Third book reading

In class this week we discussed a lot about religion in our country verses others, and we also discussed the importance of a nuclear family in some countries and not in others. We were given a statistic in class about the importance of religion. In America the importance of religion to people is similar to religion to people in the Middle East. However, in Europe religion is not as valued to people as America and the Middle East, and we talked about why. The history of the nuclear family in America is a value that we have, but in other countries and in history having many women is considered acceptable.

One reason I think religion is so much more valuable in America than in Europe is the history of each country. In Europe there has been a lot of unrest change in the government that America has never experienced. Communism, for example, is a government that took over many countries for as much as 50 years. Communism was extremely anti religion and after that rule people were lost in religion. There was not the history in the families to carry on the tradition so religion became of less importance. In America we have never been ruled by communism, nor had a president that was anything but Christian. People look up to the government no matter what is the rule. Most people in America are Christian, so that has never been questioned in such a degree as in Europe.

The nuclear family has always been an important value with Christian moral views, but in places like Middle East, people have different morals and values that do not include monogamy. In history having many women for many kids is considered normal in a lot of the Middle East. The practicality of having many women was to have children to work for you, mostly boys. These children were expected to work and they all had their place. In American history having children was also used for work, but that mentality has changed. In America today work and education is more important than the Middle East. Education and work beyond the family has not moved into a period of women being educated.