chapotraphouse

I don't necessarily know if it suggests that people who read it and understand and remain religious lack critical thinking ability. (I personally would quite like to have faith, but cannot justify it).

It more implies to me that a great number of people who are currently religious and yet have not read their foundational texts would probably not remain so if they did.

I can't fathom how someone who is genuinely religious can believe that the key to salvation is knowledge contained within a book they have easy access to, and yet don't ever feel motivated to read it themselves, and I can't respect someone who identifies as Christian or Muslim or Jewish and yet has little to no knowledge of scripture.

To those who've read their religious texts and remained religious, I can respect that as a difference in opinion. To the people who have not done so, I can only think f them as ignorant.

Because the average American white protestant has it in their head that America and white people are a chosen super race that have full authority by God to use the planet as they see fit. They believe this because they will inevitably fail to connect Christian ideas of mercy, charity, and forgiveness to their own lives because their lives are built around a comfortable bubble. The only outlet for their spiritual needs is to believe God has blessed them to do as they please. From their perspective, they feel no guilt over their status, because American middle class society is by design set up for its members to never even see poverty or misery. They live in gated suburbs and drive everywhere. From their perspective, putting in minimal amount of work automatically secures a comfortable middle class existence, so they believe anyone can do it, so poverty must necessarily be self-inflicted or a punishment from the Lord.

Already I hope you can see why these people have any notion of spiritual empathy erased from their souls. They haven't lived in conditions that build normal spirituality. They've only ever lived comfortable privilege on the backs of invisible impoverished people. It wouldn't matter how much they read the Bible directly. They'll freely dismiss the passages they don't feel apply and will instead focus on what relates to them.

For instance, ask a protestant what Matthew 19:24 means. It clearly says, by Christ himself, that it's easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than a rich man to enter heaven. Christ offers a solution for rich people to give up all they own to have treasure in heaven. American white protestants interpret this passage as meaning only "greedy" rich people go to hell, but nice rich people go to heaven. Whatever that means.

Also I'd like to apologize if anyone here mocks your faith. They're being unfair, granted a lot of people have had bad experiences with Christianity in the USA. I'm not religious myself, but sympathize with the need. I'm probably a few bad days away from adopting some kind of neo-shamanism because of so many dead people and pets in my life. I loved my last cat more than any living thing on Earth, and that triggers something in me. I want his spirit to still be around.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_civil_religion. Through this brain rot I imagine

Remember that under the Capitol dome there is a mural called The Apotheosis of Washington, which depicts Washington ascending to heaven like he's Christ. This is par for the course.

History is a flat circle. Like the other reply, the American Civic religion is a new version of the Roman Imperial Cult that was prominent during biblical times. Many of the letters of the apostles contained responses to the social structure of the cult to counter is influence.