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Since the question is comparing the US vs Western democracies, a related question might be: What caused the quick drop-off of religious belief in many European countries?

I don't think the US in 1850-1900 would have been that much of an outlier compared to the Europeans. Not as much as nowadays, anyways. Europeans did go to church - it might be difficult to get hard numbers of attendance - but there are plenty of anecdotal references to Sunday services in contemporary news and literature.

Church attendance has since really dropped throughout Europe, much more rapidly so than in the US.

The reasons for it vary from country to country. Here's a list of some that seem applicable, but it's less about the list itself than the end result of religion having lost a lot of ground in Europe:

• sometimes in line with EvilSnack's warning about the dangers of state-sponsored religions.

• ill-advised political backing of Franco by the Catholic Church.

• regulatory over-reach as shown in the recent Irish referendum about abortion, not long after a woman became a cause celebre for dying for lack of treatment for a miscarriage.

• there's quite a bit of cynicism related to the lack of Papal denunciation of Hitler's regime (or excommunications pertaining to it - Bavaria was a traditionally Catholic Lande). The Vatican has just released the secrecy seal on contemporary documents so we will know more about whether it was defensible or not - some do believe he did the best he could.

• (more debatable) Europe suffered through two world wars for no really good geopolitical reasons (fighting Nazism was extremely justified, Nazism becoming a political power capable of waging war was an aberration however). There must have been quite a bit of "For God and Country" sanctimony making the rounds at the time and post-war disillusionment with armed conflicts might have blamed religious leaders by association.

• the Catholic Church has suffered immense reputational damage from child abuse cases. And, at least in some parts of Europe, it's the main/only church, so its losses are losses for the faith as a whole.

• any number of other reasons resulting in an extremely rapid drop in religious influence in Europe throughout the 20th century that for some reason did not happen in the US.

There are some exceptions, like Poland, but by and large, it is not so much that 21st century USA is extremely religious as 21st century Europe has been become extremely disengaged.

(Poland has its own specificity as the Church was instrumental in resisting Communism, a certainly popular move)

Compared to some other rich modern democracies, like South Korea, which is increasingly Christian, the US is not that much of an outlier either.

Since the question is comparing the US vs Western democracies, a related question might be: What caused the quick drop-off of religious belief in many European countries?

I don't think the US in 1850-1900 would have been that much of an outlier compared to the Europeans. Not as much as nowadays, anyways. Europeans did go to church - it might be difficult to get hard numbers of attendance - but there are plenty of anecdotal references to Sunday services in contemporary news and literature.

Church attendance has since really dropped throughout Europe, much more rapidly so than in the US.

The reasons for it vary from country to country. Here's a list of some that seem applicable, but it's less about the list itself than the end result of religion having lost a lot of ground in Europe:

• sometimes in line with EvilSnack's warning about the dangers of state-sponsored religions.

• ill-advised political backing of Franco by the Catholic Church.

• regulatory over-reach as shown in the recent Irish referendum about abortion, not long after a woman became a cause celebre for dying for lack of treatment for a miscarriage.

• there's quite a bit of cynicism related to the lack of Papal denunciation of Hitler's regime (or excommunications pertaining to it - Bavaria was a traditionally Catholic Lande). The Vatican has just released the secrecy seal on contemporary documents so we will know more about whether it was defensible or not - some do believe he did the best he could.

• (more debatable) Europe suffered through two world wars for no really good geopolitical reasons (fighting Nazism was extremely justified, Nazism becoming a political power capable of waging war was an aberration however). There must have been quite a bit of "For God and Country" sanctimony making the rounds at the time and post-war disillusionment with armed conflicts might have blamed religious leaders by association.

• the Catholic Church has suffered immense reputational damage from child abuse cases. And, at least in some parts of Europe, it's the main/only church, so its losses are losses for the faith as a whole.

• any number of other reasons resulting in an extremely rapid drop in religious influence in Europe throughout the 20th century that for some reason did not happen in the US.

There are some exceptions, like Poland, but by and large, it is not so much that 21st century USA is extremely religious as 21st century Europe has been become extremely disengaged.

(Poland has its own specificity as the Church was instrumental in resisting Communism, a certainly popular move)

Compared to some other rich modern democracies, like South Korea, which is increasingly Christian, the US is not that much of an outlier either.

Since the question is comparing the US vs Western democracies, a related question might be: What caused the quick drop-off of religious belief in many European countries?

I don't think the US in 1850-1900 would have been that much of an outlier compared to the Europeans. Not as much as nowadays, anyways. Europeans did go to church - it might be difficult to get hard numbers of attendance - but there are plenty of anecdotal references to Sunday services in contemporary news and literature.

Church attendance has since really dropped throughout Europe, much more rapidly so than in the US.

The reasons for it vary from country to country. Here's a list of some that seem applicable, but it's less about the list itself than the end result of religion having lost a lot of ground in Europe:

• sometimes in line with EvilSnack's warning about the dangers of state-sponsored religions.

• ill-advised political backing of Franco by the Catholic Church.

• regulatory over-reach as shown in the recent Irish referendum about abortion, not long after a woman became a cause celebre for dying for lack of treatment for a miscarriage.

• there's quite a bit of cynicism related to the lack of Papal denunciation of Hitler's regime (or excommunications pertaining to it - Bavaria was a traditionally Catholic Lande). The Vatican has just released the secrecy seal on contemporary documents so we will know more about whether it was defensible or not - some do believe he did the best he could.

• (more debatable) Europe suffered through two world wars for no really good geopolitical reasons (fighting Nazism was extremely justified, Nazism becoming a political power capable of waging war was an aberration however). There must have been quite a bit of "For God and Country" sanctimony making the rounds at the time and post-war disillusionment with armed conflicts might have blamed religious leaders by association.

• any number of other reasons resulting in an extremely rapid drop in religious influence in Europe throughout the 20th century that for some reason did not happen in the US.

There are some exceptions, like Poland, but by and large, it is not so much that 21st century USA is extremely religious as 21st century Europe has been become extremely disengaged.

(Poland has its own specificity as the Church was instrumental in resisting Communism, a certainly popular move)

Compared to some other rich modern democracies, like South Korea, which is increasingly Christian, the US is not that much of an outlier either.

Since the question is comparing the US vs Western democracies, a related question might be: What caused the quick drop-off of religious belief in many European countries?

I don't think the US in 1850-1900 would have been that much of an outlier compared to the Europeans. Not as much as nowadays, anyways. Europeans did go to church - it might be difficult to get hard numbers of attendance - but there are plenty of anecdotal references to Sunday services in contemporary news and literature.

Church attendance has since really dropped throughout Europe, much more rapidly so than in the US.

The reasons for it vary from country to country. Here's a list of some that seem applicable, but it's less about the list itself than the end result of religion having lost a lot of ground in Europe:

• sometimes in line with EvilSnack's warning about the dangers of state-sponsored religions.

• ill-advised political backing of Franco by the Catholic Church.

• regulatory over-reach as shown in the recent Irish referendum about abortion, not long after a woman became a cause celebre for dying for lack of treatment for a miscarriage.

• there's quite a bit of cynicism related to the lack of Papal denunciation of Hitler's regime (or excommunications pertaining to it - Bavaria was a traditionally Catholic Lande). The Vatican has just released the secrecy seal on contemporary documents so we will know more about whether it was defensible or not - some do believe he did the best he could.

• (more debatable) Europe suffered through two world wars for no really good geopolitical reasons (fighting Nazism was extremely justified, Nazism becoming a political power capable of waging war was an aberration however). There must have been quite a bit of "For God and Country" sanctimony making the rounds at the time and post-war disillusionment with armed conflicts might have blamed religious leaders by association.

• the Catholic Church has suffered immense reputational damage from child abuse cases. And, at least in some parts of Europe, it's the main/only church, so its losses are losses for the faith as a whole.

• any number of other reasons resulting in an extremely rapid drop in religious influence in Europe throughout the 20th century that for some reason did not happen in the US.

There are some exceptions, like Poland, but by and large, it is not so much that 21st century USA is extremely religious as 21st century Europe has been become extremely disengaged.

(Poland has its own specificity as the Church was instrumental in resisting Communism, a certainly popular move)

Compared to some other rich modern democracies, like South Korea, which is increasingly Christian, the US is not that much of an outlier either.

Since the question is comparing the US vs Western democracies, a related question might be: What caused the quick drop-off of religious belief in many European countries?

I don't think the US in 1850-1900 would have been that much of an outlier compared to the Europeans. Not as much as nowadays, anyways. Europeans did go to church - it might be difficult to get hard numbers of attendance - but there are plenty of anecdotal references to Sunday services in contemporary news and literature.

Church attendance has since really dropped throughout Europe, much more rapidly so than in the US. The reasons for it vary from country to country

• sometimes in line with EvilSnack's warning about the dangers of state-sponsored religions.

• ill-advised political backing of Franco by the Catholic Church.

• regulatory over-reach as shown in the recent Irish referendum about abortion, not long after a woman became a cause celebre for dying for lack of treatment for a miscarriage.

• there's quite a bit of cynicism related to the lack of Papal denunciation of Hitler's regime (or excommunications pertaining to it - Bavaria was a traditionally Catholic Lande). The Vatican has just released the secrecy seal on contemporary documents so we will know more about whether it was defensible or not - some do believe he did the best he could.

• (more debatable) Europe suffered through two world wars for no really good geopolitical reasons (fighting Nazism was extremely justified, Nazism becoming a political power capable of waging war was an aberration however). There must have been quite a bit of "For God and Country" sanctimony making the rounds at the time and post-war disillusionment with armed conflicts might have blamed religious leaders by association.

• any number of other reasons resulting in an extremely rapid drop in religious influence in Europe throughout the 20th century that for some reason did not happen in the US.

There are some exceptions, like Poland, but by and large, it is not so much that 21st century USA is extremely religious as 21st century Europe has been become extremely disengaged.

(Poland has its own specificity as the Church was instrumental in resisting Communism, a certainly popular move)

Compared to other democracies, like South Korea, which is increasingly Christian, the US is not that much of an outlier either.

Since the question is comparing the US vs Western democracies, a related question might be: What caused the quick drop-off of religious belief in many European countries?

I don't think the US in 1850-1900 would have been that much of an outlier compared to the Europeans. Not as much as nowadays, anyways. Europeans did go to church - it might be difficult to get hard numbers of attendance - but there are plenty of anecdotal references to Sunday services in contemporary news and literature.

Church attendance has since really dropped throughout Europe, much more rapidly so than in the US.

The reasons for it vary from country to country. Here's a list of some that seem applicable, but it's less about the list itself than the end result of religion having lost a lot of ground in Europe:

• sometimes in line with EvilSnack's warning about the dangers of state-sponsored religions.

• ill-advised political backing of Franco by the Catholic Church.

• regulatory over-reach as shown in the recent Irish referendum about abortion, not long after a woman became a cause celebre for dying for lack of treatment for a miscarriage.

• there's quite a bit of cynicism related to the lack of Papal denunciation of Hitler's regime (or excommunications pertaining to it - Bavaria was a traditionally Catholic Lande). The Vatican has just released the secrecy seal on contemporary documents so we will know more about whether it was defensible or not - some do believe he did the best he could.

• (more debatable) Europe suffered through two world wars for no really good geopolitical reasons (fighting Nazism was extremely justified, Nazism becoming a political power capable of waging war was an aberration however). There must have been quite a bit of "For God and Country" sanctimony making the rounds at the time and post-war disillusionment with armed conflicts might have blamed religious leaders by association.

• any number of other reasons resulting in an extremely rapid drop in religious influence in Europe throughout the 20th century that for some reason did not happen in the US.

There are some exceptions, like Poland, but by and large, it is not so much that 21st century USA is extremely religious as 21st century Europe has been become extremely disengaged.

(Poland has its own specificity as the Church was instrumental in resisting Communism, a certainly popular move)

Compared to some other rich modern democracies, like South Korea, which is increasingly Christian, the US is not that much of an outlier either.