Hmm -- the american religion is the ballot box, public school and TV. Without commenting on their effectiveness, these things legitimize our social order. Compare this to the ceremony identifying a pharaoh with the egyptian pantheon -- that's what legitimized them.
If somebody watches 4 hours of TV a week and thinks without any critical examination that public school works, that person isn't an atheist.
What these researchers are modeling in 1700 isn't the emergence of modern ideas, it's the liberation of european academia from control of the church as printing proliferates. Anti-authority isn't a 'modern' idea, it's just an idea that is easy to suppress when the forces of authority control the media.
If somebody watches 4 hours of TV a week and thinks without any critical examination that public school works, that person isn't an atheist.
What these researchers are modeling in 1700 isn't the emergence of modern ideas, it's the liberation of european academia from control of the church as printing proliferates. Anti-authority isn't a 'modern' idea, it's just an idea that is easy to suppress when the forces of authority control the media.