4. Religiousness

One thing I've noticed that's come up a couple times is religiousness, or perceptions on religiousness.

When I was conducting my interview for the ethnography project, I asked her if she considered herself religious. She replied "semi-religious," adding that most people in the UK are in that semi-realm, unlike Americans.
Similarly, when the class went to the talk at the Herb Garret, the lecturer made a comment that most people in England are secular "unlike most Americans," hoping she wasn't offending anyone as she lectured.

There are a couple things I draw from this.
One, I think it is interesting that people from the UK seem to think that most or all Americans are fairly religious, and go to church. I grew up non-religious in a fairly non-religious area, so I guess it's easy for me to forget that there are definitely areas of the country that are very religious (comparatively, anyway). The US is so much bigger than the UK, it's hard to say that they're wrong or right. I think if you specified the western coast of the US, the religiousness would be similar to what's found in the UK. But if you are looking at the US as a whole, we're kind of the odd country out in terms of religiousness.
Also, I think it's kind of odd that our country, which was founded on a separation of church and state, is so much more religious than the UK, while it is the UK which officially has the Church of England.

I wonder why the US has clung to its religious ways, when the UK has hardly remembered theirs.
I also wonder why the UK people think of the US as a whole as being so religious. Is it because we still have "In God We Trust" on our money? Because we won't elect a secular president? Because the extremists like the Westborough Baptist Church come from here? Something else? I think that would be an interesting thing to study.