Historically speaking, the US was kind of a dumping ground for the religious whackjobs Europe didn't want anything to do with, the Puritans for instance. And America has spawned some pretty whacky homegrown religions too, like Mormonism and Scientology. Mormons believe some fucking crazy shit about magic rocks, taking multiple wives, native Americans really being Jews, and that they all get to become gods who rule over their own planets when they die. The idea that one of them might be president scares the ever living shit out of me. Joseph Smith himself was assassinated when his own people decided he was way too whacky and an angry mob of them turned on him.
I have the book of Mormon somewhere, some missionaries gave it to me. Every line seems to start with 'and it came to pass', Smith obviously couldn't think of enough to fill the book so padded it out a bit. I can even remember their names, elder Moss and elder Wilderspin. Because I let them in once they turned up my door on 7am on a Sunday to try to get me to go to some sort of service. Just stayed in bed until they went away. There is a huge Mormon temple 20 minutes from me, nice building. The only thing I like about religion is old churches.
My former roomate during my undergraduate days was a Coptic Christian from Egypt who actually fled Egypt to the US due to religious persecution. He genuinely suffered from abusive Muslims in Egypt to the extent that he was driven out of his own country. Fast forward a few years, and he starts school at our university and Mormons started coming through our apartment complex almost daily pestering him about saving his soul by converting him to the Mormon faith. I'm surprised he didn't strangle one or more of them. He was enraged to the edge of sanity from their relentless attempts to convert him.
My step sister is a religious nutjob. She went to Bob Jones University. She lives in Arizona with the other crazies, and belongs to some born again church. Her kids are homeschooled. She doesn't own a TV because she thinks it's a bad influence. She believes rock music is the spawn of satan. She dresses like a fucking quaker. Her husband is just as fucking loony. He believes in that "to train up a child" style of child rearing, and he's constantly beating the shit out of his daughter when they come around for Christmas. I really worry about her two daughters growing up in isolation with religious crazies. But what can I do? It's not like we're related by blood.
Yes, it's basically a training ground for religious right loony tunes: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bob_Jones_University
Also, Brigham Young University sounds like a porno movie. The industry capitalized on it. It also isn't a coincidence that it's a mormon school.. no really, it is. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brigham_Young_University http://www.cbtimages.com/?id=1773&Type=FRONT
There's a popular one among the 'crazies' I hang out with, called George Fox. Some crazier than others though, their not all bad. I'd actually think it was a higher number, I'm sure it's declining considering every native american tribe probably has their own type of religion. It was ofc introduced to them by the early missionaries but at one time Creationism was quite big in the US.
I'm not surprised at all. With the US being such a massively religious country there's bound to be a huge number of people who are flat-out retarded instead of just semi-retarded. Personally I find all religions pretty much equally stupid, although I find the ones regarding aliens slightly less fuckwitted than the ones with people turning water into wine because at least it's reasonable to assume that aliens exist.
There's a big difference between saying you believe it and actually believing it. Most fundamentalism isn't really about belief, but rather about codifying a paternal society where men have the rights and women don't. That's what they're really after.
Define alien nutjuob please. If you're thinking I'm one of those red neck crazies who claims to have been abducted then you're simply making a silly assumption my friend. I don't believe that aliens have visited Earth. However, I do believe that given the size of the known Universe and the sheer number of stars and planets and the fact that we keep on discovering planets that seem to have similarities to our own planet i.e. possibly able to support life as we know it it's perfectly reasonable to assume that somewhere out there is life of some kind, whether it be simple bacteria or advanced civilisations. The Universe is pretty big place you know. http://youtu.be/Zr7wNQw12l8 It's mathematically unlikely that we are the only life in the known Universe.
Everybody know aliens are men in grey rubber suits. There's no proof that they exist at all. People just see things on telly and suddenly they believe in ET and pointing at stuff and going "Ooooh" I would like you to take a long, hard look at Scientology.
Religions based around aliens can be just as crazy as any other religion. However, I do agree with the point that it is reasonable to assume that life elsewhere in this vast universe is certainly probable.