It's so weird. Here in Denmark most people get baptized, confirmed, wedded, and buried in Christian churches, sing Christian psalms at christmas and teach the contents of the bible in schools. Yet no one really seems to believe in it? I feel like I was always told about Adam and Eve, Noahs ark, etc., as myths akin to Greek myths, whereas it seems many Christians around the world actually believe those stories happened in real life.

10:34 im sure somebody is gonna mention it, but theres the classic story about someone from ireland getting confronted and asked whether theyre protestant or catholic, they reply theyre atheist and they then ask " are you a protestant atheist or catholic atheist?" Cultural identity supercedes individual conviction

I have had so many conversations with people here in Ireland where they'll readily admit, "I don't believe in any of it... But I'm still a Catholic". Which always seemed to me to confirm the cultural, and in the case of Ireland, ethnic nature of religious identity, above actually believing

Visiting my relatives in Germany, it struck me how their society is somehow both more secular and more Christian than ours. People seemed much more open about sex, irreverence and mockery of religion and yet even irreligious people constantly used religious expressions, every city and town is filled with crosses and Christian imagery and they celebrate many more Christian holidays than we do, like Pentecost and Corpus Christi. Goes to show you just how deep these influences go even when people have nominally ceased to believe.

Can't believe Spiderman wrote a book about the history of Christianity

It should be noted that Greek and Roman philosophy also had a great impact on the development of Western sociopolitical systems during the Age of Enlightenment and many of those pre-Christian teachings merged with Christian teachings.

Mexican-American here. I find it interesting that in the USA religious communities, church communities, often behave exactly the same as religious communities in Mexico. In the USA and Mexico, after mass, people I hardly know will ask me incredibly personal questions that, I feel, they have no right to be asking. In secular communities, this either doesn’t happen or happens less frequently. I fee that American Christian culture has more in common with Mexican Christian culture than it does with American secular culture, at least inasmuch as mannerisms and “friendliness” is concerned.

the fact that 2 of the books used had a "stark" and a "tom holland" as their authors is hillarious to me

I'm a practicing Christian and have been one all my life. In college I had a boyfriend of Mexican descent who I assumed to be Christian for many reasons: he had a cross hung on his wall, he decorated an ofrenda with flowers and rosaries for Dia de los Muertos, he hung out with a youth group. I felt comfortable talking to him about my faith because I thought he quite obviously was on the same page. He was not. I found out a few months after we started dating and was heartbroken. I felt like he had quite literally lied to me. Where I had grown up (majority white Oregon), if you had crosses and Bibles and such, that meant you were a fully believing, practicing Christian. If you were not one, then you did not partake in any church services at all. It was more cleanly divided. I realize now he was just deeply attached to the faith-related traditions of Mexican culture and perhaps was not purposefully deceiving me.

A lot of people forget that Christianity is an eastern religion. When someone says Christian country, we all think of countries like Spain, Italy or Greece and forget countries like Ethiopia and Armenia.

This sort of dilemma definitely applies to other religions. I remember some of my Turkish friends would react to other people calling Turkey a "Muslim country", by saying that they're actually secular, meaning their definition of a Muslim country is more political rather than cultural. Places they consider to be "Muslim countries" include many Arabic-speaking countries, Iran, Afghanistan, or Pakistan.

For a while, the conservative premier of my state had this recurring sentence about our culture: "We are christian-occidental-shaped with Jewish-humanist roots" ...and no, it's not easier to understand or less convoluted in the original German 😅

I always love how much work he puts into his videos

Honestly these videos are truly like no other, no one else on the internet will speak of such topic in such a great and informative and educational manner, absolutely love learning from you JJ keep up these amazing vids 👍

I live in Czechia, which is seen as the most secular country of Europe with an overwhelming majority of citizens identifying as atheist or non-believers. However, culturally this country is very Christian, which I notice a lot as an outsider. The main holidays and traditions are Christian, there are expressions in the language that allude to Christianity and a lot of values that are considered Christian are very present.

I remember once having a discussion with a professor who happened to be Jewish about how we should be “humbled” in what we do not know. Without missing a beat he said that “Humble” was a word with heavy Christian connotations usually denoting an acceptance of all regardless of rank or privilege (in this case those in the know and those not in the know). Makes you think of how we use other words including “regret” “shame” “forgiveness” in daily conversations and don’t think about their religious connotations

As an evangelical Christian who heartily does NOT agree with the type of politics commonly associated with that group, I must say this title made me a little nervous at first. But I've never once seen JJ disrespect Christianity in itself (separately from the aforementioned political activity) even when he disagrees with it, so I felt like the topic was in pretty good hands. And of course I was right. This is, as always, a fantastic video. Well researched, well reasoned, well organized, well spoken, and extremely interesting. I cannot fully express how much I appreciate it.

Oh man I really hoped you would have talked about the "WEIRDEST people in the World" by Joseph Henrich a Harvard evolutionary biologist who highlights many unique and strange psychological differences that western/Christian countries developed over the thousands of years of Christian upbrininging, and how that differs from all other cultures that came before it and are in the world now. It has helped me come to grasp how different I am, with my western upbringing, to my family across the sea in Asia. I hope you give it a read!

Catholic American here. I recently came back to the church after a very lukewarm and largely secular upbringing. I definitely see the US as a Protestant country, in particular. I think that background even impacts American Catholics’ ways of thinking about our own faith. I find even among the very-conservative “rad trads” there tends to be a distrust of the hierarchy especially when it becomes more liberal. There is a desire to elect “one of our own” as Pope or local bishop, and if there was one that represented their views then the church would be a better place. I think the rise of republicanism (in the European sense) was the result of first the Protestant reformation which then led to the Enlightenment and the idea of “self governance”. The hierarchy in the church and the way the virtue of obedience to authority (even when unjust) is thought of in the Catholic Church is more akin to monarchy. People wouldn’t have considered they had any such “right” to a representation in the way the country is governed. It was just about respecting the office of the monarchy for good or bad and trusting in God’s providence.

I am an evangelical Christian from the USA, and I really like your third definition of what a "Christian country". I just read a book called "Myth of a Christian Nation" written by a Christian and explains how wrong people are for wanting a "Christian country" based on your first definition.

I live in a Jewish Country (guess which!) and views here about what it means for the country to be Jewish are as diverse as (and surprisingly similar to) those you present regarding Christian Countries.

As a Christian, usually when I hear any sort of content creators make a video on something "Christian", I kind of brace for a lot of (deserved) critique and (often too far) bashing. I appreciate your balanced approach JJ, focusing on a complex question with a respectable tone.

I was born and raised in the American South. Now I live in Japan. Even the way we think of religion and what being "of" a certain religion IS is a an idea deeply rooted in the Christian idea of faith. People in Japan go to shrines for ceremonies and rituals, and priests oversee major events in peoples' lives. But when you ask Japanese people about these things, the answers can be puzzling. "Do you believe in all this stuff?" "Yes." "So you're a Shintoist?" "No." "Buddhist?" "No." "Irreligious?" "No." "What are you then?" "Japanese."

To argue that christianity produced modern Western values and political systems such as democracy and secularism and other values, completely ignores the fact those values were mainly adopted after the renaissance and after Greek and roman literature started being more widely translated and read, from which ideas of democracy and republicanism and elections and so on were discovered and adopted, of course its always more complicated, but to credit those values to christianity instead of the more obvious pre-christian cultural heritage of Greece and Rome is a very odd thing to do, and if that's truly the case, why didn't values of democracy, freedom and equality not exist in christian Europe for 1500 years? Why exactly did those values start being spread and adopted after the renaissance and enlightenment, if anything, one could argue christianity, or more specifically, the catholic church, held back the development of these ideas, rather than be the cause for them

Interesting video, thanks JJ. There’s an excellent book called “The Air We Breathe” by Glen Scrivener which is all about how all western countries are “Christian” in much more fundamental ways than we realise. He has a good line about how in our political debates we’re all shouting bible verses at each other, we’ve just forgotten the references. Scrivener is a big fan of Tom Holland, and he’s referred to his book as “Dominion for dummies”! Tom Holland has another book about the rise of Islam called “In the Shadow of the Sword” - it might be interesting for you to do a sequel video on “what does it mean to be a Muslim country?”

In Brazil it is very ironic how we try to be a "secular" society when in reality much of what is within the very organization of the state is closely linked to Christianity and, in particular, to Catholicism. I think the clearest example of this is in the constitution itself, which being the same text that guarantees the "secularity of the Brazilian state" is also "protected by God" right in its first lines. In the legislative houses and public offices themselves, where you supposedly should not be able to profess your faith out of respect for this same secularity, there is almost always a crucifix hanging somewhere and the representatives of the people even say prayers at the end of legislative sessions.

The argument that all modernization that occurred outside Christendom was imported from the west is bad because of eastern innovation and philosophy, it's also a very western centric view.

I’m a Christian studying theology and Church history, and I have honestly never heard such a succinct and well-rounded presentation of this concept. Thank you, J.J., for always presenting your research thoughtfully and respectfully. You truly inspire me to become a better researcher and communicator.

Tom Holland and Professor Stark? This can't be real lmao.

I find it weird people consider Muslim majority countries with secular governments to be “Muslim countries” but the same people don’t consider Christian majority countries with secular governments to be “Christian countries”. You gotta pick one or the other, in my opinion. If Turkey is a “Muslim country” than America is a “Christian country” or vice versa.

Tanzanian-Brit here. I find it funny that the west usually doesn't like identifying with the term "Christian Country" despite having a culture littered with usually Christian traditions. I honestly believe that in western countries that tend to practice religion, people remain a lot more relaxed and reserved than in other places. While there are occasionally very nationalistic Christians the majority do not heavily oppose non-religious laws and legislation. I think JJ highlighted a good point to do with how democracy and freedom of speech are more prevalent in Christian societies and explains why the majority of Christians don't mind respecting Non-Christian ideals.

Another interesting thing to consider is the difference between catholic and protestant christianity. They of course share most of the values and cultural effects, but there are significant differences, particularly in regards to capitalism, which was studied as early as Max Webers time. Its also notable that in America, the nationalistic, 'right wing' branch of christianity is, as you said, mainly the protestant one, and catholicism, especially in Latin-America, has more 'left wing' infuences (eg Emancipation theology). Here in Europe catholicism is the more nationalistic and conservative (eg Poland), and in historically protestant countries like Switzerland or the Netherlands, you experience much less of this.

The 3rd definition reminds me of a video you did where you were talking about Quebec's Burqa ban, and mentioned how someone said that Quebecers have never stopped being Catholic, they've just dropped the religious aspect of it, as in this bossy attitude where you either fit in or get out. I hear the same kind of analogy used to describe wealthy secular "woke" people in America as the new Puritans or whatever.

I am a practicing Christian, and I spent a lot of time in college and denominational conferences studying and discussing international missions and church planting. The subject of historically "Christian countries" frequently comes up, particularly with regard to _post-Christian_ countries, like @Magic Vibrations' description of his native Denmark. I've had a lot of interesting conversations with lay ministers and evangelists in Europe who are trying to evangelize peoples already familiar with Christianity and who view it as a quaint relic of their cultural past. Ironically, by some metrics the developing world is more Christian than western nations in spite of their cultural histories. The underground church spread rapidly in Eastern Europe during the communist regimes. Even now, illegal house churches are multiplying in China in the face of CCP pressure, in part because the gospel message is appealing to an increasing proportion of the population disillusioned with a totalitarian government. In the Arab world (as well as among MENA refugees), eighty percent of Muslim converts to Christianity report having seen Jesus in a vision before ever encountering a Christian (or even without having heard about Jesus at all). Lastly, Africa has seen an explosion in evangelical Christianity over the last few decades, with the overwhelming majority of churches planted by nationals. There is even tension between African Christians and western Christians within the same denomination (such as Methodism), as the former tend to hold far more conservative stances theologically and culturally than the latter. It's pretty fascinating that there is a non-zero chance that, in the near future, Christian missionaries from non-western countries may be evangelizing western countries, instead of the other way around.

I live in Uruguay, we are one of the most irreligious countries in the West together with a few european nations. In the early 1900s a radical liberal got elected to office and a mass process of secularization took place. Christian holidays got their name changed, public hospitals and schools banned religious symbols, there were no more new christian theme monuments, etc. However Christianity is still present in the country, not only by the 30-40% of the people who identifies as christian but in the culture and traditions of the people too.

Balanced, entertaining, and enlightening. JJ is a master at his craft. The edutainment king of youtube. No reading a script like Simon Whistler here folks. Researched, written, produced, edited, and starring the wunderkind himself. Even pushing 40 as an ER physician I take the 20 minutes to watch new videos as soon as is possible. Hands down my favorite youtuber, and also Canadian!

I loved this video. One question though. I have often heard the argument that Christianity is inherently more individualist than other religions, and therefore so are western countries. While I agree that western countries are more individualistic, I always assumed that that is in spite of our Christian heritage not because of it. I think Christianty (and basically all other world religions, except maybe Buddhism) is littered with explicitly collectivist stories and idea. For example the original sin you mentioned. Isn't that an entire race (or species even) being punished for the actions of a few. Other examples I could think of, would be the story of Noah or the 10 plagues of Egypt. And then, according to the Bible, one man, Jesus Christ, collectively (!) absolved us all of our sins. Doesn't seem very individualistic to me...

I found the portion on guilt-based cultures to be very fascinating. I'm currently reading a book called Effective Intercultural Evangelism, and it deals with how the Christian message can appeal to various kinds of cultures around the world. Interestingly enough, Latin America is classified as shame-based instead of guilt-based in spite of it being largely Christian in its cultural heritage. As a practicing Christian, I attend a predominantly Korean church in California, and the church culture there is far more communal and less individualistic than many other American churches I've been to. I think that there may be another confounding variable in the question of what makes a country "Christian" or not. I think that certain values which are assumed to be strictly Christian actually may have a classical Greek influence of some kind since these values are not necessarily present in Christian communities from other parts of the world, such as sub-Saharan Africa or Latin America.

One thing I really like about your videos is that you seem to be able to cover contentious issues in such a way that by the end of the video I have no idea what your own personal opinion is on the subject.

A lot of people I talk to use the phrase "raised Christian" to indicate that they grew up in a religious family but are now more non-practicing or less religious. I would dare to say that is more of the majority of conversations I have these days. Thank you for this thoughtful essay as you always do and Hope everyone has a great Saturday!!

As always, a interesting and well made video. Love your consistency

You did such a good job in these videos, this one in particular. I am a Christian but I never feel like you’re talking down to my beliefs even if you document them while disagreeing with them respectfully. I appreciate your fairness and evenhandedness. Especially your humor. You make me think about myself and about others.

As a Filipino (grew up in a Catholic culture), I can fully relate with using religious terms in describing specific food, things, and practices like calling lechon (roasted whole pig) and chicharon (deep fried pork rind) as sinful foods (in our language).

Is it bad I scheduled my holiday around being able to watch the new JJ video on time? And what a video to watch! Good work, sir! Love the hair!

Hi JJ, good video as always. I think it'd be interesting if you do a video on the sound effects used as shorthands everywhere, such as that one dolphin sound for not just dolphins but also the sea, as well as the horn sound from boats for something very smelly/unappealing to look at

Tom Holland to Professor Stark: Mr. Stark, I don’t feel so Christian…

This video is really interesting because I have been thinking about this for some time. As a Portuguese, whose founding dates back to the Middle Ages, you could argue that Christianity is embedded into our identity. Of course, today is different: it's more secular (although not as much as other Western countries). Associated with this, I also have been thinking about of what it means to be a practicing Christian. You see, in my area it's not unusual to understand Mass as a social event: gathering all kinds of people from surrounding villages and towns. I have some anecdotal stories of people who describe themselves as non religious and still attend and participate in Christian worship ether with local importance (say a patron saint) or liturgical relevance (like Christmas).

I find it odd and a bit disappointing that you didn't really counter claims as blatantly self-assured and chauvinistic as that found from 7:07 to 7:47, like "All the modernization that has occurred outside Christendom was imported from the West."

Another award winning video

This was very interesting, J,J. I don’t know that it's helpful to identify a country as "Christian" in today's world, due to basically everything you've discussed. I definitely think Christian values do/have influence(d) democratic countries. One cultural influence that comes to mind is the tv/movie-rating system. Moral values taken from Chrisfian beliefs have guided these ratings almost since the beginning of moving pictures. Great topic!😊

I'm very skeptical of any analysis that chalks up the fact that the Industrial Revolution, the Scientific Revolution, capitalism, and democracy all originated in the West to any one single factor, whether it's Christianity or something else. That was such a complex and massive series of social transformations that it couldn't have been any one single factor. In particular, I don't give Christianity credit for religious freedom. Christian countries spent centuries cultivating the idea of state religions and often had punishments for heresy, sometimes even amounting to execution. Religious freedom exists in the United States because non-establishment Protestant Christian groups were numerous and powerful enough to demand it from established churches in the various states, not because this was the traditional way of things in historical European Christian states.

Love the new setup

I think for the second and third argument, a lot of it is just putting the cart before the horse. It's far more logical to argue that western values changed the interpretation of the bible and christianity during the enlightenment, as opposed to the opposite, seeing as non-christian nations followed similar paths of development in logic and reason. Gandhi and MLK were both devoted to non-violence as a first principle, despite citing different religions as the motivation. Because, low and behold, religion is a vehicle for the justification of human logic, not the source of it.

Thanks for another really good video. I think the second definition is the most fitting for the US even though there are some that want it to more resemble your first definition. Because so much of our culture is based on Christian ideas and concepts even in, as you suggested, ways we don’t consciously recognize, I think knowledge about Christian concepts is pretty important for effectively navigating US society whether you are a practicing Christian or not.

The last third of this video was particularly eye opening. Thank you.

The problem with this thesis is Latin America, a region WAY more catholic than the West but poorer. The Calvinistic ethics and a lot of luck prompted the rise of capitalism and is imperialism what has lead the west to the top

The proponents of the definition based on Christian values do not give the Enlightentment (or: Classical Liberalism) the recognition it deserves!

When learning about Norwegian media history, it became apparent that there did exist a fairly literate population during the 18th century, before the advent of Norwegian news papers. In part because of the reformation, when the Bible was translated and became more available for the public, and pietist teachings, that viewed faith more as a personal thing. Of course, traditions with background in Christianity is still prevalent even if Norway has become more secular. The monarchy is still a Christian institution both because it uses symbols connected with Saint Olav, the medieval Norwegian King seen as the one who finally Christianized and properly unified Norway, and the fact that freedom of religion does not extend to the monarch. One thing I think may be because of Christian influence, is that differences in social status is less likely to affect how one interacts with each other. Since Christianity's views that all humanity is created in God's image and the salvation through Christ are offered to all humans, it is less inclined to foster a culture built on hierarchy or caste.

It seems strange to me how some of the quoted professors seemed to be willfully ignoring the counter example of other individualistic religions like Buddhism in regards to how societies developed. At least in the quoted segments of these texts, which I somehow doubt these flawed arguments are remedied by a broader examination within other portions of the read works.

Italian here. First off, interesting video as always! This theme in particular is one that has grabbed my attention lately, mostly because I've been reading Olivier Roy's "Holy Ignorance" for an exam! lol While Italian culture comes from unquestionably Catholic roots, Italians in general (more so in the North) are following the trend of other Western countries, in that religion doesn't cover as explicit a role in someone's life as it used to just a few decades ago. We get baptized, we celebrate our first Holy Communion as children, followed by confirmation a few years later (both occasions ensue plenty of gifts from relatives!), and then religion takes a step back (but doesn't go away completely!), only surfacing in key events of our lives, such as weddings, and when we utter certain expressions (*cough* bestemmie! *cough*). However, this trend isn't as "complete" in Italy as it is elsewhere, as the South is more attached to traditional rituals, such as celebrations of name days ("onomastici") and public parades of holy figures, and despite the State officially declaring itself to be secular, Rai, the Italian public broadcaster, airs the Holy Mass on Sunday morning, and the crucifix is displayed in public spaces like schools and judicial courts, much to the chagrin of some activists. A few years back, a politician (Roberto Castelli, Lega) proposed adding the Christian cross to the Italian flag.

Like many other Christians who clicked on this video I was very nervous that he would only talk about the more radical side of Christian politics, but I’m very glad J.J. tackled this the way he did. You have my utmost respect.

Thank you so much J.J. for delving into some of the complexity surrounding this topic. Serious observation and nuance are severely lacking in most popular discourse about these ideas, at least here in the US.

Love the effort of this man's videos, interesting topics presented in a clear way, keep the great work up.

I think it’s great how in the US and maybe Britain, you can use the word “Puritanical” to describe any person or belief system that is overly dogmatic or judgmental. Most people know where it comes from of course, but nevertheless it’s used much more to describe modern attitudes than the actual historical religious sect. Just imagine how strange it would be to say “These University administrators are becoming more and more Confucianist with their rules about preferred pronouns.

I live in El Salvador, and I'd be able to say it's definitely a Christian country, even though that's more linked to social norms, even in secular culture, although this is still a very practicing country, but you can see it's definitely in the culture, like people celebrate Christmas and all of that, and irreligion is still not a thing and even kinda taboo, even atheists aren't as outspoken.

You can see a lot of this in the ethnic divisions of the former Yugoslav republics. Most of them speak the same language and come from the same gene pool, but they practice different religions and that's how they tell each other apart.

Such an insightful video topic that I never realized I would’ve been interested in!

With some experience with the Native American Church one major difference that I spotted is how God is referred to as the Great Spirit or the Creator. Other Christians seem to have a paternal relationship with God and refer to God as "Father". Edit: Another major difference that I didn't realize. To me the creator and Jesus are one and the same.

A country with the majority of the population being Christian was always my interpretation

Really cool video JJ, my favorite of yours in a good while. Based on your background and other images you share, you could easily win an award for the proudest American-Canadian on KZfaq. At one point I was ardent atheist, however that spirit of rebellion against Christianity in particular faded when I realized that the moral framework of American secular society is the very same as American Christian morality with less emphasis on Jesus. It's worth considering that, just as the "Christian world" is not a monolith, with varying degrees of piety, acceptance of religious and cultural "others", and engagement with the wider world, the Islamic world is, likewise, not a monolith. With no other reference to Islamic countries beyond reels of terrorism and war, snapshots of the medieval Afghan society, and tales of Saudi Arabia's odd effort to do business with international partners while emulating 8th century Arabia + cars, smartphones, etc., it could be easy to assume that all Islamic countries are like that. That's not the case, not at all. A brief look at rock concerts in Morocco and Algeria, Gamal Abdul Nasser's televised speeches before Egyptian audiences of men and women in "western" dress, and excerpts from Iraqi elders espousing their proud pre-Islamic roots and Iraqi youth envisioning a modern and secular Iraq all come together to tell that the Islamic world is a loooot more complicated than an enormous expanse across Africa, Europe, and Asia filled with naught but medieval zealots.

Rene girards ‘Scapegoat mechanism’ is really helpful in understanding the root of a lot of observable ‘religious’ things in a modern, so-called ‘secular’ society. I’d love to see you do a video on that guy!

As an agnostic American, one of the most common things I hear and say are non-religious references to God. I can count the amount of times I’ve been to church on my fingers, yet I say “Oh my God” regularly every day. I’ve seen some Christians, like my great grandmother, dislike the use of descendant terms, like “gosh” or “goodness”.

As a Jewish person, a lot of the things that were pointed out by the scholars like rationality and questioning, and forgiveness as ‘uniquely Christian’ are not in-fact unique to Christianity. They are also central tennabts of Judaism And Islam, so it feels strange to leave out the impact Judaism has had on society even if it’s not very dominant. If Judaism didn’t exist, the ideals, impacts and religion of Christianity wouldn’t either

A great example of how Christianity has influenced the subtler parts of our societies is “The Sunflower” by Simon Wiesenthal. You can see the stark contrast between how Jews, Christians and others approach a topic like forgiveness. Also, a lot of new age movements in the West seem to emulate the structure of Christian thought, even if they eschew the terminology. Self-improvement/self-help is often reminiscent of personal salvation and things like “we each have to consider our relationship with nature” often sound similar to “we have to consider our relationships with Christ”. As a non-Christian in a predominantly Christian society, it’s hard not to subscribe to the final definition of a Christian country while desperately trying to dissuade people of explicit and political Christian nationalism

These videos really are brilliant. It introduces a depth of thought that the average person might never come across in an accessible format.

It always feels good when I see that you've uploaded

Most of these ideals go back to Aristotle and Plato, not just Christianity. The ideals were in place before the Christian rephrasing.

I don't know where you got the maps from but I am very pleased that you actually portrayed in a very accurate way the extent of mestizo "western" areas in central South America (Bolivia, Paraguay), which are often ignored in representations of Spanish heritage in the continent. Ajem, whatifalthist,,

Interesting topic and well presented as always!

This is an amazing video on a topic I've been thinking about a lot actually. Keep up the good work JJ!

"Western Civilization" predates Christianity, having roots in ancient Greece and Rome. Although Christianity certainly had a major influence on it as well. As for the scientific method, I tend to think of it as in opposition to at least some aspects of Christianity, witness the famous trial of Galileo.

A subtle cultural practice that I find incredibly prominent in Christian countries is essentially proselytism. I know a lot of leftists who go out there thinking they can just share the Good Word of Karl Marx and they will convert to communism. They hand out communist theory like a missionary would a bible. Politics is an area that makes this abundantly clear. Politics are about an ideological struggle, attempting to win over as many believers as possible. In many other places, politics are much more defined by parties representing a certain group, whether it's ethnic, economic, or religious.

I saw your illustrations for that "8 Types of Atheist" video Genetically Modified Skeptic put out, thumbnail caught my attention because of them, excellent work my dude! :D About that third and final definition. I'm English and from a very secular upbringing, so please keep my atheistic leanings in mind as I make the following observation, but I can certainly recall a time when calling a Western European country "a Christian country" was probably a lot less alarming than it would be today. Maybe it was just the kind of history books I'd have read as a kid and a teenager, but I grew up with the understanding that describing a contemporary nation as a Christian was more a by-word for describing the historical, philosophical and legal make-up of that nation. It was more of a shorthand to describe a place with democracy, a tradition of debate and argument, a dichotomy is the justice system that sought to balance punishment with reform, etc.

Loved this video! Incredible how engrained it is in us

I've been very critical to some countries that to me don't have a clear line between religion and culture or that a huge part of what they consider culture is just religion, and I considered North American countries generally better at that. But you are totally correct in pointing out that I just don't notice it or I don't know "something" has religious origin or connotations. Thank you. And greetings from a Mexican in Vancouver :)

the christian value possition frustrates me a bit mainly because it seems to be ignoring one MASSIVE elephant in the room. that one being the enlightenment something that was an openly reactionary movement to christianity and is way more representative of the values proclaimed as the cause for the succes of what we commonly refere to as the west.

I think a lot of Christian exceptionalists are completely mistaken in crediting Christianity in the West's successes. The Renaissance was the re-prioritization of classical Greek ideas, while the Enlightenment was rooted in liberal, secular, and humanist ideals. These movements were counter to the prevailing Christian culture at the time, and were at best not helped by the Christian establishment at the time.

JJ love your channel and I think this is your best video so far. Nuanced and thought provoking - keep it up!

As an ex-Christian who knows something about history, I would suggest that everything that is just and right and good in the world is _in spite_ of Christianity, not because of it. Secularism, individualism, humanism, democracy, modern capitalism, the scientific method and technological development are all the results of the unwanted discoveries and backlashes of the Renaissance, the Protestant uprising, and the Enlightenment. If it weren't for these, we'd still be as backward today that non-Western countries (including the most Christian nation of Russia) were in 1800. In fact, the descent of the dark ages in the 4th & 5th Centuries under Christian Roman Emperors and the fact that Russia today, a nation with a totalitarian government on the warpath against Ukraine and its own LGBTQ+ people, is very Christian are scathing indictments of Christianity.

A KZfaq channel that I regularly watch is Rev Ed Trevors. He's an Episcopal priest in Nova Scotia and what I'd gather from what he's said is that a Christian Nation is one which follows the example of Christ as shown in the New Testament with things like humility, kindness, and benevolence. Also making right the wrongs done in the past. Confession and repentance, as you said. But also covering acts done by the society.

I read The Victory of Reason in my Economic Development class and it was truly fascinating. The professor himself was quite an interesting guy and the book gave a take on the subject that I’d never heard before.

Great and very interesting video! I really appreciate your unbiased way of looking at these theories, as it leads to a more deep dive into the arguments of both sides in these debates.

I think sometimes we differentiate Abrahamic religions from each other too much or do the "Judeo-Christian" vs Islamic thing while being quite ignorant of those religions. In places where there is lots of Jewish influence you probably hear as much or more about Jewish guilt than you do "Christian Guilt". I actually rarely ever hear that term, where I'm from it's usually referred to as Catholic guilt and my conception of it is often fairly distinct from the way Bible Belt evangelical people tend to digest their faith. I think it's easier to differentiate Abrahamic from non Abrahamic religions

I agree especially with the ‘culture’ definition of a Christian country. I come from a predominantly Catholic family, (I realize these two are not exactly the same, but bare with me here) and though the religious practices are almost rights of passage in the community (baptism, catechism and a traditional wedding) I think as time passes these are slowly becoming lost in favor of just general respectful-religious mannerisms (sign of the cross whenever you pass by a church, being respectful to your elders etc)

Another great video. Very interesting analysis.

As a practicing Christian right here in Vancouver, I found this topic to be highly interesting. I always thought of Canada as a "Christian Country," but it was odd to me whenever I talk to someone about the Christian faith, they would at first say that they are Christians (Catholic, Protestant, whatever) but the more I talked to them, more it became clear to me that they had no faith. When I dig deeper, they always end up telling me that they were "raised Catholic" or such. In my mind, that is not a Christian person..

Love the sherpa jacket JJ, very Canadian. It looks like you just got back from collecting firewood from the woodshed or even the barn.

Some of the things in this video really blew my mind. Good job JJ. Also, when Republicans say "we're a Christian country", they're actually saying "we should be a Christian country". It not an argument of fact. It's an argument of sentiment.

I saw Tom Holland in an interview where he did say that he was practicing, believing Christian. But he is very even handed when it comes to his historical, academic writing.

Just discovered this channel I learned so much from just one video❤