Cassandra
Situationist
Jr. Member
Posts: 1,673
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« on: November 21, 2020, 08:15:52 PM » |
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My seat-of-my-pants theory is that the creation of a new society in the new world gave European culture a sort of "reset." Christianity emerged from a very, very different cultural climate (being pre-modern). By the time of the founding of the US, Europe had undergone the enlightenment. Now "progress" became the guiding ideological framework of the age, with science and technology dazzling the masses. In the virgin soil of North America, these ideas could influence the development of new religious movements much more directly than in the old world.
Why don't we see the same developments in Latin America? I have no idea. But, I would wager that the dominance of the Catholic Church has something to do with it. There was no governing religious body to snuff out heresy in the United States.
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