Hitchens vs. Ken Blackwell: Is America a Christian nation?

Mmmmmmm, that’s good comment bait! Not as interesting as Doug TenNapel’s recap of Hitch’s debate with Christian philosopher William Lane Craig, but fun nonetheless. This devolves relatively quickly (and predictably) from an argument over whether America is Christian by origin into an argument over how Christian America will remain; my own feeling is that the country will become more secular as science and technology become more able to explain “magical” phenomena, but that a backlash to that progress will emerge in the form of hardening of religious attitudes among the true believers. What that will look like, I have no idea.

The jumping-off point here is Newsweek’s new poll on post-Christian America. I was most impressed while reading the data with how constant the country’s religious belief has been, but do note the results of question 17. An all-time low.