most of their ancestors came and that they can't even describe in broad strokes.
  - thfuran 5y ago
    One doesn't need to know history to be affected by it.
    - emodendroket 5y ago
      That's obvious. Who would argue the opposite?
LudwigNagasena 5y ago
> I'd bet money that the average American cannot even describe the difference between Protestantism and Catholicism besides something facile like "they have a pope." There aren't even any Protestants sitting on the Supreme Court. The modern American culture simply descends from Calvinist culture, by no means it is the same. Just like you wouldn’t expect a fish to explain its ancestry to you, you wouldn’t expect an American to do the same. Some people seem to believe that if you remove a belief in God, a sudden discontinuous cultural gap appears. But there is no reason to assert such thing. An absence of belief in God doesn’t make Americans culturally more similar to Buddhists than to their ancestors, they still inherit similar values and social practices. The American culture experienced an abrupt shift from the British culture due to the founder effect, but from that point it pretty much developed continuously. (Well, of course like all cultures, it experienced outside influence but it wasn’t as impactful.) > In a historical sense, it's very geographically dependent. Before states got rid of established churches, Virginia, for instance, established the Episcopal church, while Massachusetts established the Congregational church. There is a book called The Faiths of the Founding Fathers by David L. Holmes, it covers explanation of the sheer influence Calvinism had in the US. By the way, is it surprising that (1) Harvard originally had a Calvinist church. (2) Harvard is located in New England, the land of radical Protestants aka Puritans. (3) Harvard is the most prestigious university. My point is simply that American “average people” are in no way simply average people if such thing even exists.