Will the State Become the New Religion?

I've been reading Phil Zuckerman's newest book Society without God: What the Least Religious Nations Can Tell Us About Contentment and I'm into the fourth chapter and it's been very interesting so far.

The perspectives of most of these people Zuckerman interviews is very interesting. One very shocking story from a man interviewed was when him and a friend were out drinking. The friend asked the man if he could confess something and what something might that have been? He believed in god! How strange it is to read about a place where you feel you must apologize for being a believer! It's the complete opposite here in the states.

Another subject that was discussed got me thinking. Zuckerman asked some of his interviewees why there is such a lack of belief and several mentioned that it could be due to the fact that they don't have much to worry about because Denmark is a welfare state. Many things are taken care of because of taxes with medical care, hospices, good economy, etc.

This is very interesting because Zuckerman, after these interviews, wondered if human nature is truly "hardwired" for belief if so many people in these European countries have no worries about death and no belief in god.

I think there might still be some kind of "hardwiring" affecting belief, it's just that as with many things in life, one thing replaces another, and oftentimes serves the same purpose. I've written about this before, when I spoke about addictions and religion. Maybe because of the welfare state these people live in, many things are taken care of and many worries other countries have are nonexistent. The state becomes the substitute for religion. Instead of religion comforting people, the state does by being involved in many facets of their lives.

While I greatly admire the people and the secularization, the state and the taxes people pay for the services I don't care for. I still feel anarchism's principals are the most ethical.

After reading about the "nanny state" that america is becoming I started to wonder if the U.S. could become something like Denmark where peoples' fears are alleviated by the state, and because of the lessening of peoples' fears religion fades away.

Does Europe give a glimpse of a possible future in america? Could it be possible that atheists and other secularists will get what they want? An end to religious belief? But a downside would possibly be a more intrusive government and the kind of state that controls everything, as I explained in the older post Nannyism Running Rampant (linked to above).

I'm not sure what kind of government Denmark has but government is government. They all make use of tyranny and survive with taxes. Though, at least the citizens have those many services available, though it is done with stolen money, and the punishments are less severe making use of rehabilitation as I've talked about in my writings, but they still make use of prisons, though their sentencing guidelines are very soft compared to the U.S. While Zuckerman was conducting an interview with a prosecutor he was told that for a rape "without any severe violence" a person would receive one and a half years, while a rape in some parts of the U.S. would be 11 years, but often only serve about 5 and a half (Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rape_and_punishment).

It does seem as if secularism and non belief are beginning to overtake religious belief , but I think it will be quite some time before (if ever) we get to the level of many of the European countries.

Only time will tell what the future will hold, but I only hope that people will use reason and see that religion and government are not needed in any way, shape or form, and the human race will break free of our history of tribalism, which spawns countless superstitions that do us all no good.